nlarged, and divided into parts. In a letter of
apology which Pole wrote to Charles V., in the summer or early autumn
of 1538,[111] he spoke of that division as having been executed by
himself;[112] he said that he had kept his book secret till the church
had spoken; but Paul having excommunicated Henry, he could no longer
remain silent; he dwelt at length on the history of the work which he
was then editing,[113] and he sent a copy at the same time with a
letter, or he {p.052} wrote a letter with the intention of sending a
copy, to James V. of Scotland.[114]

[Footnote 111: Before his embassy to Spain.]

[Footnote 112: Opus in quatuor libros sum
partitus.]

[Footnote 113: "Scripta quae nunc edo," are his own
words in the apology, and therefore, in an earlier
part of this work, I said that he published his
book himself. There is no doubt, from the context,
that in the word _scripta_ he referred to that book
and to no other.]

[Footnote 114: "Eum ad te librum Catholice princeps
nunc mitto, et sub nominis tui auspiciis cujus te
strenuum pietatis ministrum praebes in lucem exire
volo."--Epistola ad Regem Scotiae: _Poli Epistolae_,
vol. i. p. 174.]

But Charles had refused to move; the book injured Henry not at all,
and injured fatally those who were dear to Pole; he checked the
circulation of the copies, and he declared to the Cardinal of Naples
that it had been published only at the command of the pope--that his
own anxiety had been for the suppression of it.[115] Thirteen years
after this, however, writing to Edward VI., he forgot that he had
described himself to Charles as being himself engaged in the
publication; and he assured the young king that he had never thought
of publishing the book, that he had abhorred the very thought of
publishing it; that it was prepared, edited, and printed by his
friends at Rome during his own absence;[116] now, at length, he found
himself obliged in his own person to give it forth, because an edition
was in preparation elsewhere from one of the earlier copies; and he
selected the son of Henry as the person to whom he could most
becomingly dedicate the libel against his father's memory.

[Footnote 115