in reporting it, "must have been
prompted by the King, or else by Cromwell, who made the said monk his
right hand in all things unlawful;" Cromwell and Cranmer being of Luther's
opinion that there was no difference between priests and bishops, save
what the letters patent of the Crown might constitute. "Cromwell," Chapuys
said, "had been feeling his way with some of the Bench on the subject." At
a meeting of Council he had asked Gardiner and others whether the King
could not make and unmake bishops at his pleasure. They were obliged to
answer that he could, to save their benefices.[301]

Outrages so flagrant had shocked beyond longer endurance the Conservative
mind of England. Darcy, at the beginning of the new year (a year which, as
he hoped, was to witness an end to them), sent Chapuys a present of a
sword, as an indication that the time was come for sword-play.[302] Let
the Emperor send but a little money; let a proclamation be drawn in his
name that the nation was in arms for the cause of God and the Queen, the
comfort of the people, and the restoration of order and justice, and a
hundred thousand men would rush to the field. The present was the
propitious moment. If action was longer delayed it might be too late.[303]

To the enthusiastic and the eager the cause which touches themselves the
nearest seems always the most important in the world. Charles V. had
struggled long to escape the duty which the Pope and destiny appeared to
be combining to thrust upon him. With Germany unsettled, with the Turks in
Hungary, with Barbarossa's corsair-fleet commanding the Mediterranean and
harassing the Spanish coast, with another French war visibly ahead, and a
renewed invasion of Italy, Charles was in no condition to add Henry to the
number of his enemies. Chapuys and Darcy, Fisher and Reginald Pole allowed
passion to persuade them that the English King was Antichrist in person,
the centre of all the disorder which disturbed the world. All else could
wait, but the Emperor must first strike down Antichrist and then the rest
would be easy. Charles was wiser than they, and could better estimate the
danger of what he was called on to undertake; but he could not shut his
ears entirely to entreaties so reiterated. Before anything could be done,
however, means would have to be taken to secure the persons of the Queen
and Princess--of the Princess especially, as she would be in most danger.
So far he had discouraged her escape when it