Henry's amendment and to the request of various princes. Now
the bull was to be published in France, in Flanders, in Scotland and
in Ireland. Beton was made a cardinal and sent home to exhort James V.
to invade his uncle's kingdom,[1036] while Pole again set out on his
travels to promote the conquest of his native land.[1037]

[Footnote 1034: _L. and P._, XIII., ii., 232, 277,
914, 915.]

[Footnote 1035: The burning of the bones is stated
as a fact in the Papal Bull of December, 1538 (_L.
and P._, XIII., ii., 1087; see Pref., p. xvi., n.);
but the documents printed in Wilkins's _Concilia_,
iii., 835, giving an account of an alleged trial of
the body of St. Thomas are forgeries (_L. and P._,
XIII., ii., pp. xli., xlii., 49). A precedent might
have been found in Pope Stephen VI.'s treatment of
his predecessor, Formosus (_Hist. Generale_, i.,
536).]

[Footnote 1036: _L. and P._, XIII., ii., 1108-9,
1114-16, 1130, 1135-36.]

[Footnote 1037: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 950, 1110.]

It was on Pole's unfortunate relatives that the effects of the threatened
bull were to fall. Besides the Cardinal's treason, there was another
motive for proscribing his family. He and his brothers were grandchildren
of George, Duke of Clarence; years before, Chapuys had urged Charles
V. to put forward Pole as a candidate for the throne; and Henry was as
convinced as his father had been that the real way to render his
Government secure was to put away all the possible alternatives. Now
that he was threatened with deprivation by papal sentence, the need
became more urgent than ever. But, while the proscription of the Poles
was undoubtedly dictated by political reasons, their conduct enabled
Henry to effect it by legal means. There was no doubt of the
Cardinal's treason; his brother, Sir Geoffrey, had often taken counsel
with Charles's ambassador, and discussed plans for the invasion of
England;[1038] and even their mother, the aged Countess of Salisbury,
although she had denounced the Cardinal as a traitor and had lamented
the fact that she had given him birth, had brought herself within the
toils by receiving papal bulls and corresponding with traitors.[1039]
The least