later it suddenly appeared on the doors of the churches in Flanders.
Henry at first believed it to be a forgery. One forged brief had already been produced by the Imperialists in the course of their transactions, and he imagined that this was another; even his past experience of Clement had not prepared him for this last venture of effrontery; he wrote to Bennet, enclosing a copy, and requiring him to ascertain if it were really genuine.[1]
The Pope could not deny his hand, though the exposure, and the strange irregular character of the brief itself, troubled him, and Bonner, who was again at the Papal Court, said that 'he was in manner ashamed, and in great perplexity what he might do therein.'[2]
His conduct will be variously interpreted, and to attempt to analyze the motives of a double-minded man is always a hazardous experiment; but a comparison of date, the character of Clement himself, the circumstances in which he was placed, and the retrospective evidence from after events, points almost necessarily to but one
- ↑ Ye may show unto his Holiness that ye have heard from a friend of yours in Flanders lately, that there hath been set up certain writings from the See Apostolic, in derogation both of justice and of the affection lately showed by his Holiness unto us; which thing ye may say ye can hardly believe to be true, but that ye reckon them rather to be counterfeited. For if it should be true, it is a thing too far out of the way, specially considering that you and other our ambassadors be there, and have heard nothing of the matter. We send a copy of these writings unto you, which copy we will in no wise that ye shall show to any person which might think that ye had any knowledge from us nor any of our council, marvelling greatly if the same hath proceeded indeed from the Pope; [and] willing you expressly not to show that ye had it of us.—State Papers, vol. vii. p. 421.
- ↑ State Papers, vol. vii. p. 454.
