of them
would be resisted by the combined arms of France and England.

And the pope did in fact feel himself in a dilemma from which all his
address was required to extricate him. He had no support from his
conscience, for he knew that he was acting unjustly in refusing the
divorce; while to risk the emperor's anger, which was the only honest
course before him, was perhaps for that very reason impossible. He fell
back upon his Italian cunning, and it did not fail him in his need. But his
conduct, though creditable to his ingenuity, reflects less pleasantly on
his character; and when it is traced through all its windings, few
reasonable persons will think that they have need to blush at the causes
which led to the last breach between England and the papacy.

From the time of Catherine's appeal and the retirement of Campeggio,
Clement, with rare exceptions, had maintained an attitude of impassive
reserve. He had allowed judgment to be delayed on various pretexts, because
until that time delay had answered his purposes sufficiently. But to the
English agents he had been studiously cold, not condescending even to hold
out hopes to them that concession might be possible. Some little time
before the meeting at Calais, however, a change was observed in the
language both of the pope himself and of the consistory. The cardinals were
visibly afraid of the position which had been taken by the French king;
questions supposed to be closed were once more admitted to debate in a
manner which seemed to show that their resolution was wavering; and one
day, at the close of a long argument, the following curious conversation
took place between some person (Sir Gregory Cassalis, apparently), who
reported it to Henry, and Clement himself. "I had desired a private
interview with his Holiness," says the writer, "intending to use all my
endeavours to persuade him to satisfy your Majesty. But although I did my
best, I could obtain nothing from him; he had an answer for everything
which I advanced, and it was in vain that I laboured to remove his
difficulties. At length, however, in reply to something which I had
proposed, he said shortly,--Multo minus scandalosum fuisset dispensare cum
majestate vestra super duabus uxoribus, quam ea cedere quae ego petebam,
_it would have created less scandal to have granted your Majesty a
dispensation to have two wives than to concede what I was then demanding_.
As I did not know how far this alternative would