The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (215 page)

preceded his espousing of Anne.o

The king, even amidst his scruples and remorses on account of his first marriage, had always treated Catherine with respect and distinction; and he endeavoured, by every soft and persuasive art, to engage her to depart from her appeal to Rome, and her opposition to his divorce. Finding her obstinate in maintaining the justice of her cause, he had totally forborne all visits and intercourse with her; and had desired her to make choice of any one of his palaces, in which she should please to reside. She had fixed her abode for some time at Amphill near Dunstable; and it was
NOTE [H]

was appointed to open his court for examining the validity of her 10th May.

marriage. The near neighbourhood of the place was chosen, in order to deprive her of all plea of ignorance: and as she made no answer to the citation, either by herself or proxy, she was declared
contumacious;
and the primate PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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proceeded to the examination of the cause. The evidences of Arthur’s consummation of his marriage were anew produced; the opinions of the universities were read, together with the judgment pronounced two years before by the convocations both of Canterbury and York; and after these preliminary steps, Cranmer proceeded to a sentence, and annulled the king’s marriage with Catherine, as unlawful and invalid.

By a subsequent sentence, he ratified the marriage with Anne Boleyn, who soon after was publicly crowned Queen, with all the pomp and dignity suited to that ceremony.
q

To complete the king’s satisfaction on the conclusion of this intricate and vexatious affair, she was safely delivered of a daughter,

who received the name of Elizabeth, and who afterwards swayed 7th Sept.

the scepter with such renown and felicity. Henry was so much delighted with the birth of this child, that soon after he conferred on her the title of princess of Wales;
r
a step somewhat irregular, as she could only be presumptive, not apparent heir of the crown. But he had, during his former marriage, thought proper to honour his daughter Mary with that title; and he was determined to bestow, on the offspring of his present marriage, the same mark of distinction, as well as to exclude the elder princess from all hopes of the succession. His regard for the new queen seemed rather to encrease than diminish by his marriage; and all men expected to see the entire ascendant of one who had mounted a throne, from which her birth had set her at so great a distance, and who, by a proper mixture of severity and indulgence, had long managed so intractable a spirit as that of Henry. In order to efface, as much as possible, all marks of his first marriage, Lord Mountjoy was sent to the unfortunate and divorced queen, to inform her, that she was thenceforth to be treated only as princess-dowager of Wales; and all means were employed to make her acquiesce in that determination. But she continued obstinate in maintaining the validity of her marriage; and she would admit no person to her presence, who did not approach her with the accustomed ceremonial. Henry, forgetting his wonted generosity towards her, employed menaces against such of her servants as complied with her commands in this particular; but was never able to make her relinquish her title and pretensions.
s

When intelligence was conveyed to Rome of these transactions, so injurious to the authority and reputation of the holy see, the conclave was in a rage, and all the cardinals of the Imperial faction urged the pope to proceed to a definitive sentence, and to dart his spiritual thunders against Henry. But Clement proceeded no farther than to declare the nullity of Cranmer’s sentence, as well as that of Henry’s second marriage; threatening him with excommunicaton, if, before the first of November ensuing, he did not replace every thing in the condition in which it formerly stood.
t

An event had happened, from which the pontiff expected a more amicable conclusion of the difference, and which hindered him from carrying matters to extremity against the king.

The pope had claims upon the dutchy of Ferrara for the sovereignty of Reggio and Modena;
u
and having submitted his pretensions to the arbitration of the emperor, he was surprized to find a sentence pronounced against him. Enraged at this disappointment, he hearkened to proposals of amity from Francis; and when that monarch made overtures of marrying the duke of Orleans, his second son, to Catherine of Medicis, niece of the pope, Clement gladly embraced an alliance, by which his family was so much honoured. An interview was even appointed between PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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the pope and French king at Marseilles; and Francis, as a common friend, there employed his good offices in mediating an accommodation between his new ally and the king of England.

Had this connexion of France with the court of Rome taken place a few years sooner, there had been little difficulty in adjusting the quarrel with Henry. The king’s request was an ordinary one; and the same plenary power of the pope, which had granted a dispensation for his espousing of Catherine, could easily have annulled the marriage.

But, in the progress of the quarrel, the state of affairs was much changed on both sides. Henry had shaken off much of that reverence, which he had early imbibed for the apostolic see; and finding, that his subjects of all ranks had taken part with him, and willingly complied with his measures for breaking off foreign dependance, he had begun to relish his spiritual authority, and would scarcely, it was apprehended, be induced to renew his submissions to the Roman pontiff. The pope, on the other hand, now ran a manifest risque of infringing his authority by a compliance with the king; and as a sentence of divorce could no longer be rested on nullities in Julius’s bull, but would be construed as an acknowledgment of papal usurpations, it was foreseen, that the Lutherans would thence take occasion of triumph, and would perservere more obstinately in their present principles. But notwithstanding these obstacles, Francis did not despair of mediating an agreement. He observed that the king had still some remains of prejudice in favour of the catholic church, and was apprehensive of the consequences, which might ensue from too violent innovations. He saw the interest that Clement had in preserving the obedience of England, which was one of the richest jewels in the papal crown. And he hoped, that these motives on both sides would facilitate a mutual agreement, and would forward the effects of his good offices.

Francis first prevailed on the pope to promise, that, if the king 1534.

would send a proxy to Rome, and thereby submit his cause to the holy see, he should appoint commissioners to meet at Cambray, and form the process; and he should immediately afterwards pronounce the sentence of divorce, required of him. Bellay, bishop of Paris, was next dispatched to London, and obtained a promise from the king, that he would submit his cause to the Roman consistory, provided the cardinals of the Imperial faction were excluded from it.

