cation of bodies and goods. At last, after a good deal of negotiation, the matter has been settled that the King shall not press them for payment before the expiration of the said five years, and that of the three demands of the clergy they should have that of the exemption and nothing more. … The thing that has been treated to the Pope's prejudice is that the clergy have been compelled, under pain of the said law of Præmunire, to accept the King as head of the Church, which implies in effect as much as if they had declared him Pope of England. It is true that the clergy have added to the declaration that they did so only so far as permitted by the law of God. But that is all the same, as far as the King is concerned, as if they had made no reservation, for no one will now be so bold as to contest with his lord the importance of the reservation. …
3
Chapuys to Charles V.
… And now the Act has been passed against the Pope which I wrote in my last. … By this his Holiness will perceive the truth of what I have always told the Nuncio and written to him—that his timidity and dissimulation would not only prejudice the Queen's interest but his own authority—and it seems to the Queen and her friends that the Pope has no great desire to settle the matter, and will justify what the Duke of Norfolk one day said to me, that his Holiness teas glad there should always be some discord among the Princes, fearing that if they were united they would reform the Church …
If the Pope had ordered the lady to be separated from the King, the King would never have pretended to claim sovereignty over the Church; for, as far as I can understand, she and her father have been the principal cause of it. The latter, speaking of the affair a few days ago to the Bishop of Rochester, ventured to say he could prove by the Scripture that when God left this world, He left no successor nor vicar. There is none who do not blame this usurpation, except those who have promoted it. … The Nuncio has been with the King to day., … The Nuncio then entered upon the subject of this new papacy made here, to which the King replied that it was nothing, and was not intended to infringe the authority of the Pope, provided his Holiness would pay due regard to him, and otherwise he knew what to do.
