ering churchman with
arguments and authorities which would justify the divorce. Up to this time
Campeggio had fondly imagined that he might, with the Papal authority,
persuade Henry to abandon his object. But this interview undeceived him.
He found the King, as he says, better versed in the matter "than a great
theologian or jurist"; and Campeggio opined at last that "if an angel
descended from heaven he would be unable to persuade him" that the
marriage was valid. When, however, Campeggio suggested that the Queen
might be induced to enter a convent, Henry was delighted. If they would
only prevail upon her to do that she should have everything she demanded:
the title of Queen and all her dowry, revenue, and belongings; the
Princess Mary should be acknowledged heiress to the crown, failing
legitimate male issue to the King, and all should be done to Katharine's
liking. Accordingly, the next day, 14th October, Campeggio and Wolsey took
boat and went to try their luck with the Queen, after seeing the King for
the third time. Beginning with a long sanctimonious rigmarole, Campeggio
pressed her to take a "course which would give general satisfaction and
greatly benefit herself"; and Wolsey, on his knees, and in English,
seconded his colleague's advice. Katharine was cold and collected. She
was, she said, a foreigner in England without skilled advice, and she
declined at present to say anything. She had asked the King to assign
councillors to aid her, and when she had consulted them she would see the
Legates again.

As day broke across the Thames on the 25th October, Campeggio lay awake in
bed at Bath House, suffering the tortures of gout, and perturbed at the
difficult position in which he was placed, when Wolsey was announced,
having come from York Place in his barge. When the Cardinal entered the
room he told his Italian colleague that the King had appointed Archbishop
Warham, Bishop Fisher, and others, to be councillors for the Queen, and
that the Queen had obtained her husband's permission to come to Campeggio
and confess that morning. At nine o'clock Katharine came unobserved to
Bath House by water, and was closeted for long with the Italian Cardinal.
What she told him was under the sacred seal of the confessional, but she
prayed that the Pope might in strict secrecy be informed of certain of the
particulars arising out of her statements. She reviewed the whole of her
life from the day of her arrival in England, and sole