infamy and subversion of the whole dignity and estimation of the See Apostolic if this course is persisted in. You see in what dangerous times we are. If the Pope will consider the gravity of this cause, and how much the safety of the nation depends upon it, he will see that the course he now pursues will drive the King to adopt remedies which are injurious to the Pope, and are frequently instilled into the King's mind."[586] On one occasion Clement confessed that, though the Pope was supposed to carry the papal laws locked up in his breast, Providence had not vouchsafed him the key wherewith to unlock them; and Gardiner roughly asked in retort whether in that case the papal laws should not be committed to the flames.[587] He told how the Lutherans were instigating Henry to do away with the temporal (p. 212) possessions of the Church.[588] But Clement could only bewail his misfortune, and protest that, if heresies and schisms arose, it was not his fault. He could not afford to offend the all-powerful Emperor; the sack of Rome and Charles's intimation conveyed in plain and set terms that it was the judgment of God[589] had cowed Clement for the rest of his life, and made him resolve never again to incur the Emperor's enmity. [Footnote 584: For these intricate negotiations see Stephan Ehses, _Roemische Dokumente zur Geschichte der Ehescheidung Heinrichs VIII. von England_, 1893; these documents had all, I think, been previously printed by Laemmer or Theiner, but only from imperfect copies often incorrectly deciphered. Ehses has printed the originals with the utmost care, and thrown much new light on the subject. The story of the divorce is retold in this new light by Dr. Gairdner in the _English Historical Review_, vols. xi. and xii.; the documents in _L. and P._ must be corrected from these sources.] [Footnote 585: _L. and P._, iv., 4881.] [Footnote 586: _Ibid._, iv., 4897.] [Footnote 587: _Ibid._, iv., 4167; _cf._ iv., 5156, and Ehses, _Roemische Dokumente_, No. 20, where Cardinal Pucci gives a somewhat different account of the interviews.] [Footnote 588: _L. and P._, iv., 5038, 5417, 5476.] [Footnote 589: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 309.]