The opportunity for a movement of this kind had not yet arrived.  There was, in England at least, as yet no wide disaffection; but there was a chance of serious outbreaks; and Henry instantly threw himself upon the nation.  He summoned the peers by circular to London, and calling a general meeting, composed of the nobility, the privy council, the lord mayor, and the great merchants of the city, he laid before them a specific detail of his objects in desiring the divorce;[162] and informed them of the nature of the measures which had been taken.[163] This, the French ambassador informs us, gave wide satisfaction and served much to allay the disquiet; but so great was the indignation against Wolsey, that disturbances in London were every day anticipated; and at one time the danger appeared so threatening, that an order of council was issued, commanding all strangers to leave the city, and a general search was instituted for arms.[164] The strangers aimed at were the Flemings, whose numbers made them formidable, and who were, perhaps, supposed to be ready to act under instruction from abroad.  The cloud, however, cleared away; the order was not enforced; and the propitious moment for treason had not yet arrived.  The emperor had felt so confident that, in the autumn of 1528, he had boasted that, “before the winter was over, he would fling Henry from his throne by the hands of his own Subjects.”  The words had been repeated to Wolsey, who mentioned them openly at his table before more than a hundred gentlemen.  A person present exclaimed, “That speech has lost the emperor more than a hundred thousand hearts among us;"[165] an expression which reveals at once the strength and the weakness of the imperial party.  England might have its own opinions of the policy of the government, but it was in no humour to tolerate treason, and the first hint of revolt was followed by an instant recoil.  The discovery of more successful intrigues in Scotland and Ireland completed the destruction of Charles’s influence;[166] and the result of these ill-judged and premature efforts was merely to unite the nation in their determination to prosecute the divorce.

Thus were the various parties in the vast struggle which was about to commence gravitating into their places; and mistake combined with policy to place them in their true positions.  Wolsey, in submitting “the king’s matter” to the pope, had brought to issue the question whether the papal authority should be any longer recognised in England; and he had secured the ruin of that authority by the steps through which he hoped to establish it; while Charles, by his unwise endeavours to foment a rebellion, severed with his own hand the links of a friendship which would have been seriously embarrassing if it had continued.  By him, also, was dealt the concluding stroke in this first act of the drama; and though we may grant him credit for the ingenuity of his contrivance, he can claim it only at the expense of his probity.