Gardiner was astonished when he heard of Bonner’s arrival. What a humiliation for him! He hung his head, pinched his lips,[345] and then lifted up his eyes and hands, as if cursing the day and hour when Bonner appeared. Never were two men more discordant to one another. Gardiner could not believe the news. A scheme contrived without him! A bishop to see one of his inferiors charged with a mission more important than his own! Bonner, having paid him a visit, Gardiner affected great coldness, and brought forward every reason calculated to dissuade him from executing his commission.—‘But I have a letter from the king,’ answered Bonner, ‘sealed with his seal, and dated from Windsor; here it is.’ And he took from his satchel the letter in which Henry VIII. intimated that he had appealed from the sentence of the pope recently delivered against him.[346] ‘Good,’ answered Gardiner, and taking the letter he read: ‘Our good pleasure is that if you deem it _good_ and _serviceable_ (Gardiner dwelt upon those two words) you will give the pope notice of the said appeal, according to the forms required by law; if not, you will acquaint us with your opinion in that respect.—‘That is clear,’ said Gardiner; ‘you should advise the king to abstain, for that notice just now will be neither good nor serviceable.’—‘And I say that it is both,’ rejoined Bonner. One circumstance brought the two Englishmen into harmony, at least for a time. Catherine de Medicis, the pope’s niece, had been married to the son of Francis I., and Clement made four French prelates cardinals. But not one Englishman, not even Gardiner! That changed the question; there could be no more doubt. Francis is sacrificing Henry to the pope, and the pope insults England. Gardiner himself desired Bonner to give the pontiff notice of the appeal, and the English envoy, fearing refusal if he asked for an audience of Clement, determined to overleap the usual formalities, and take the place by assault. [Sidenote: Clement And Bonner.] On the 7th of November, the Archdeacon of Leicester, accompanied by Penniston, a gentleman who had brought him the king’s last orders, went early to the pontifical palace, preparing to let fall from the folds of his mantle war between England and the papacy. As he was not expected, the pontifical officers stopped him at the door; but the Englishman forced his way in, and entered a hall through which the pope must pass on his way to the consistory.