[125] _Now_, Wordsworth's edit. The passages within brackets which follow are not found in any other manuscript: a space almost always marking the deficiency of this relation, and the succeeding account of the libels of the French against the cardinal.
[126] Catherine Reneé, one of the daughters of Louis the Twelfth. It does not seem that this exposition of the cardinal's views in regard to the union of Henry with this princess, in case of a divorce, were without foundation, for he persuaded himself that Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn would soon subside, and thought this alliance a sure mode of perpetuating the peace and union between the sovereigns. The other part of the assertion was proved true by the subsequent treaty, in which it was agreed that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis, or the Duke of Orleans; the first if he should remain a widower until she was of sufficient age, the second if it seemed expedient that Francis should keep his faith to the emperor, and marry his sister Leonora, to whom he was contracted by the Treaty of Madrid. Hence the necessity of keeping these designs secret, and the cardinal's anger at their developement.
[127] This passage stands in the ordinary MSS., and in Dr. Wordsworth's edition, in the following abridged and confused manner. The transcribers of the MSS. appear to have been sensible that their copy was defective, for in several of them one or two blank leaves are here left.
"Now shortly after there were divers malicious practices pretended against us by the French, who by their theft somewhat impaired us: whereupon one of them, being a man I was well acquainted with, maintained a seditious untruth, openly divulged, and set forth by a subtle and traitorous subject of their realm, saying also that he doubted not, but the like had been attempted within the king of England his majesty's dominions; but to see so open and manifest blasphemy to be openly punished, according to their traitorous deserts, notwithstanding I saw but small redress."
[128] The twentieth of October, A. D. 1527. The embassadors were the Maréchal de Montmorency, the Bishop of Bayonne, the President of Rouen, and Monsieur d'Humieres.
[129] The book of ceremonies (compiled under the influence of the Bishops Gardiner and Tonstall, and in opposition to that of Cranmer, about the year 1540, and designed to retain in the church many operose and superstitious rites, by setting them off with the aids of a philosophical and subtle interpretation), describing in succession the different parts of the Canon of the Mass, proceeds thus, "Then saith the priest _thrice_, _Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, &c._ advertising us of _three_ effects of Christ's passion; whereof the _first_ is, deliverance from the misery of sin; the _second_ is from pain of everlasting damnation; wherefore he saith twice _Miserere nobis_, that is to say, _Have mercy on us_; and the _third_ effect is, giving of everlasting peace, consisting in the glorious fruition of God." _Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials_, Vol. i. p. 289. Records. See also _Mirror of our Lady_. fol. 189, and _Becon's Works_. Vol. iii. fol. 49. A. D. 1564. _W._