the ground of all Christian teaching; ‘away with everything that cannot be found in the Bible.’
Henry seeks a divorce, 1527.Until 1527 the Government sternly repressed every movement against the Pope. Then a purely political event caused it to turn round. King Henry wanted to divorce his wife Katharine, a Spanish princess, who had been the wife of his brother Arthur. Arthur had died in 1501. The Pope had allowed Henry to marry Katharine, although many people had doubted whether such a marriage could possibly be lawful. Only one child of this marriage, Princess Mary, born 1516, had survived, and Henry thought, or professed to think, that this was a ‘Judgement of God’ on him. Anne Boleyn.Also he wanted to marry some one else, the Lady Anne Boleyn, one of Queen Katharine’s court ladies. He applied to the Pope for a divorce. Popes were in the bad habit of doing these little jobs to please kings; but Pope Clement VII would not do this. King Charles of Spain and Germany, called the ‘Emperor’, was the nephew of Queen Katharine; he was much the most powerful monarch in Europe, and Clement dared not offend him. Henry and Pope Clement VII, 1527–9So the Pope, and Wolsey for him, shifted and twisted and turned and promised, but could not give the King of England his wishes.
Suddenly, to the surprise of all his courtiers, of all England, of all Europe, Henry roared out, ‘Pope! What do I care for the Pope? Call my Parliament!’
The Parliament of 1529–36.It was the year 1529. The King was thirty-eight years old, and quite unknown to his people, except from the rumours of his extravagance. Union of king and people.Suddenly he appeared before them as their leader and friend, prepared to do all, and more than all, on which their hearts were set.