he Emperor declared war. Even an engagement which Henry had desired to
obtain from him, to unite France with England in a separate communion,
should the Pope proceed to violence, Francis had seemed to give, and had
wished his good brother to believe it. But his language had been less
explicit on this point than on the other.

The Bishop of Tarbes, now Cardinal Grammont, was sent to Rome, with
Cardinal Tournon, direct from the interview, with open instructions to
demand a General Council, to inform the Pope that if he refused the two
Kings would call a Council themselves and invite the Lutheran Princes to
join them, and that, if the Pope excommunicated Henry, he would go to Rome
for absolution so well accompanied that the Pope would be glad to grant
it.[195] If Catherine's friends in Rome were rightly informed, the
Cardinals had brought also a secret Commission, which went the full extent
of Henry's expectation. The Pope was to be required to fulfil at once the
promise which he had given at Orvieto, and to give judgment for the
divorce; "otherwise the Kings of France and England would abrogate the
Papal authority in their several realms." The Pope, confident that the
alternative before him was the loss of the two kingdoms, was preparing to
yield.[196] Henry certainly returned to England with an understanding that
Francis and himself were perfectly united, and would adopt the same
course, whatever that might be. A report went abroad that, relying on
these assurances, he had brought his hesitation to an end, and immediately
after landing made Anne secretly his wife. The rumour was premature, but
the resolution was taken. The Pope, the King said, was making himself the
tool of the Emperor. The Emperor was judge, and not the Pope; and neither
he nor his people would endure it. He would maintain the liberties of his
country, and the Pope, if he tried violence, would find his mistake.[197]

It is not easy to believe that on a point of such vast consequence Henry
could have misunderstood what Francis said, and he considered afterwards
that he had been deliberately deceived; but under any aspect the meeting
was a demonstration against the Papacy. Micer Mai, who watched the Pope
from day to day, declared that his behaviour was enough to drive him out
of his senses. Mai and Ortiz had at last forced another brief out of
him--not a direct excommunication, but an excommunication which was to
follow on further disobedience. They had co