now at the King's ear. His henchman, Dr. Barnes, who had gone to Germany
as envoy during the marriage negotiations, was a Protestant, and in a
sermon on justification by faith he violently attacked Gardiner. The
latter, in spite of Cromwell and Cranmer, secured from the King an order
that Barnes should humbly and publicly recant. He did so at Easter at the
Spital, but at once repeated the offence, and he and two other clergymen
who thought like him were burnt for heresy. Men began to shake their heads
and look grave now as they spoke of Cromwell and Cranmer; but the
Secretary stood sturdily, and in May seemed as if he would turn the tables
upon his enemies. Once, indeed, he threatened the Duke of Norfolk roughly
with the King's displeasure, and at the opening of Parliament he took the
lead as usual, expressing the King's sorrow at the religious bitterness in
the country, and demanding large supplies for the purposes of national
defence.

But, though still apparently as powerful as ever, and more than ever
overbearing, he dared not yet propose to the King a way out of the
matrimonial tangle. Going home to Austin Friars from the sitting of
Parliament on the 7th June, he told his new colleague, Wriothesley, that
the thing that principally troubled him was that the King did not like
the Queen, and that his marriage had never been consummated. Wriothesley,
whose sympathies were then Catholic, suggested that "some way might be
devised for the relief of the King." "Ah!" sighed Cromwell, who knew what
such a remedy would mean to him, "but it is a great matter." The next day
Wriothesley returned to the subject, and begged Cromwell to devise some
means of relief for the King: "for if he remained in this grief and
trouble they should all smart for it some day." "Yes," replied Cromwell,
"it is true; but it is a great matter." "Marry!" exclaimed Wriothesley,
out of patience, "I grant that, but let a remedy be searched for." But
Cromwell had no remedy yet but one that would ruin himself, and that he
dared not propose, so he shook his head sadly and changed the
subject.[205]

The repudiation of Anne was, as Cromwell said, a far greater matter than
at first sight appeared. The plan to draw into one confederation for the
objects of England the German Protestants, the King of Denmark, and the
Duke of Cleves, whose seizure of Guelderland had brought him in opposition
to the Emperor, was the most threatening that had faced Charles for ye