uld at least promise that if the
King married he should not be proceeded against. The Pope seemed too much
inclined to listen;[123] but with Mai at his shoulder, he could not afford
to be valiant. He was made to answer that he had done his best; but he
could not reject the Queen's appeal; the King had not named a proctor to
appear for him, and therefore delay had been unavoidable; the threat of
the Peers in their address that unless the divorce was granted they would
seek a remedy elsewhere, was unworthy of them, and could not have been
sanctioned by the King; he had always wished to comply with the King's
requests when it could be done with justice.[124]

True to his policy of doing nothing and trusting to time, Clement hoped to
tire Henry out by smooth words and hopes indirectly conveyed; but he was
slowly swept on by the tide, and, when forced to act at all, had to act at
Mai's dictation. The Nuncio in England had been too openly on Henry's
side. A change was necessary. John Casalis was recalled. The Baron de
Burgo was sent to succeed him, who was expected to be of sterner material.
Chapuys had ascertained from two legal friends in the House of Commons
that, when the next session opened, the divorce would be brought before
Parliament, and that Parliament would stand by the King; also that M. du
Bellay had come from Paris with promises from Francis to settle matters
with the Pope afterwards, if the King cut the knot and married.[125]
Unless the Emperor gave way, of which there was no hope, or unless the
Pope dared the Emperor's displeasure, to which Clement was as disinclined
as ever, a breach with the Papacy seemed now unavoidable. His Holiness
still hoped, however, that there might be a third alternative.

The new Nuncio reached England in the middle of September. He reported
briefly that at his first interview the King told him that, unless the
cause was committed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the English
Bishops, he would act for himself, since he knew that the Pope had
promised the Emperor to declare for the Queen. Chapuys supplied the
Emperor with fuller particulars of the interview. The Nuncio had declared
to the King that, in view of the injury likely to ensue to the authority
of the Church, "his Holiness would rather die or resign the Papacy than
that the cause should not be settled to the mutual satisfaction of those
concerned in it." The King, instead of replying graciously, as the Nuncio
expected, ha