very of our subjects, and of all persons adhering to us
in this our cause, do make our appeal to the next general council, which
shall be lawfully held, in place convenient, with the consent of the
Christian princes, and of such others as it may concern--not in contempt of
the Holy See, but for defence of the truth of the Gospel, and for the other
causes afore rehearsed. And we do trust in God that it shall not be
interpreted as a thing ill done on our part, if preferring the salvation of
our soul and the relief of our conscience to any mundane respects or
favours, we have in this cause regarded more the Divine law than the laws
of man, and have thought it rather meet to obey God than to obey man."[604]

By the appeal and the causes which were assigned for it, Henry pre-occupied
the ground of the conflict; he entrenched himself in the "debateable land"
of legal uncertainty; and until his position had been pronounced untenable
by the general voice of Christendom, any sentence which the pope could
issue would have but a doubtful validity. It was, perhaps, but a slight
advantage; and the niceties of technical fencing might soon resolve
themselves into a question of mere strength; yet, in the opening of great
conflicts, it is well, even when a resort to force is inevitable, to throw
on the opposing party the responsibility of violence; and Henry had been
led, either by a refinement of policy, or by the plain straightforwardness
of his intentions, into a situation where he could expect without alarm the
unrolling of the future.

The character of that future was likely soon to be decided. The appeal was
published on the 29th of June; and as the pope must have heard, by the
middle of the month at latest, of the trial and judgment at Dunstable, a
few days would bring an account of the manner in which he had received the
intelligence. Prior to the arrival of the couriers, Bennet, with the
assistance of Cardinal Tournon, had somewhat soothed down his exasperation.
Francis, also, having heard that immediate process was threatened, had
written earnestly to deprecate such a measure;[605] and though he took the
interference "very displeasantly,"[606] the pope could not afford to lose,
by premature impatience; the fruit of all his labour and diplomacy, and had
yielded so far as to promise that nothing of moment should be done. To this
state of mind he had been brought one day in the second week of June. The
morning after, Bennet found