sentiments of Europe on the pope's dispensing ^^^i
power. The details of this transaction are not ■*^'^
wearying only, but scandalous ; and while the substan*?
tial justice of Henry's cause is a reason for deploring
the means to which he allowed himself to be driven in
pursuing it, we inay not permit ourselves either to
palliate those means or to conceal them. The project
seemed a sim^e one, and likely to be effective ajid use-
ful. Unhappily, the appeal was still to ecclesiastics,
to a body of men who were characterized throughout
Europe by a universal absence of integrity, who were
incapable of pronouncing an honest judgment, and who
courted intimidation and bribery by the readiness with
which they submitted to be influenced by them. Cor-
ruption was resorted to on all sides with the most lav-
ish unscrupulousness, and the result arrived at was
general discredit to all parties, and a conclusion which
added but one more circle to the labyrinth of perplexi-
ties. Croke,^ a Doctors' Commons lawyer, who was
employe'd in Italy, described the state of feeling in the
peninsula as generally in Henry's favour ; and he said
that he could have secured an all but universal con-
sent, except for the secret intrigues of the Spanish
agents, and their open direct menaces, when intrigue
was insufficient. He complained bitterly of p,^,ceedin
the treachery of the Italians who were in the JJJ^^q?**
English pay; the two Cassalis, Pallavicino, wrupuioua.
and Ghinucci, the Bishop of Worcester. These meUi

I For Croke's Mission, see Burnet, Vol. I. p. 144 e.
