heir future, and
reconsider the wisdom of their answer to the king respecting the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction (a point on which they were not the less
certain to be pressed, because the process upon it was temporarily
suspended), we must turn to the more painful matter which, for a time
longer, ran parallel with the domestic reformation, and as yet was unable
to unite with it. After the departure of Campeggio, the further hearing of
the divorce cause had been advoked to Rome, where it was impossible for
Henry to consent to plead; while the appearance of the supposed brief had
opened avenues of new difficulty which left no hope of a decision within
the limits of an ordinary lifetime. Henry was still, however, extremely
reluctant[248] to proceed to extremities, and appeal to the parliament. He
had threatened that he would tolerate no delay, and Wolsey had evidently
expected that he would not. Queen Catherine's alarm had gone so far, that
in the autumn she had procured an injunction from the pope, which had been
posted in the churches of Flanders, menacing the king with spiritual
censures if he took any further steps.[249] Even this she feared that he
would disregard, and in March, 1529-30, a second inhibition was issued at
her request, couched in still stronger language.[250] But these measures
were needless, or at least premature. Henry expected that the display of
temper in the country in the late session would produce an effect both on
the pope and on the emperor; and proposing to send an embassy to
remonstrate jointly with them on the occasion of the emperor's coronation,
which was to take place in the spring at Bologna, he had recourse in the
mean time to an expedient which, though blemished in the execution, was
itself reasonable and prudent.

Among the many _technical_ questions which had been raised upon the
divorce, the most serious was on the validity of the original dispensation;
a question not only on the sufficiency of the form the defects of which the
brief had been invented to remedy; but on the more comprehensive
uncertainty whether Pope Julius had not exceeded his powers altogether in
granting a dispensation where there was so close affinity. No one supposed
that the pope could permit a brother to marry a sister; a dispensation
granted in such a case would be _ipso facto_ void.--Was not the
dispensation similarly void which permitted the marriage of a brother's
widow? The advantage which Henry expected fro