of paganism the practicers of curious arts, the watches and the necromancers, were the sole objects of reverence in the Roman world;—­and so, before the Reformation, archbishops and cardinals saw an inspired prophetess in a Kentish servant girl; Oxford heads of colleges sought out heretics with the help of astrology; Anne Boleyn blessed a basin of rings, her royal fingers pouring such virtue into the metal that no disorder could resist it;[667] Wolsey had a magic crystal; and Cromwell, while in Wolsey’s household, “did haunt to the company of a wizard."[668] These things were the counterpart of a religion which taught that slips of paper, duly paid for, could secure indemnity for sin.  It was well for England that the chief captain at least was proof against the epidemic—­no random scandal seems ever to have whispered that such delusions had touched the mind of the king.[669]

While the government were prosecuting these inquiries at home, the law at the Vatican had run its course; November passed, and as no submission had arrived, the sentence of the 12th of July came into force, and the king, the queen, and the Archbishop of Canterbury were declared to have incurred the threatened censures.

The privy council met on the 2nd of December, and it was determined in consequence that copies of the “Act of Appeals,” and of the king’s “provocation” to a general council, should be fixed without delay on every church door in England.  Protests were at the same time to be drawn up and sent into Flanders, and to the other courts in Europe, “to the intent the falsehood and injustice of the Bishop of Rome might appear to all the world.”  The defences of the country were to be looked to; and “spies” to be sent into Scotland to see “what they intended there,” “and whether they would confeder themselves with any outward princes.”  Finally, it was proposed that the attempt to form an alliance with the Lutheran powers should be renewed on a larger scale; that certain discreet and grave persons should be appointed to conclude “some league or amity with the princes of Germany”—­“that is to say, the King of Poland, the King of Hungary,[670] the Duke of Saxony, the Duke of Bavaria, the Duke of Brandenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and other potentates."[671] Vaughan’s mission had been merely tentative, and had failed.  Yet the offer of a league, offensive and defensive, the immediate and avowed object of which was a general council at which the Protestants should be represented, might easily succeed where vague offers of amity had come to nothing.  The formation of a Protestant alliance, however, would have been equivalent to a declaration of war against Catholic Europe; and it was a step which could not be taken, consistently with the Treaty of Calais,—­without first communicating with Francis.