by his ambassadors, promised the emperor Charles, "the sum of three "hundred thousand crowns, the restoration of the marriage portion paid "with Catharine, and security for a maintenance suitable to her birth," if he would consent to the divorce. But Charles was inflexible, and told the worthy representatives of Henry," he was not a merchant to sell "the honour of his aunt. The cause was now before the proper tri"bunal. If the pope should decide against her, he would be silent; "if in her favour, he would support her cause with all the means which “God had placed at his disposal." This fact is related by Dr. Lingard, and is extracted from Letters written from Bologna by the bishop of Tarbes, the French ambassador to the English court. Failing in this quarter, he rested his hopes on the decisions of the universities, the success of which plan is thus detailed by Dr. Lingard.

"The new ministers," says that able writer, "condescended to pro"fit by the advice of the man whom they had supplanted; and sought, "in conformity with his recommendation, to obtain in favour of the di"vorce, the opinions of the most learned divines, and most celebrated "universities in Europe. Henry pursued the scheme with his charac"teristic ardour: but, if he was before convinced of the justice of his "cause, that conviction must have been shaken by the obstinacy of the "opposition which he every where experienced. In England it might "have been expected that the influence of the crown would silence the "partisans of Catharine yet even in England it was found necessary "to employ commands, and promises, and threats, sometimes secret intrigue, and sometimes open violence, before a favourable answer "could be extorted from either of the universities.

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"In Italy the king's agents were active and numerous: their success " and their failures were perhaps nearly balanced: but the former was " emblazoned to catch the eye of the public, while the latter were discreetly concealed. From the pontiff they had procured a breve, exhorting every man to speak his sentiments without fear or favour; "and taking their respective stations in the principal cities from Venice "to Rome, they distributed according to their discretion the monies " which had been remitted to them from England. They drew an ingenious, but in this case not very intelligible, distinction between a "fee and a bribe: and contended that when they rewarded the sub"scriber for his trouble, they paid him nothing as the price of his subscription. The result of their exertions were the real or pretended answers of the universities of Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara, and the subscriptions of some hundreds of individuals.

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"In the Germanic states Henry was less successful. Not one public body could be induced to espouse his cause: even the reformed di"vines, with a few exceptions, loudly condemned the divorce; and "Luther himself wrote to Barnes the royal agent, that he would rather "allow the king to have two wives at the same time, than to separate "from Catharine for the purpose of marrying another woman.

"It was therefore from France and her fourteen universities that the "most valuable aid was expected. The bishop of Bayonne had been " for some months employed in soliciting the votes of the leading mem"bers of the different faculties: and Henry had written to the king to " employ the royal authority in his favour. But Francis artfully pre

"tended that he dared not risk the offence of Charles, as long as his two sons were detained prisoners in Spain: nor could they be libe"rated according to the treaty, till he had paid two millions of crowns c to the emperor, five hundred thousand to the king of England, and " had redeemed, in favour of Charles, the lily of diamonds, which Phi"lip of Burgundy had formerly pawned to Henry VII. for the sum of fifty thousand crowns. The impatience of the king swallowed the "bait he was content to make every sacrifice, that he might obtain "the subscriptions which he sought he forgave the debt, made a pre"sent of the pledge, and added to it a loan of four hundred thousand 66 crowns.

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"Still the business languished till the earl of Wiltshire was returned "from Bologna. The university of Paris had long possessed the first έσ place among the learned societies of Europe: and it was deemed of "the greatest importance to obtain from it a favourable decision. Henry wrote to the dean with his own hand: Francis commanded the faculty "of divinity to deliberate on the subject: Montmorency, his prime "minister, canvassed for votes from house to house and every absent "member in the interest of the court was summoned to Paris. Yet "the majority was decidedly hostile to the pretensions of the king of દ England. From the beginning of June to the middle of August they " continued to meet and adjourn: and in one instance only, on the se"cond of July,, was a plurality of voices obtained, by dexterous management, in favour of Henry. By the order of the court the bishop "of Senlis carried away the register, that the entry might not be ef "faced or rescinded in any subsequent meeting, and an attested copy was forwarded to England, and published by the king as the real de"cision of the university of Paris. From Orleans and Toulouse, from "the theologians of Bourges, and the civilians of Angers, similar opi"nions were received: but the theologians of the last city pronounced "in favour of the existing marriage. The other universities were not "consulted, or their answers were suppressed.

