Page:Divorce of Catherine of Aragon.djvu/125

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Campeggio refuses to pass Sentence.
107

infectious, and comment grew loud and unfavourable. The popular voice might have been disregarded. But Campeggio, who had perhaps really wavered, not knowing what Clement wished him to do, gathered heart from Fisher's demonstration. "We are hurried on," he wrote to Salviati on the 13th of July, "always faster than a trot, so that some expect a sentence in ten days.… I will not fail in my duty or office, nor rashly or willingly give offence to any one. When giving sentence I will have only God before my eyes and the honour of the Holy See."[1] A week later Du Bellay said that things were almost as the King wished, and the end was expected immediately, when Campeggio acted on the Pope's last verbal instructions at their parting at Rome. He was told to go on to the last, but must pause at the final extremity. He obeyed. When nothing was left but to pronounce judgment, he refused to speak it, and said that he must refer back to the Holy See. Wolsey declined to act without him, and Campeggio, when pressed, if we can believe his own account of what he said, answered: "Very well, I vote in favour of the marriage and the Queen. If my colleague agrees, well and good. If not, there can be no sentence, for we must both agree."[2]

Wolsey's feelings must be conjectured, for he never revealed them. To the Commissioners at Rome he wrote: "Such discrepancies and contrariety of opinion has ensued here that the cause will be long delayed. In a week the process will have to cease, and two months of vacation ensue. Other counsels, therefore, are necessary, and it is important to act as if the advo-

  1. Calendar, Foreign and Domestic, vol. iv. p. 2581.
  2. Mai to Charles V., Sept. 3, 1529.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. part 1, p. 195.