or terror which
could operate either on the ambition or timidity of the pontiff. The
English ambassadors, on the other hand, in conjunction with the French,
had been no less earnest in their applications, that the legates should
be allowed to finish the trial; but though they employed the same
engines of promises and menaces, the motives which they could set before
the pope were not so urgent or immediate as those which were held up to
him by the emperor.[***] The dread of losing England, and of fortifying
the Lutherans by so considerable an accession, made small impression on
Clement's mind, in comparison of the anxiety for his personal safety,
and the fond desire of restoring the Medici to their dominion in
Florence. As soon, therefore, as he had adjusted all terms with the
emperor he laid hold of the pretence of justice, which required him,
as he asserted, to pay regard to the queen's appeal; and suspending the
commission of the legates, he adjourned the cause to his own personal
judgment at Rome. Campeggio had beforehand received private orders,
delivered by Campana, to burn the decretal bull with which he was
intrusted.

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 76, 77.

** Herbert, p. 254.

**** Burnet, vol. i. p. 75.

Wolsey had long foreseen this measure as the sure forerunner of his
ruin. Though he had at first desired that the king should rather marry
a French princess than Anne Boleyn, he had employed himself with the
utmost assiduity and earnestness to bring the affair to a happy issue:
[*] he was not, therefore, to be blamed for the unprosperous event which
Clement's partiality had produced. But he had sufficient experience of
the extreme ardor and impatience of Henry's temper, who could bear no
contradiction, and was wont, without examination or distinction, to
make his ministers answerable for the success of those transactions
with which they were intrusted. Anne Boleyn also, who was prepossessed
against him, had imputed to him the failure of her hopes; and as she was
newly returned to court, whence she had been removed, from a regard to
decency, during the trial before the legates, she had naturally acquired
an additional influence on Henry, and she served much to fortify his
prejudices against the cardinal.[**] Even the queen and her partisans,
judging of Wolsey by the part which he had openly acted, had expressed
great animosity against him; and the most opposite factions seemed
now to combine in the ru