ntence should not again be called in
question. To this arrangement there could be no reasonable objection; and
Francis implored that a proposal so liberal should not be rejected.
Sufficient danger already threatened Christendom, from heretics within and
from the Turks without; and although the English parliament were agreed to
maintain the second marriage, it was unwise to provoke the displeasure of
foreign princes. To allow time for the preliminary arrangements, the
execution of the censures had been further postponed; and if Henry would
make up the quarrel, the French monarch was commissioned to offer a league,
offensive and defensive, between England, France, and the Papacy. He
himself only desired to be faithful to his engagements to his good brother;
and as a proof of his good faith, he said that he had been offered the
Duchy of Milan, if he would look on while the emperor and the pope attacked
England.[631]

This language bears all the character of sincerity; and when we remember
that it followed immediately upon a close and intimate communication of
three weeks with Clement, it is not easy to believe that he could have
mistaken the extent of the pope's promises. We may suppose Clement for the
moment to have been honest, or wavering between honesty and falsehood; we
may suppose further that Francis trusted him because it was undesirable to
be suspicious, in the belief that he was discharging the duty of a friend
to Henry, and of a friend to the church, in offering to mediate upon these
terms.

But Henry was far advanced beyond the point at which fair words could move
him. He had trusted many times, and had been many times deceived. It was
not easy to entangle him again. It mattered little whether Clement was weak
or false; the result was the same--he could not be trusted. To an open
English understanding there was something monstrous in the position of a
person professing to be a judge, who admitted that a cause which lay before
him was so clear that he could bind himself to a sentence upon it, and
could yet refuse to pronounce that sentence, except upon conditions. It was
scarcely for the interests of justice to leave the distribution of it in
hands so questionable.

Instead, therefore, of coming forward, as Francis hoped, instead of
consenting to entangle himself again in the meshes of diplomatic intrigue,
the king returned a peremptory refusal.

The Duke of Norfolk, and such of the council as dreaded the com