Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/533

1542.] ''Sadoletto, to the French King. The said post is returned again by sea, and with letters from the Emperor to the Bishop of Rome, that he shall not trouble of himself with sending of any cardinal to him, for he is determined, seeing the French King hath begun, to make an end, and to proceed against him as extremely as he can.''' In a letter four days later to the Bishop of Westminster, Bonner related an interview with Granvelle, in which the difficulties in completing the alliance had been under debate. As Henry had required a rupture with the Pope, so it seemed that the Pope, on his side, had protested against a confederacy with a heretic. But the minister assured him that their patience was exhausted, and their hesitation was at an end. The Emperor felt towards England nothing but goodwill, and although it was 'not convenient' openly to break with the Pope, they 'had no great cause to love him or to trust him, and the English Government, ere it was long, would see what they would do against him.' They held his Holiness entirely responsible for the rupture, which he might have prevented had he desired; and Granvelle went so far as to say, that the Cortes were so much irritated as lately to have told the Papal Nuntio, 'that if the Pope would not better do his office, they would conjoin and combine themselves with his adversaries in Almayne; yea, cum Lutheranis, and have a council.' Granvelle was the most unscrupulous of liars, and the Emperor