t; the Pope was
to empower the Cardinal himself, or some other safe person, to examine
the original dispensation, and, if it were found invalid, to annul
Henry's marriage with Catherine. So Knight returned to the Papal
Court; and then began that struggle between English and Spanish (p. 211)
influence at Rome which ended in the victory of Charles V. and the
repudiation by England of the Roman jurisdiction. Never did two
parties enter upon a contest with a clearer perception of the issues
involved, or carry it on with their eyes more open to the magnitude of
the results. Wolsey himself, Gardiner, Foxe, Casale, and every English
envoy employed in the case, warned and threatened Clement that, if he
refused Henry's demands, he would involve Wolsey and the Papal cause
in England in a common ruin. "He alleged," says Campeggio of Wolsey,
"that if the King's desire were not complied with... there would
follow the speedy and total ruin of the kingdom, of his Lordship and
of the Church's influence in this kingdom."[585] "I cannot reflect
upon it," wrote Wolsey himself, "and close my eyes, for I see ruin,
infamy and subversion of the whole dignity and estimation of the See
Apostolic if this course is persisted in. You see in what dangerous
times we are. If the Pope will consider the gravity of this cause, and
how much the safety of the nation depends upon it, he will see that
the course he now pursues will drive the King to adopt remedies which
are injurious to the Pope, and are frequently instilled into the
King's mind."[586] On one occasion Clement confessed that, though the
Pope was supposed to carry the papal laws locked up in his breast,
Providence had not vouchsafed him the key wherewith to unlock them;
and Gardiner roughly asked in retort whether in that case the papal
laws should not be committed to the flames.[587] He told how the
Lutherans were instigating Henry to do away with the temporal (p. 212)
possessions of the Church.[588] But Clement could only bewail his
misfortune, and protest that, if heresies and schisms arose, it was
not his fault. He could not afford to offend the all-powerful Emperor;
the sack of Rome and Charles's intimation conveyed in plain and set
terms that it was the judgment of God[589] had cowed Clement for the
rest of his life, and made him resolve never again to incur the
Emperor's enmity.

[Footnote 584: For these intricate negotiations see
Stephan