[455] 'Admiralius adest, qui unice nobis favet.'—Sturm to Bucer, quoted by Schmidt.
[456] Lettres de Jean Calvin, i. p. 335, edit. J. Bonnet.
[457] Calvini Opp. passim.
CHAPTER XXIX.
CATHERINE DE MEDICI GIVEN TO FRANCE.
(October 1533.)
THIS interview of the pope with the king might be more injurious to the Gospel than all the attacks of the Sorbonne. If Clement united sincerely with Francis against Charles; if Catherine de Medici became the pledge of union between Rome and France; would not the Reformation soon be buried by the mournful glare of the pale torches of this fatal marriage? Yet men still hoped that the projected interview would not take place. In fact, Henry VIII. and the emperor did all they could to prevent Francis from meeting the pope.[458]
=THE INTENDED MARRIAGE.=
But Clement VII., more charmed than ever with a matrimonial union between the family of the Florentine merchants and that of St. Louis, cared naught for the emperor or the king of England; and about the end of April 1533, he convoked a sacred college at Rome, to whom he communicated his plans. They already knew something about them: the Roman cardinals smiled and congratulated his Holiness, but the Spanish cardinals looked very much out of humour. The pope tried to persuade them that he only desired this marriage for the glory of God and of the Church. 'It is for holy opportunities,' he told them. No one dared oppose it openly; but, on leaving the meeting, the emperor's cardinals hurried to his ministers and informed them of the pontifical communication. The latter lost no time; they called upon all their friends, managed them with great ability, and, by dint of energy and stratagem, succeeded in holding a congregation at the beginning of June, at which none of the French cardinals were present. Not daring to oppose the marriage itself, Charles's prelates displayed extreme sensibility for the honour and welfare of the pope. They appeared to be suddenly seized with a violent affection for Clement. 'What! the pope in France!' they exclaimed. 'Truly it must be something more than the marriage of a niece to move a pope from his seat.' Then, as if Clement's health was very precious to them, and the Roman air excellent, the crafty Spaniards brought forward sanitary reasons. 'Such a journey would be dangerous, considering the extreme heat of Provence.'—'Never mind that,' cunningly answered the pope; 'I shall not start until after the first rains.'
=IMPERIAL OBSTACLES.=
Charles then sought other means to prevent the conference. He will contrive that the pope shall delay his departure from week to week, until the winter sets in, and then it is not to be thought of. A very natural occasion for these delays presented itself. The marriage of Henry VIII. with Anne Boleyn having been made public, the emperor haughtily demanded that justice should be done to the queen, his aunt. Here, certainly, was matter enough to occupy the court of Rome for months; but Clement, who had let the English business drag along for years, being eager to finish the other marriage, hastily assembled a consistory, and pronounced against Henry VIII. all the censures which Charles V. demanded. Then, in his zeal forgetting his usual cunning, he made Catherine's marriage the peroration of his speech, and having done with England and its king, he ended by saying: 'Gentlemen, if any of you desire to make the voyage with me, you must hold yourselves in readiness for departure.'[459]