ad plenum intellectæ per dictum Dominum Regem ex assensu et BOOK Authoritate Parliamenti prædicti taliter est Responsum : Le Roy le veult. Soit Baille aux Communes. A cest Bille les Communes sont assentes. MEMORAND. quod nono die Julii, Anno Regni Regis Henrici vicesimo quinto, idem Dominus Rex per Literas suas Patentes sub magno sigillo suo sigillat. Actum prædictum ratificavit et confirmavit, et actui illi assensum suum regium dedit, prout per easdem Literas Patentes, cujus tenor sequitur in hæc verba, magis apte constat. Here follows the King's Ratification, in which the Act is again recited and ratified. II. XLII. The King's last Letter to the Pope. A Duplicate. To the Pope's Holiness, 1532. Vitell. Fol. 168. AFTER most humble commendations, and most devout kiss- Cotton Lib. ing of your blessed Feet. Albeit that we have hitherto differred B. 13. to make answer to those Letters dated at Bonony the 7th day of October; which Letters of late were delivered unto us by Paul of h Cassalie: Yet when they appear to be written for this Cause, that we deeply considering the Contents of the same, should provide for the tranquillity of our own Conscience, and purge such scruples and doubts conceived of our Cause of Matrimony; We could neither neglect those Letters sent for such a purpose, nor after that we had diligently examined and perpended the effects of the same, which we did very diligently, noting, conferring, and revolving every thing in them contained, with deep study of mind, pretermit ne leave to answer unto them. For sith that your Holiness seemeth to go about that thing chiefly, which is to vanquish those Doubts, and to should h Cassali: II. k BOOK take away those Inquietations which daily do prick our Conscience; insomuch as it doth appear at the first sight to be done of Zeal, Love, and Piety, we therefore do thank you of your good will. Howbeit sith it is not performed in Deed, that ye pretend, we have thought it expedient to require your Holiness to provide us other Remedies; wherefore forasmuch as your Holiness would vouchsafe to write unto us concerning this Matter, we heartily thank you, greatly lamenting also both the chance of your Holiness, and also ours, unto whom both twain it hath chanced in so high a matter of so great moment to be frustrated and deceived; that is to say, That your Holiness not being instructe, nor having knowledge of the Matter, of your self, should be compelled to hang upon the Judgment of others, and so put forth and make answers, gathered of other Men, being variable and repugnant among themselffe. And that we being so long sick, and exagitate with this same Sore, should so long time in vain look for Remedy; which when we have augmented our ægritude and distress, by delay and protracting of time, ye do m still cruciate the Patient and " Afflicte, as who seeth it should much avail to protract the Cause, and through vain hope of the end of our desire to lead us whither ye will. But to speak plainly to your Holiness; Forasmuch as we have suffered many Injuries, which with great difficulty we do sustain and digest; albeit that among all things passed by your Holiness, some cannot be laid, alledged, nor objected against your Holiness, yet in many of them some default appeareth to be in you, which I would to God we could so diminish, as it might appear no default; but it cannot be hid, which is so manifest, and tho' we could say nothing, the thing it self speaketh. But as to that that is affirmed in your Letters, both of God's Law, and Man's, otherwise than is necessary and truth, let that be ascribed to the temerity and ignorance of your Counsellors, and your Holiness to be without all default, save only for that ye do not admit more discreet and learned Men to be your Counsellors, and stop the Mouths of them which liberally would speak the truth. This truly is your default, and verily a great fault, II. worthy to be alienate and abhorred of Christ's Vicar, in that ye BOOK have dealt so variably, yea rather so inconstantly and deceivably. Be ye not angry with my words, and let it be lawful for me to speak the Truth without Displeasure; if your Holiness shall be displeased with what we do rehearse, impute no default in us, but in your own Deeds; which Deeds have so molested and troubled us wrongfully, that we speak now unwillingly, and as enforced thereunto. Never was there any Prince so handled by a Pope, as your Holiness hath intreated us. First, When our Cause was proponed to your Holiness, when it was explicate and declared afore the same; when certain Doubts in it were resolved by your Counsellors, and all things discussed, it was required that Answer might be made thereunto by the order of the Law. There was offered a Commission, with a Promise also that the same Commission should not be revoked; and whatsoever Sentence should be given, should straight without delay be confirmed. The Judges were sent unto us, the Promise was delivered to us, subscribed with your Holiness's Hand d; which avouched to confirm the Sentence, and not to revoke the Commission, nor to grant any thing else that might lett the same; and finally to bring us in a greater Hope, a certain Commission Decretal, defining the Cause, was delivered to the Judges Hands. If your Holiness did grant us all these things justly, ye did injustly revoke them; and if by good