Catherine would not give it, and Charles, like a gen-
tleman as he was, found himself obliged, against his
own interest, to support his aunt.

The divorce of Catherine was at first but a small
matter, though it grew to be a large one. Political
events went their way, and, if Charles wished to reform
the Church of Rome, were opening the road for him.
Clement, as an Italian prince, became the ally of
France, and at war with Charles.

Charles's army, a motley of Catholic Spaniards and
Lutheran landknechts, stormed Rome, caged the Pope
in St. Angelo, sacked convents, outraged nuns, and
carried cardinals in mock procession round the sacred
city, naked on the backs of asses. Castilian and Ger-
man had plundered churches side by side, carried off
the consecrated plate equally careless of sacrilege,
while the unfortunate head of Christendom looked on
helpless from the battlements of his prison. It seemed
as if Charles had but to stretch out his hand, place
the papal crown in commission, if he did not take it
himself, and reform with sovereign power the abuses
which he had acknowledged and deplored. So, and
only so, he could have restored peace to Germany and
saved the unity of Christendom, in which the rents
were each day growing wider, for behind Luther had
come Carlstadt and Zwingle, going where Luther
could not follow, denying the sacraments, denying the
Real Presence in the Eucharist, breaking into Anabap-
tism and social anarchy; while behind Zwingle, again,
was rising the keen, clear, powerful Calvin, carrying
the Swiss and French reformers along with him.

Erasmus was still at Bâle observing the gathering
whirlwinds, his own worst fears far exceeded by the
reality, determined for his own part to throw no fresh
fuel on the flames, and to hold himself clear from con-

-339-