Section 251

the pope conferred on him the title of Defensor Fidei, which tlie sovereigns of England still retain. (See, for details of the controversy between Henry and Luther, Waddington, Ilistori/ of t/ie lieformatioii, ch. xxi.) In a fe\\' years Henry began to grow weary of his queen, ilis male children died, and he fancied that Provi- dence punished him in tliis way for having contracted an unlawful man'iage with his brother's widow. The question of the legitimacy of this marriage had never been fully settled, even by the pope's authorization. At all events, it was easy for a prince of Henry's tem- perament to believe that the marriage was unlawfid, wlien such a behef was necessary to the gratification of his passions. Moreover, the Spanish queen was un- popidar in England. Henry had recourse to an expe- dient suggested by Cranmer, " namely, to consult all the universities of Europe on the question ' whether the papal dispensation for such a marriage was valid,' and to act on their decision without further appeal to the pope. The question was accordingly put, and de- cided in the negative by the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Bologna, Padua, Orleans, Anglers, Bourges, ToiUouse, etc., and by a midtitude of theologi- ans and canonists" (Palmer, Ch. History, p. 159). Hen- ry had clearly made up his mind to marrj' Anne Bolej^i as soon as the divorce from Catharine could be accom- plished. "Anne was understood to be favorably dis- posed towards those new views on the subject of relig- ion and ecclesiastical affairs which had been agitating all Europe ever since Luther had begun his intrepid ca- reer by publicly opposing indulgences at Wittenberg ten years before. Queen Catharine, on the other hand, was a good Catholic ; and, besides, the circumstances in which she was placed made it her interest to take her stand by the Church, as, on the other hand, her adversaries were driven in like manner by their interests and the course of events into dissent and opposition. This one con- sideration sufficiently explains all that followed. The friends of the old religion generally considered Catha- rine's cause as their own ; the Reformers as natmrally ar- raj'ed themselves on the side of her rival. Henry him- self again, though he had been till now resolutely op- posed to the new opinions, was carried over by his pas- sion toward the same side; the consequence of which was the loss of the royal favor by those who had hith- erto monopolized it, and its transference in great part to other men, to be employed by them in the promotion of entirely opposite purposes and politics. The proceed- ings for the divorce were commenced by an application to the court of Eome in August, 1527. For tAvo years the affair lingered on through a succession of legal pro- ceedings, but without any decisive result. From the autumn of 1529 are to be dated both the fall of Wolsey and the rise of Cranmer. See Cranjieu, Thomas. The death of the great cardinal took place on the 29th of November, 1530. In January following the first blow was struck at the Church by an indictment being brought into the King's Bench against all the clergy of the kingdom for supporting Wolsej' in the exercise of his legatine powers without the royal license, as required by the old statutes of pj-ovi'iors and premnnire ; and it was m an act passed immediately after by the Convoca- tion of the province of Canterburj-. for granting to the king a sum of money to exempt them from the penal- ties of their conviction on this indictment, that the first movement was made toward a revolt against the see of Rome, by the titles given to Henrj' of ' the one protect- or of the English Church, its only an.d supreme lord, and, as far as might be by the law of Christ, its supreme head.' Shortly after, the convocation declared the king's marriage with Catharine to be contrar\^ to the law of God. The same year Henry went the length of openly countenancing Protestantism abroad by remitting a sub- sidy to the confederacy of the elector of Brandenburg and other German princes, called the League of Smal- cald. In August, 1532, Cranmer was appointed to the archbishopric of Canterbury. In the beginning of the