e gave him occasion to reconsider the matter, he might undo what was
being aimed at his authority."[217]

The Bill passed more rapidly through its later stages. The Papal
jurisdiction was ended. Anyone who introduced Briefs of Excommunication or
Interdict into the realm was declared guilty of high treason. The Bishop
of Rochester, becoming violent, was committed to friendly custody under
charge of Gardiner, now Bishop of Winchester. Appeals to the Pope on any
matter, secular or spiritual, were forbidden thenceforward, and the Act
was made retrospective, applying to suits already in progress. All was
thus over. The Archbishop's sentence was known beforehand, and Anne Boleyn
was to be crowned at Whitsuntide. Force was now the only remedy, and the
constitutional opposition converted itself into conspiracy, to continue in
that form till the end of the century. The King was convinced that the
strength and energy of the country was with him. When told that there
would be an invasion, he said that the English could never be conquered as
long as they held together. Chapuys was convinced equally that they would
not hold together. The clergy, and a section of the peers with whom he
chiefly associated, spoke all in one tone, and he supposed that the
language which they used to him represented a universal opinion.
Thenceforward he and his English friends began to urge on the Emperor the
necessity of armed intervention, and assured him that he had only to
declare himself to find the whole nation at his back.

"Englishmen, high and low," Chapuys wrote, "desire your Majesty to send an
army to destroy the venomous influence of the Lady and her adherents, and
reform the realm. Forgive my boldness, but your Majesty ought not to
hesitate. When this accursed Anne has her foot in the stirrup she will do
the Queen and the Princess all the hurt she can. She boasts that she will
have the Princess in her own train; one day, perhaps, she will poison her,
or will marry her to some varlet, while the realm itself will be made over
to heresy. A conquest would be perfectly easy. The King has no trained
army. All of the higher ranks and all the nobles are for your Majesty,
except the Duke of Norfolk and two or three besides. Let the Pope call in
the secular arm, stop the trade, encourage the Scots, send to sea a few
ships, and the thing will be over. No injustice will be done, and, without
this, England will be estranged from the Holy Faith and will be