f the
matter. To allow an English suit to be decided by Charles V. was to make
England a vassal state of the Empire. To this Chapuys had no valid answer,
for none could be given; and he discreetly turned the argument by
reflecting on the unfitness of Cranmer also.

So far the laymen on the Council had left the discussion to the Bishops,
and the Ambassador thought that he had the best of it. The Duke of
Norfolk, he imagined, thought so too; for the Duke rose after the taunts
at the Archbishop. The King's second marriage, he said, was a _fait
accompli_, and to argue further over it was loss of time. They had passed
their statute, and he, for one, would maintain it to the last drop of his
blood. To refuse obedience was high treason; and, the fact being so, the
ladies must submit to the law. The King himself could not disobey an Act
which concerned the tranquillity of the realm.

Chapuys would not yield. He said their laws were like the laws of
Mahomet--laws of the sword--being so far worse, that Mahomet did not make
his subjects swear to them. Not with entire honesty--for he knew now that
Catherine had consented to the use of force--he added, that they could
have small confidence in their own strength if they were afraid of two
poor weak women, who had neither means nor will to trouble them.

The Council said that they would report to the King, and so the
conversation ended. Chapuys spoke afterwards privately to Cromwell. He
renewed his warning that, if violence was used, there would be real
danger. Cromwell said he would do his best. But there was a general fear
that something harsh would be tried at the instigation of the "accursed
Concubine." Probably the question would be submitted to Parliament, or as
some thought the Queen and Princess would be sent to the Tower.[283]
Conceiving extremities to be close, Chapuys asked the Scotch Ambassador
whether, if a mandate came from the Pope against England, the Scots would
obey it. Certainly they would obey it, was the answer, though they might
pretend to regret the necessity.

Violence such as Chapuys anticipated was not in contemplation. The opinion
of Europe would have been outraged, if there had been no more genuine
reason for moderation. An appeal was tried on Catherine herself. The
Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham, both of whom had been her
friends, went down to her to explain the nature of the statute and
persuade her to obedience. Two accounts remain of the