The prelate carried this verbal promise to Rome; and the pope King’s final breach

agreed, that, if the king would sign a written agreement to the with Rome.

same purpose, his demands should be fully complied with. A day was appointed for the return of the messengers; and all Europe regarded this affair, which had threatened a violent rupture between England and the Romish church, as

drawing towards an amicable conclusion.w
But the greatest affairs often depend on the most frivolous incidents. The courier, who carried the king’s written promise, was detained beyond the day appointed: News was brought to Rome that a libel had been published in England against the court of Rome, and a farce acted before the king in derision of the pope and cardinals.
x

The pope and cardinals entered into the consistory enflamed with 23d March.

anger; and by a precipitate sentence, the marriage of Henry and Catherine was pronounced valid, and Henry declared to be excommunicated, if he refused to adhere to it. Two days after, the courier arrived; and Clement, who had PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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been hurried from his usual prudence, found, that, though he heartily repented of this hasty measure, it would be difficult for him to retract it, or replace affairs on the same footing as before.

It is not probable, that the pope, had he conducted himself with ever so great moderation and temper, could hope, during the life-time of Henry, to have regained much authority or influence in England. That monarch was of a temper both impetuous and obstinate;

and having proceeded so far in throwing off the papal yoke, he 15th Jan.

never could again have been brought tamely to bend his neck to it. Even at the time, when he was negociating a reconciliation with Rome, he either entertained so little hopes of success, or was so indifferent about the event, that he had assembled a Parliament,

and continued to enact laws totally destructive of the papal A parliament.

authority. The people had been prepared by degrees for this great innovation. Each preceding session had retrenched somewhat from the power and profits of the pontiff. Care had been taken, during some years, to teach the nation, that a general council was much superior to a pope. But now a bishop preached every Sunday at Paul’s cross, in order to inculcate the doctrine, that the pope was entitled to

no authority at all beyond the bounds of his own diocese.y
The proceedings of the parliament showed that they had entirely adopted this opinion; and there is reason to believe, that the king, after having procured a favourable sentence from Rome, which would have removed all doubts with regard to his second marriage and the succession, might indeed have lived on terms of civility with the Roman pontiff, but never would have surrendered to him any considerable share of his assumed prerogative. The importance of the laws, passed this session, even before intelligence arrived of the violent resolutions taken at Rome, is sufficient to justify this opinion.

All payments made to the apostolic chamber; all provisions, bulls, dispensations, were abolished: Monasteries were subjected to the visitation and government of the king alone: The law for punishing heretics was moderated; the ordinary was prohibited from imprisoning or trying any person upon suspicion alone, without presentment by two lawful witnesses; and it was declared that to speak against the pope’s authority was no heresy: Bishops were to be appointed, by a
congè d’ elire
from the crown, or in case of the dean and chapter’s refusal, by letters patent; and no recourse was to be had to Rome for palls, bulls, or provisions: Campeggio and Ghinucci, two Italians, were deprived of the bishoprics of Salisbury and Worcester, which they had hitherto enjoyed:
z
The law, which had been formerly made against paying annates or first fruits, but which had been left in the king’s power to suspend or enforce, was finally established: And a submission, which was exacted two years before from the clergy, and which had been obtained with great difficulty, received this session the sanction of parliament.
a
In this submission, the clergy acknowledged, that convocations ought to be assembled by the king’s authority only; they promise to enact no new canons without his consent; and they agree, that he should appoint thirty-two commissioners, in order to examine the old canons, and abrogate such as should be found prejudicial to his royal prerogative.
b
An appeal was also allowed from the bishop’s court to the king in Chancery.

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But the most important law, passed this session, was that which regulated the succession to the crown: The marriage of the king with Catherine was declared unlawful, void, and of no effect: The primate’s sentence, annulling it, was ratified: And the marriage with queen Anne was established and confirmed. The crown was appointed to descend to the issue of this marriage, and failing them to the king’s heirs for ever

. An oath likewise was enjoined to be taken in favour of this 30th March.

order of succession, under the penalty of imprisonment during the king’s pleasure, and forfeiture of goods and chattels. And all slander against the king, queen, or their issue, was subjected to the penalty of misprision of treason. After these compliances, the parliament was prorogued; and those acts, so contemptuous towards the pope, and so destructive of his authority, were passed at the very time that Clement pronounced his hasty sentence against the king. Henry’s resentment against queen Catherine, on account of her obstinacy, was the reason why he excluded her daughter from all hopes of succeeding to the crown; contrary to his first intentions, when he began the process of divorce, and of dispensation for a second marriage.

The king found his ecclesiastical subjects as compliant as the laity. The convocation ordered, that the act against appeals to Rome, together with the king’s appeal from the pope to a general council, should be affixed to the doors of all the churches in the kingdom: And they voted that the bishop of Rome had, by the law of God, no more jurisdiction in England than any other foreign bishop; and that the authority, which he and his predecessors had there exercised, was only by usurpation and by the sufferance of English princes. Four persons alone opposed this vote in the lower house, and one doubted. It passed unanimously in the upper. The bishops went so far in their complaisance, that they took out new commissions from the crown, in which all their spiritual and episcopal authority was expressly affirmed to be derived ultimately from the civil magistrate, and to be entirely dependent on his good