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"It had been originally intended to lay before the pontiff this mass "of opinions and subscriptions, as the united voice of the Christian it world pronouncing in favour of the divorce. But Clement knew (and Henry was aware that he knew) the arts by which they had been "purchased or extorted and both were sensible, that, independently "of other considerations, they did not reach the real merits of the ques66 tion: for all of them were founded on the supposition that the marriage between Arthur and Catharine had actually been consummated, a disputed point which the king was unable to prove, and which the મં queen most solemnly denied. In the place of these opinions it was re deemed more prudent to substitute a letter to the pontiff, subscribed by the lords spiritual and temporal, and by a certain number of commoners, in the name of the whole nation. This instrument complains in forcible terms of Clement's partiality and tergiversation. What "crime had the king of England committed that he could not obtain "what the most learned men, and the most celebrated universities de"clared to be his right? The kingdom was threatened with the calamities of a disputed succession, which could be avoided only by a "lawful marriage; and yet the celebration of that marriage was pre

હેમ vented by the affected delays and unjust partiality of the pontiff, No66 thing remained, but to apply the remedy without his interference. It might be an evil: but it would prove a less evil, than the precarious and perilous situation in which England was now placed.

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To this uncourteous and menacing remonstrance, Clement replied "with temper and firmness that the charge of partiality would have ἐκ come with more truth and a better grace from the opposite party : that he had pushed his indulgence for the king beyond the bounds of law and equity, and had refused to act on the queen's appeal, till the "whole college of cardinals unanimously charged him with injustice: "that, if he had not since proceeded with the cause, it was because Henry had appointed no attorney to plead for him, and because his "ambassadors at Bologna had asked for additional time: that the opinions which they mentioned, had never been officially communicated to the holy see, nor did he know of any, which were fortified with reasons and authorities to inform his judgment: that if England were really threatened with a disputed succession, the danger would not be removed, but augmented, by proceedings contrary to right and justice and if lawless remedies were employed, those with whom they originated must answer for the result: that, in short, he was વેદ ready to proceed with the cause immediately, and to shew to the king every indulgence and favour compatible with justice: one thing only he begged in return, that they would not require of him, through gratitude to man, to violate the immutable commandments of God."

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This account differs, very widely from that given by Burnet, and is more entitled to credit, not only from its carrying the air of probability and sincerity, but because the historian has given the sources from whence the facts stated are derived. Thus then we see that the king's agents were encouraged to employ every species of art and chicanery to settle the scruples of the conscientious Henry, while, on the other hand, the holy father was solely intent on doing justice where justice was due, and preventing the injured party, as far as he could, from being oppressed. The sovereign pontiff had a conscience to satisfy, without being disturbed by the violence of criminal passions like Harry, and therefore his mind was influenced with a desire to see the commandments of God fulfilled and not violated. When Harry found his case so hopeless, he himself felt a desire to submit to the difficulties which he found opposed to him; but this disposition was no sooner discovered, than Anne Boleyn and her friends took the alarm, and she was instructed to play off all her arts to win the king from this inclination to become just. The ruin of the ministry, all Anne's creatures, was predicted, when Cromwell, who had been raised into some note by the means of Wolsey, stepped forward and rescued them from the danger by which they were threatened. Of this man we shall have to say more hereafter, when we come to the dissolution of the monasteries; we shall therefore dismiss him for the present, that we may not break in upon the narrative of the divorce.

During the whole of these discussions, Catharine remained steady to her resolution of leaving the question in the pope's hands; every artifice was used to persuade her to consent to a separation, but to no

purpose. "Several lords," writes Dr. Lingard, "were deputed to wait on the queen, and to request that for the king's conscience, she would "refer the matter to the decision of four temporal and four spiritual 66 peers. God grant him a quiet conscience,' she replied, "but this "shall be your answer: I am his wife lawfully married to him by order "of holy church; and so I will abide until the court of Rome, which was privy to the beginning, shall have made an end thereof." A "second deputation was sent with an order, for her to leave the palace "at Windsor. 'Go where I may,' she answered, 'I shall still be his "lawful wife.' From that day (July 15, 1531) they never more saw "each other. She repaired to the Moor, thence to Easthamistead, and at last fixed her residence at Ampthill." Though Harry had banished the queen from his presence, he still craved the authority of the pope to dissolve the contract, and the cause was urged at Rome by the king's agents with much assiduity. In the mean time, Catharine wrote to the holy father announcing her formal expulsion from the king's presence, and praying justice at his hands. Clement could no longer refuse the prayer of an injured and defenceless woman: he wrote to Henry a moving letter, in which he painted the infamy of his proceedings; that having married a most virtuous princess, with whom he had lived in conjugal happiness for twenty years, he now drove her from his court to cohabit with another woman. He therefore exhorted the king to recall his injured queen, and dismiss the wanton who had supplanted her. But Harry's conscience, we suppose, was now seared, for instead of listening to the admonitions of the holy father, he began to shew symptoms of disobedience to that authority which he had hitherto professed to acknowledge as lawful. The clergy had already been placed in a præmunire, and now they were forbidden to make constitutions, although such had been their imprescriptible right, in faith and morals, from the first foundation of the church. These things being reported at Rome, Clement pronounced against the claim, and issued a breve complaining that the king, in defiance of public decency, continued to 'cohabit with his mistress. We must here leave the unfortunate Catharine to bring before the reader her supplanter.

