Page:The Queens of England.djvu/310

270 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. viceregents for the divorce, and gave them his full authority to act in the affair. On the 23d of July he gave the engagement requested by Henry, placed in the hands of Campeggio the decree breaking the marriage, and now all seemed in a fair way of satisfying Henry. But the decree, though signed the 23d of July, was not sent to England until late in August ; and Campeggio did not commence his journey there until after the affairs in Italy wore a different aspect, and left the pope nothing to fear from France, but much to hope from the em- peror. Consequently, it no longer suited Clement to offend the emperor by having granted the divorce, nor yet to incur the anger of Henry by openly nullifying what he had already al- lowed. He commanded his legate to prolong the affair in Eng- land as much as possible, not on any account to pronounce the sentence of divorce until he had received an express order from his own hand, and not to permit the bull to be seen by any one but the king and Wolsey, and never to let it out of his own possession. Campeggio did not arrive in England until Octo- ber, seven months after he was named legate; and before he reached it a new and unexpected obstacle had opposed itself to the divorce, in a brief confirming the bull for the dispensation granted for the marriage of Henry and Katharine by Julius the Second, and said to have been discovered by the ministers of the emperor at Rome. Although this brief bore incontestable proofs of its being a forgery, it nevertheless was a new diffi- culty in the way of the king's wishes. Nor did the conduct of Campeggio on his arrival tend to satisfy those who had counted so much on it. He solemnly exhorted the king to live on good terms with his queen, when Henry expected that he would separate them for ever; but, on the other hand, he advised Katharine to yield submission to the will of the king, for that it would be vain to oppose it. Thus the legate satisfied neither the king nor the queen, and was answered by Katharine, that she should never cease to consider herself the wife. of the king until separated from him by a sentence of divorce by the pope. On this Campeggio declared that he could take no further step without fresh instructions from the pope ; and to receive these, six months more were wasted, during 1- which time he pacified Henry by showing him and Wolsey the bull, but refused to allow any of the privy council to see it, though much pressed by the king to do so. Campeggio arrived in England in October ; and on the 8th