, all testamentary and matrimonial causes, and all suits for tithes,
oblations, and obventions shall henceforth be adjudged in the spiritual and
temporal courts within the realm, without regard to any process of foreign
jurisdiction, or any inhibition, excommunication, or interdict. Persons
procuring processes, inhibitions, appeals, or citations from the court of
Rome, as well as their fautors, comforters, counsellors, aiders and
abettors, all and every of them shall incur the penalties of premunire; and
in all such cases as have hitherto admitted of appeal to Rome, the appeals
shall be from the Archdeacon's court to the Bishop's court, from the
Bishop's court to that of the Archbishop, and no further."[416]

The act was carried through Parliament in February, but again, as with the
Annates Bill, the king delayed his sanction till the post could reach and
return from the Vatican. The Bishop of Bayonne wrote that there was hope
that Clement might yet give way, and entreated that the king would send an
"excusator," a person formally empowered to protest for him that he could
not by the laws of England plead at a foreign tribunal; and that with this
imperfect recognition of his authority the pope would be satisfied.

Chastillon, the French ambassador, had an interview with the king, to
communicate the bishop's message.

"The morning after," Chastillon wrote, "his Majesty sent for me and desired
me to repeat my words before the council. I obeyed; but the majority
declared, that there was nothing in them to act upon, and that the king
must not put himself in subjection. His Majesty himself, too, I found less
warm than in his preceding conversation. I begged the council to be
patient. I said everything that I could think of likely to weigh with the
king, I promised him a sentence from our Holy Father declaring his first
marriage null, his present marriage good. I urged him on all grounds,
public and private, to avoid a rupture with the Holy See. Such a sentence,
I said, would be the best security for the queen, and the safest guarantee
for the unopposed succession of her offspring. If the marriage was
confirmed by the Holy Father's authority, the queen's enemies would lose
the only ground where they could make a stand. The peace of the realm was
now menaced. The emperor talked loudly and made large preparations. Let the
king be allied with France, and through France with the Holy See, and the
emperor could do him no harm. Thu