Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/40

20 done by us to impair the same, and to put our issue either in peril of bastardy, or otherwise disturb that [which] is by the whole agreement of our realm established for their and our commodity, wealth, and benefit. And in this determination ye know us to be so fixed, and the contrary hereof to be so infeasible, either at our hands, or by the consent of the realm, that ye must needs despair of any order to be taken by the French King with the Pope. For if any were by him taken wherein any of these four pieces should be touched—that is to say, the marriage of the Queen our wife, the revocation of the Bishop of Canterbury's sentence, the statute of our realm, or our late proclamation, which be as it were one—and as walls, covering, and foundation make a house, so they knit together, establish, and make one matter—ye be well assured, and be so ascertained from us, that in no wise we will relent, but will, as we have before written, withstand the same. Whereof ye may say that ye have thought good to advertise him, to the intent he make no further promise to the Pope therein than may be performed.'

The ambassadors were the more emphatically to insist on the King's resolution, lest Francis, in his desire for conciliation, might hold out hopes to the Pope which could not be realized. They were to say, however, that the King of England still trusted that the interview would not take place. The See of Rome was asserting a jurisdiction which, if conceded, would encourage an unlimited usurpation. If princes might be cited to the Papal courts in a cause of matrimony, they might