nd children and his own person to
be revenged on him.[260] An order of Council came out that the Pope
henceforward was to be styled only Bishop of Rome. Chapuys could not
understand it. The Duke, he thought, was strangely changed; he had once
professed to be a staunch Catholic. Norfolk had not changed. The peculiar
Anglican theory was beginning to show itself that a Church might still be
Catholic though it ceased to be Papal.

Irritated though he was at his last failure, Francis did not wholly
abandon his efforts. A successful invasion of England by the Emperor would
be dangerous or even fatal to France. He wrote to Anne. He sent his letter
by the hands of her old friend, Du Bellay, and she was so pleased that she
kissed him when he presented it. Du Bellay sought out Chapuys. "Could
nothing be done," he asked, "to prevent England from breaking with the
Papacy? Better England, France, and the Empire had spent a hundred
thousand crowns than allow a rupture. The Emperor had done his duty in
supporting his aunt; might he not now yield a little to avoid worse?"
Chapuys could give him no hope. The treatment of Catherine alone would
force the Emperor to take further measures.

That Catherine, so far, had no personal ill-usage to complain of had been
admitted by the Spanish Council, and alleged as an argument against
interference by force in her favour. Chapuys conceived, and probably
hoped, that this objection was being removed.

What to do with her was not the least of the perplexities in which Henry
had involved himself. By the public law of Christendom, a marriage with a
brother's widow was illegal. By the law as it has stood ever since in
England, the Pope of Rome neither has, nor ever had, a right to dispense
in such cases. She was not, therefore, Henry's queen. She deserved the
most indulgent consideration; her anger and her resistance were legitimate
and natural; but the fact remained. She had refused all compromise. She
had insisted on a decision, and an English Court had given judgment
against her. If she was queen, Elizabeth was a bastard, and her insistance
upon her title was an invitation to civil war. She was not standing alone.
The Princess Mary, on her father's marriage with Anne, had written him a
letter, which he had praised as greatly to her credit; but either Anne's
insolence or her mother's persuasion had taken her back to Catherine's
side. Her conduct may and does deserve the highest moral admiration; but