CHAP. V. - Cranmer: his favour with the King. - Proceedings relative to the Divorce. - Henry forbids the introduction of bulls into England. Advocates of the queen's cause. Conduct of the king towards her. Proceedings of Parliament: of Convocation. Crime and punishment of Richard Rouse. Anne Bullen accused by Sanders of suggesting the deed. Law against Egyptians: with respect to Sanctuaries: to exchange of money. Final separation of the King and Queen. Thomas Abell's work on the Divorce: the King's proceeding in consequence. - Disturbance in London. - Beginning of the Slave Trade. Parliament prohibits the payment of Annates. - The King builds St. James's Palace: disperses the Canons of Christ Church. Affairs at Rome. The King cited to Rome. Proceedings of a fresh Parliament: proposition of Themse. Henry's speech to the Lords: he obliges the Parliament to acknowledge his supremacy. Resignation of Sir Thomas More. The seals conferred upon Audley. Anne Bullen created a Marchioness. Interview between Francis and Henry. - Marriage of Henry to Anne Bullen: that with Katharine declared null and void. Persecution of reformers, in England. - Statute condemning appeals to Rome. - Death and character of Warham. Bainham. The primacy offered to Cranmer: his equivocal conduct. To a prince so greatly agitated by hopes and 1530. fears as was Henry the Eighth at this juncture, it was of the utmost importance to have some confidential servant, devoted to the cause to which the wishes of his sovereign were directed, and possessed of talents adapted to forward those desires. From Wolsey, the general tenour of whose conduct was adverse to the repudiation of Queen Katharine, whatever his early views of the subject may have been, the king had never experienced a cordial co-operation. The minister whom Henry required was quickly supplied to him in the person of Cranmer, whose coincidence with the king's sentiments on this point, far more than his eminent and virtuous qualities, secured to him the highest place in the esteem of the monarch. Upon his first interview with the king, Cranmer had been enjoined by the impatient Henry to write an exposition of the arguments relative to the divorce; and he was for that purpose established by the king, during the progress of his work, in the household of the Earl of Wiltshire. Upon his deducing from the authority of the scriptures, of general councils, and of ancient writers, the acceptable inferences "that the Bishop of Rome had no authority whereby he might dispense with the word of God and the Scripture," the eager inquiry of Henry was, "Whether he would abide by this opinion before the Bishop of Rome?" "That I will do, by God's grace," replied Cranmer, "if your majesty send me thither." "Marry," replied the king, “I will send you even to him on a sure embassy."* Upon this assurance Cranmer was sent to the Pope, on an embassy, the state and pomp of which were to be sustained by the Earl of Wiltshire; the argumentative part by Cranmer, Dr. Stokesley Bishop of London, Dr. Carne, Dr. Tonstall who was translated to the see of Durham, Dr. Bennet and other eminent persons. On arriving at Bologna, where the Pope then resided, they were admitted to his presence, when an occurrence, otherwise of little importance, manifested with what sentiments the ambassadors performed their commission; for on his holiness proffering them his toe to kiss, the Earl of Wiltshire, who was the first in rank, stood back, and his example was followed by the rest of his party, while an unmannerly spaniel, belonging to the earl, was the only individual that attempted to perform the ceremony, which, according to report, he did in so rough a mode, that the pope was in some haste to withdraw his foot. This circumstance was afterwards regarded as an omen of succeeding events.t The ambassadors, although well received, yet obtained no satisfaction from his holiness, and after the promise of a public disputation, which *See Fox's Life of Cranmer. Wordsworth, vol. iii. p. 441. was deferred from day to day, the Earl of Wiltshire and all the other commissioners, except Cranmer, returned to England, weary of their ineffectual mission and their residence in a foreign land. Cranmer, repairing to the emperor at Vienna, engaged there with Cornelius Agrippa, an officer in the service of the emperor, in an argument concerning the lawfulness of the king's marriage, and completely silenced him. But, although the decrees of the English universities had been previously given in the king's favour, and a similar decision had been added from the university of Orleans, yet it had been deemed necessary, in the preceding year, for the king's emissaries to collect all the votes that could be obtained from other learned bodies. One of the most active agents in this business was Dr. Richard Croke, who had formerly been tutor to the Duke of Richmond. This able divine visited the towns of Venice, Padua and Bologna; and, without disclosing the nature of his occupation, sounded most of the canonists and divines whom he encountered, concerning their sentiments of the disputed point. Finding, as he wrote to the king, that they were almost universally favourable to the divorce, yet, that they were fearful of expressing their opinions, on account of the agents of the pope and of the emperor, Croke suggested that a brief should be required from his holiness, permitting all canonists and divines to express, conscientiously and freely, their opinions without fear or hazard: but this liberty, however fair and equitable it may seem, was not obtained without difficulty, the pope at first declaring that "no friars should discuss his power." The request appeared, however, to be so reasonable, that it could not long be refused; and provided with this instrument, Croke, Stokeley, and Gregory de Cassalis, the king's agents, obtained, in their various departments, decisions almost unanimously condemning the marriage between Henry and Katharine. It appears, that far from any bribery being resorted to on this occasion, the commissioners were but scantily provided with means for their own necessary expences.* At Milan, notwithstanding the threats of the pope and the emperor's agents, most of the divines, canonists and friars, subscribed a decree pronouncing the marriage contrary to divine law. At the university of Bologna, a signal triumph was obtained, from the clear and forcible terms in which the marriage was condemned: Padua and Ferrara followed the example of Bologna. At Paris, the doctors of the Sorbonne, whose decrees had for some ages been regarded |