to write to the emperor to secure a fair hearing for her at Rome. 'Who,' Vires adds,'will not admire the queen's moderation? When others would have moved heaven and earth, she merely seeks from her sister's son that he will not let her be condemned unheard.'
It was useless for the king to proceed with the cause before the legates unless the brief in Spain could be discredited, and the most frantic diplomat efforts were made to induce the pope to declare it a forgery, which, of course, he refused to do until he had heard the arguments on both sides. Then there was nothing for it but to proceed. Meanwhile the emperor was doing his utmost to get the cause removed from England that it might be more fairly heard at Rome. Catherine, however, was not aware of this, and appealed for advice to Cardinal Campeggio himself in a private interview. He answered coldly that she might rely upon justice being done to her, but again strongly suggested that she might extricate herself from further annoyance by retiring from the world. But to this she was as firmly opposed as ever, and the trial proceeded. The legatine court formally opened on 31 May 1529 in the great hall of the Black Friars, and the king and queen were cited to appear on 18 June. The former had two proxies to represent him; the latter came in person, but only to protest against the jurisdiction of the court. The court registered her protestation, and appointed both parties to appear in person on Monday, 21 June, to hear its decision. On that day the king and queen both appeared; the former stated his ease to the judges. The latter threw herself at his feet in sight of all the court, and begged him to consider her helpless position as a foreigner, her long and tried obedience as a wife, her own and her daughter's honour, and that of the king himself. Further, as he continually professed he was anxious to find their marriage valid, she appealed to Rome as the only tribunal before which the case could be properly discussed, and thereupon withdrew.
The legates had overruled her objections to jurisdiction of the court; so she was called again, and on her refusal to come back, was pronounced contumacious. The case was continued through different sittings of the court in June and July affidavits were taken as to the circumstances of the marriage with Prince Arthur, and matters were pressed on in a way not at all to Campeggio's taste. Yet even at this time, if Cavendish be right, a further appeal was made to Catherine by the two cardinals who were her judges, They came to her at Bridewell without notice, and found her at work among her maids, with a skein of white thread about her neck. They asked for a private interview, but she replied that whatever they had to say they might speak it before all. Wolsey then addressed her in Latin. 'Nay, good my lord, speak to me in English,' she said, 'for I can, I thank God, both speak and understand English, although I do understand some Latin.' Wolsey told her they had come to know her mind in the matter between the king and her, and give her secret advice, Catherine said she was naturally not prepared to answer them without taking counsel on such a weighty question. And who was there to counsel her? 'What think you, my lords?' she said. 'Will any Englishman counsel me or be friendly to me against the king's pleasure that is his subject? Nay, forsooth.' She was willing, however, to listen to whatever counsel the cardinals had to give her, and led them into her privy chamber to hear what they had to say (Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, ed. 1852, pp. 137-140).
We are not told, for Wolsey's biographer did not know, the precise nature of the advice given by the two cardinals. Meanwhile, the king having expressed a desire to, see his scruples removed, Fisher, bishop of Rochester, came forward and declared his readiness to justify the validity of the marriage. Other things went against the king's purpose. The pope revoked the cause to Rome, and Campeggio, even before he was informed of the fact, had prorogued the court for the holidays according to the custom at Rome. Every one knew that, although it was only prorogued, it was never to meet again. Not many months after this the ambassador, Chapuys, then just newly arrived in England from the emperor, records that on St. Andrew's day, 1529, the queen dined with the king, and complained that he had for a long time so seldom allowed her that privilege. The king excused himself partly by the pressure of business, but as to visiting her in her own apartments, she must know that he was now assured by innumerable doctors and lawyers that he was not her lawful husband, and he could never share her bed again. He was waiting for further opinions, and if the pope did not declare their the court in June and July. Affidavits were marriage void, he would denounce his holiness as a heretic, and marry whom he pleased. Catherine told him in reply that those opinions were not worth a straw, for he himself had owned on more than one occasion that he had found her a virgin when he married her. Moreover, the principal doctors in England had written in her favour. The
