1527.]
THE FALL OF WOLSEY
135
Wolsey, however, soon satisfied the King that he had no sinister intentions. By the middle of the winter we find the private messenger associated openly with Sir Gregory Cassalis, the agent of the minister's communications;[1]Dec. 15. and a series of formal demands were presented jointly by these two persons in the names of Henry and the legate; which, though taking many forms, resolved themselves substantially into one. The Pope was required to make use of his dispensing power to enable the King of England to marry a wife who could bear him children, and thus provide some better security than already existed for the succession to the throne. This demand could not be considered as in itself unreasonable; and if personal feeling was combined with other motives to induce Henry to press it, personal feeling did not affect the general bearing of the question. The King's desire was publicly urged on public grounds, and thus, and thus only, the Pope was at liberty to consider it. The marriages of princes have ever been affected by other considerations than those which influence such relations between private persons. Princes may not, as 'unvalued persons' may, 'carve for themselves;' they pay the penalty of their high place, in submitting their affections to the welfare of the State; and the same causes which regulate the formation of these ties must be allowed to influence the continuance of them. The case which was submitted to the Pope was one of those for which his very power of dispensing had been vested
- ↑ Wolsey to Cassalis: State Papers, vol. xii. p. 26.
