Clement was delighted not only at the departure, but still more at the conduct of Bonner: the insolence of the English envoy helped him wonderfully; and accordingly he made a great noise about it, complaining to everybody, and particularly to Francis. ‘I am wearied, vexed, disgusted with all this,’ said that prince to his courtiers. ‘What I do with great difficulty in a week for my good brother (Henry VIII.), his own ministers undo in an hour.’ Clement endeavored in secret interviews[362] to increase this discontent, and he succeeded. The mysterious understanding was apparent to every one, and Vannes, the English agent, who never lost sight either of the pope or the king, informed Cromwell of the close union of their minds.[363] When Henry VIII. learnt that the King of France was slipping from him, he was both irritated and alarmed. Abandoned by that prince, he saw the pope launching an interdict against his kingdom, the emperor invading England, and the people in insurrection.[364] He had no repose by night or day: his anger against the pope continued to increase. Wishing to prevent at least the revolts which the partisans of the papacy might excite among his subjects, he dictated a strange proclamation to his secretary: ‘Let no Englishman forget the most noble and loving prince of this realm,’ he said, ‘who is most wrongfully judged by the _great idol_, and most _cruel enemy to Christ’s religion, which calleth himself Pope_. Princes have two ways to attain right—the general council and the sword. Now the king, having appealed from the unlawful sentence of the Bishop of Rome to a general council lawfully congregated, the said usurper hath rejected the appeal, and is thus outlawed. By holy Scripture, there is no more jurisdiction granted to the Bishop of Rome than to any other bishop. Henceforth honor him not as an idol, who is but a man usurping God’s power and authority; and a man neither in life, learning, nor conversation like Christ’s minister or disciple.’[365] Henry having given vent to his irritation, bethought himself, and judged it more prudent not to publish the proclamation. At Marseilles England and France separated: the first, because she was withdrawing from the pope; the other, because she was drawing nearer to him. It is here that was formed that secret understanding between Paris and Rome which, adopted by the successors of Francis I., and more or less courted by other sovereigns of Christendom, has for several centuries filled glorious countries with despotism and persecution, and often with immorality. The interview at Marseilles between the pope and the King of France is the dividing point: since that time, governments and nations in the train of Rome have been seen to decline, while those who separated from it have begun to rise. Footnote 335: ‘She gave me a look as to that she should marvell thereof.’—_State Papers_, vii. p. 451. Footnote 336: