334
REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH
[ch. 4.
such a position, what shall we say of the lady who consented, in the presence of her sovereign and mistress, to wear such ignominious splendour?
But in these most offensive relations there was henceforth to be a change. June.In June, 1531, two months after the prorogation of Parliament, a deputation of the privy council went to the apartments of Catherine at Greenwich, and laying before her the papers which had been read by Sir Thomas More to the two Houses, demanded formally, whether, for the sake of the country, and for the quiet of the King's conscience, she would withdraw her appeal to Rome, and submit to an arbitration in the kingdom. It was, probably, but an official request, proposed without expectation that she would yield. After rejecting a similar entreaty from the Pope himself, she was not likely, inflexible as she had ever been, to yield when the Pope had admitted her appeal, and the Emperor, victorious through Europe, had promised her support. She refused, of course, like herself, proudly, resolutely, gallantly, and not without the scorn which she was entitled to feel. The nation had no claims upon her, and 'for the King's conscience,' she answered, 'I pray God send his Grace good quiefc therein, and tell him I say I am his lawful wife, and to him lawfully married; and in that point I will abide till the Court of Rome, which was privy to the beginning, hath made thereof a determination and a final ending.'[1] The learned councillors retired with their- ↑ Hall, p. 781.
