Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

first to appear before the prisoner of St. Angelo.
The result of the negotiation between them was
that the Pope was to be released on the promise
that he would do nothing in the divorce solicited by
the King of England but what was agreeable to the
emperor. Knight, the English envoy, unable to gain
access to Clement in his prison of St. Angelo,
contrived to send in to him the paper containing
Henry's request, and the Pope returned for answer
that the dispensation asked for by the King of
England would be forwarded to London.[1] "So
gracious," observes Burner, "was a Pope in
captivity." The 10th of December, 1527, was the
day fixed for the Pope's release, but feeling that he
would owe less to the emperor by effecting his own
escape than waiting till the imperial guards opened
the door, Clement disguised himself the evening
before, and made off for Orvieto, and took up his
abode in one of its old and ruinous tenements. The
English envoys, Knight and Cassali, followed him
thither, and obtaining an interview with him in his
new quarters, the entrance of which was blocked
up with rubbish, and the walls of which had their
nakedness concealed by rows of domestics, they
106