been granted by Julius II. for
the marriage of Henry and Catherine. At the moment when the legates' court
was about to be opened, a copy of a brief was brought forward, bearing the
same date as the bull, exactly meeting the objection. The authenticity of
this brief was open, on its own merits, to grave doubt; and suspicion
becomes certainty when we find it was dropped out of the controversy so
soon as the immediate object was gained for which it was produced. But the
legates' hands were instantly tied by it. The "previous question" of
authenticity had necessarily to be tried before they could take another
step; and the "original" of the brief being in the hands of the emperor,
who refused to send it into England, but offered to send it to Rome, the
cause was virtually transferred to Rome, where Henry, as he knew, was
unlikely to consent to plead, or where he could himself rule the decision.
He had made a stroke of political finesse, which answered not only the
purpose that he immediately intended, but answered, also, the purpose that
he did not intend--of dealing the hardest blow which it had yet received to
the supremacy of the Holy See.

The spring of 1529 was wasted in fruitless efforts to obtain the brief. At
length, in May, the proceedings were commenced; but they were commenced
only in form, and were never more than an illusion. Catherine had been
instructed in the course which she was to pursue. She appealed from the
judgment of the legates to that of the pope; and the pope, with the plea of
the new feature which had arisen in the case, declared that he could not
refuse to revoke his promise. Having consented to the production of the
brief, he had in fact no alternative; nor does it appear what he could have
urged in excuse of himself. He may have suspected the forgery; nay, it is
certain that in England he was believed to be privy to it; but he could not
ignore an important feature of necessary evidence, especially when pressed
upon him by the emperor; and it was in fact no more than an absurdity to
admit the authority of a papal commission, and to refuse to permit an
appeal from it to the pope in person. We may thank Clement for dispelling a
chimera by a simple act of consistency. The power of the See of Rome in
England was a constitutional fiction, acknowledged only on condition that
it would consent to be inert. So long as a legate's court sat in London,
men were able to conceal from themselves the fact of a f