“The spaniel took fast with his mouth the great toe of the pope.”—Foxe, _Acts_, viii. p. 9. Footnote 35: “Che l’altri regni questo imitando.”—Le Grand, _Preuves du Divorce_, p. 419. Footnote 36: Le Grand, _Preuves_, pp. 401, 454. Footnote 37: Le Grand, _Preuves_, pp. 401, 454. Footnote 38: “He declared himself ignorant of that law.”—_State Papers_, xii. p. 230. Footnote 39: Le Grand, _Preuves_, pp. 401, 455. Footnote 40: ‘A book as welcome to his Holiness as a prison.’—Fuller, _Church History_, p. 182. CHAPTER V. DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING THE DIVORCE AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. (WINTER OF 1530.) [Sidenote: Wiltshire’s Departure.] At the same time that Henry sent ambassadors to Italy to obtain the pope’s consent, he invited all the universities of Christendom to declare that the question of divorce was of divine right, and that the pope had nothing to say about it. It was his opinion that the universal voice of the Church ought to decide, and not the voice of one man. First, he attempted to canvass Cambridge, and, as he wanted a skilful man for that purpose, he applied to Wolsey’s old servant, Stephen Gardiner, an intelligent, active, wily churchman and a good catholic. One thing alone was superior to his catholicism,—his desire to win the king’s favor. He aspired to rise like the cardinal to the summit of greatness. Henry named the chief almoner, Edward Fox, as his colleague. Arriving at Cambridge one Saturday about noon, in the latter half of February, the royal commissioners held a conference in the evening with the vice-chancellor (Dr. Buckmaster), Dr. Edmunds, and other influential men who had resolved to go with the court. But these doctors, members of the political party, soon found themselves checked by an embarrassing support on which they had not calculated; it was that of the friends of the Gospel. They had been convinced by the writing which Cranmer had published on the divorce. Gardiner and the members of the conference, hearing of the assistance which the evangelicals desired to give them, were annoyed at first. On the other hand, the champions of the court of Rome, alarmed at the alliance of the two parties who were opposed to them, began that very night to visit college after college, leaving no stone unturned that the peril might be averted. Gardiner, uneasy at their zeal, wrote to Henry VIII:—‘As we assembled, they assembled; as we made friends, they made friends.’[41] Dr. Watson, Dr. Tomson, and other fanatical individuals at one time shouted very loudly, at another spoke in whispers.[42] They said that Anne Boleyn was a heretic, that her marriage with Henry would hand England over to Luther; and they related to those whom they desired to gain—wrote Gardiner to the king—‘many fables too tedious to repeat to your Grace.’ These ‘fables’ would not only have bored Henry, but greatly irritated him. [Sidenote: A Noisy Meeting.]