THE KING MARRIES ANNE BOLEYN.

We now return to the Book of Martyrs, where we find the following account detailed under the above head:- "Soon after this, the king "married Anne Boleyn; Rowland Lee (afterwards bishop of Coventry " and Lichfield) officiated, none being present but the duke of Norfolk, "and her father, mother, brother, and Cranmer. It was thought that the -" former marriage being null, the king might proceed to another; and per"haps, they hoped, that as the pope had formerly proposed this method, so "he would now approve of it. But though the pope had joined himself to "France, yet he was still so much in fear of the emperor, that he dared "not provoke him. A new citation was therefore issued out, for the "king to answer to the queen's complaints; but Henry's agents pro"tested, that their master was a sovereign prince, and England a free church, over which the pope had no authority; and that the king could expect no justice at Rome, where the emperor's power was so great." This is Burnet's story, and the excuse he makes for the actors in the

scene is, that they thought and hoped, that the pope would be found as kind as Luther and Co. and grant, the scrupulous Harry leave to have two wives at once. From this account it is clear the marriage with Anne could not be lawful, because no one had pronounced formally against the marriage with Catharine, which, for decency sake, we think should have been done.-The day on which Anne was married to the king, was the 25th of January, 1533, five years after the scruples of Harry's conscience began to work, three of which he scrupulously spent in adultery with Anne; nor is it likely he would have married her so soon, had she not proved to be in a condition to give him hopes of an heir.→→ In the September preceding he had created her marchioness of Pembroke, and settled upon her a yearly pension of one thousand pounds, out of the ecclesiastical revenue of the bishopric of Durham; so that this lady, who is looked upon as a prime Protestant saint, commenced her career by robbing a virtuous woman of the affections of her husband, and the church of her property.-Well, the pious couple were tacked together by Dr. Lee, but not till the king had told him a lie; for when Lee discovered the object of the king, he demurred, having his scruples as well as the royal bridegroom, and it was not till the king told him that the pope had pronounced in his favour, and that the instrument was safely deposited in his closet, that Lee consented to perform the ceremony. For his compliance the celebrant was made bishop of Chester, was afterwards translated to Lichfield and Coventry, and ho noured with the presidentship of Wales.-This marriage of Harry, if such it can be called, for though the rites were performed, it could not be legal, being in defiance of both law and justice, and unauthorized by either church or state; this marriage may be considered the foundation stone of that church, which was afterwards estabished by law, and is now mainly supported by proscriptive tests and penal codes.-Burnet insinuates that the pope was influenced in his conduct, in this dispute about matrimonial rights, between Henry and Catharine, by his fears of the emperor, but there is not a shadow of pretence to bear him out; on the contrary, the testimony preserved, shews that Clement did not wish to meddle with the matter, but desired to see it decided without his interference; yet, when compelled to pronounce his judgment, no other motive appeared to influence him, than that of discharging his duty to God and his conscience, by doing justice to injured innocence, according to the canons of the church. The power of the emperor was not greater at Rome, when Henry went through the mock ceremony of marrying Anne Boleyn, than when she was living with him as his mistress, and he was seeking, by every disreputable means that could be contrived and put in practice by his corrupt agents, to obtain a favourable decision on his side; and it was only when his case became hopeless, that his pride was aroused, and his mercenary disposition set on fire. Then it was, and not till then, the monster threw off the mask of hypocrisy, banished all his scruples, and proclaimed himself head of a new, but not a free" church. Till Henry assumed the supremacy of the church of England, as well as the state, the church might strictly be termed "free," as the ministers had immunities secured to them by Magna Charta, and her doctrine and discipline were not at the nod or caprice of a lecherous old man, a feeble child, or a cold-blooded lacsi

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