The King of France, growing alarmed, immediately resumed his part of mediator. Du Bellay, his ambassador at Rome, made indefatigable efforts to inspire the consistory with an opinion favorable to Henry VIII. According to that diplomatist, the King of England was ready to re-establish friendly relations with Clement VII., and it was parliament alone that desired to break with the papacy forever: it was the people who wished for reform, it was the king who opposed it. ‘Make your choice,’ he exclaimed with eloquence.[370] ‘All that the king desires is peace with Rome; all that the commonalty demands is war. With whom will you go—with your enemies or with your friend?’ Du Bellay’s assertions, though strange, were based upon a truth that cannot be denied. It was the best of the people who wanted protestantism in England, and not the king. [Sidenote: Alarm Of The Court Of Rome.] The court of Rome felt that the last hour had come, and determined to despatch to London the papers necessary to reconcile Henry. It was believed on the Continent that the King of England was going to gain his cause at last, and people ascribed it to the ascendency of French policy at Rome since the marriage of Catherine de Medicis with Henry of Orleans. But the more the French triumphed, the more indignant became the Imperialists. To no purpose did the pope say to them: ‘You do not understand the state of affairs: the thing is done.... The King of England is married to Anne Boleyn. If I annulled the marriage, who would undertake to execute my sentence?’—‘Who?’ exclaimed the ambassadors of Charles V., ‘who?... The emperor.’[371] The weak pontiff knew not which way to turn: he had but one hope left—if Henry VIII., as he expected, should re-establish catholicism in his kingdom, a fact so important would silence Charles V. This fact was not to be feared: a movement had begun in the minds of the people of Great Britain which it was no longer possible to stop. While many pious souls received the Word of God in their hearts, the king and the most enlightened part of the nation were agreed to put an end to the intolerable usurpations of the Roman pontiff. ‘We have looked in the Holy Scriptures for the rights of the papacy,’ said the members of the Commons house of parliament, ‘but, instead of finding therein the institution of popes, we have found that of kings—and, according to God’s commandments, the priests ought to be subject to them as much as the laity.’—‘We have reflected upon the wants of the realm,’ said the royal council, ‘and have come to the conclusion, that the nation ought to form one body; that one body can have but one head, and that head must be the king.’ The parliament which met in January, 1534, was to give the death-blow to the supremacy of the pope.