and truth the same was granted, they were not made frustrate nor annihilate without fraud; so as if there were no deceit nor fraud in the Revocation, then how wrongfully and subtilly have been done those things that have been done! Whether will your Holiness say, That ye might do those things that ye have done, or that ye might not do them? If ye will say that ye might do them, where then is the Faith which becometh a Friend, yea, and much more a Pope to have, those things not being performed, which lawfully were promised? And if ye will say that ye might not do them, have we not then very just cause to mistrust those Medicines and Remedies with which in your Letters ye go about to heal our Conscience, especially in • explicated II. your BOOK that we may perceive and see those Remedies to be prepared for us, not to relieve the Sickness and Disease of our Mind, but for other means, pleasures, and worldly respects? And as it should seem profitable, that we should ever continue in hope or despair, so always the Remedy is Pattempered; so that we being always a-healing, and never healed, should be sick still. And this truly was the chief Cause why we did consult and take the advice of every Learned Man, being free, without all affection, that the Truth (which now with our labour and study we seem partly to have attained) by their Judgments more manifestly divulged, we might more at large perceive; whose Judgments and Opinions it is easie to see how much they differ from that, that those few Men of yours do shew unto you, and by those Letters is signified. Those few Men of yours do affirm the prohibition of our Marriage to be inducted only by the Law positive, as your Holiness hath also written in your Letters; but all others say the prohibition to be inducted, both by the Law of God and Nature: Those Men of yours do suggest, that it may be dispensed for avoiding of 4 Slander; the others utterly do contend, that by no means it is lawful to dispense with that, that God and Nature hath forbidden. We do separate from our Cause the Authority of the See Apostolick, which we do perceive to be destitute of that Learning whereby it should be directed; and because your Holiness doth ever profess your Ignorance, and is wont to speak of other Men's Mouths, we do confer the Sayings of those, with the Sayings of them that be of the contrary Opinion; for to confer the Reasons it were too long. But now the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, in our Realms; Paris, Orleance, Bituricen, Andegavon, in France; and Bonony in Italy, by one consent; and also divers other of the most famous and Learned Men, being s free from all affection, and only moved in respect of verity, partly in Italy, and partly in France, do affirm the Marriage of the Brother with the Brother's Wife, to be contrary both to the Law of God and Nature; and also do pronounce that no Dispensation can be lawful or available to any Christian Man in that behalf: But r P attempted; 1 Slanders; Biturisen, Audegavon, $ freed II. others think the contrary, by whose Counsels your Holiness BOOK hath done that, that sithence ye have confessed ye could not do, in promising to us as we have above rehearsed, and giving that Commission to the Cardinal Campege to be shewed unto us; and after, if it so should seem profitable to burn it, as afterwards it was done indeed as we have perceived. Furthermore, those which so moderate the Power of your Holiness, that they do affirm, That the same cannot take away the Appellation which is used by Man's Law, and yet is available to Divine Matters every where without distinction. No Princes heretofore have more highly esteemed, nor honoured the See Apostolick than we have, wherefore we be the more sorry to be provoked to this contention, which to our usage and nature is most alienate and abhorred. Those things so cruel we write very heavily, and more glad would have been, to have been silent if we might, and would have left your Authority untouched with a good will; and constrained to seek the verity, we fell, against our Will, into this contention; but the sincerity of the Truth prohibited us to keep silence, and what should we do in so great and many perplexities? For truly if we should obey the Letters of your Holiness, in that they do affirm that we know to be otherwise, we should offend God and our Conscience, and we should be a great slander to them that do the contrary, which be a great number, as we have before rehearsed: Also, if we should dissent from those things which your Holiness doth pronounce, we would account it not lawful, if there were not a Cause to defend the Fact, as we now do, being compelled by necessity, lest we should seem to contemn the Authority of the See Apostolick. Therefore your Holiness ought to take it in good part, tho' we do somewhat at large and more liberally speak in this Cause, which doth so oppress us, specially forasmuch as we pretend none atrocity, nor use no rhetorick in the exaggerating and encreasing the indignity of the Matter; but if I speak of any thing that toucheth the quick, it proceedeth of the meer verity, which we cannot nor ought not to hide in this Cause, for it toucheth not Worldly Things but Divine, not frail but eternal; in which things no feigned, false, nor painted Reasons, but only the Truth, shall obtain and take place and |