more order, or those young gentlemen, in attempting to play the masters, might find it not good to provoke hornets. "The wise men," as Anthony à Wood terms them, did their best, but they did not silence or bring over the younger men without immense labour. Dr. Fox, Dr. Bell, and Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, were down there, doing everything to overawe or win over the refractory; and, after incredible labour, they succeeded in procuring a formal declaration in favour of the divorce. In Cambridge the same result was obtained by the same coercion—by threats and promises; and the seal of the university was attached to a formal document, declaring the marriage of Henry and Catherine to be illegal.
Thomas Cranmer. From the original of Gerbicus Fliccus, in the British Museum.
On the Continent, where Henry's menaces had no weight, his purse was freely opened; and the universities of Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara, as well as many learned men, were prevailed on to take the view that Henry wished. In Germany his agents were far less successful. Both Protestants and Catholics in general condemned his proposed divorce; and Luther and Melancthon said he had much better follow the example of the patriarchs, and take a second wife, than put away the first, without any crime on her part. This strange doctrine was some months afterwards recommended to the Pope by some one of his dignified clergy, as the best means of liberating both himself and the English king from the difficulty. From France and its fourteen universities Henry expected much more compliance, but he was there, also, greatly disappointed. Francis replied that he dared not excite the anger of Charles till he had paid him 400,000 crowns, the ransom of his sons, who were still detained as hostages in Spain. The hint was not lost; Henry advanced to Francis 400,000 crowns as a loan, though he already owed him 500,000, and sent him the lily of diamonds which Charles and Maximilian had formerly pawned to Henry for 50,000. By this profuse liberality Henry won over the French king, who, obtaining the freedom of his sons, exerted all his influence to procure from the faculty of theology in Paris a declaration favourable to his desires. A violent opposition, nevertheless, arose in the faculty, and the contest was carried on between the faculty and the crown for several months, till Francis, growing impatient, had a spurious decree fabricated, which was published by
