It is not difficult to discern, at this moment, the overruling hand of a divine providence in the marvelous changes which were taking place, and how little man at his best estate is to be trusted. The same gallant Henry that showed so much zeal for the Roman See, and was rewarded with the titles, "Most Christian King; Defender of the Faith," etc., in a short time denies the pope's authority, renounces his supremacy, and withdraws his kingdom from the obedience of the pontifical jurisdiction. And the same double policy of the Catholics that turned the mind of Henry, caused the downfall of Wolsey. Rome lost both-Henry and Wolsey-and the Reformation, indirectly, greatly gained. But the events which led to these results have been so minutely related by all our historians, that we may fairly suppose the reader to be acquainted with them.
The quarrel between the king and the pope first arose on the subject of the royal marriages. Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII., was married to Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and died without issue six months afterward. The shrewd money-loving father-in-law, that he might preserve the advantages of the Spanish alliance, and retain her dowry of two hundred thousand ducats, proposed her marriage with Henry, his second son, now Prince of Wales. Some of the bishops were opposed to the union, as contrary to the laws of God, others favored it; but to settle the question, a bull was obtained from Julius II. to sanction it, and the marriage took place soon after Henry's accession to the throne. For seventeen years no question appears to have arisen as to the validity of this union. Of five children-three sons and two daughters-only Mary survived the period of infancy.
One of the many reasons suggested for the king's doubts as to the lawfulness of his marriage was the loss of his children. He began to think that it was the judgment of God for marrying his brother's widow. But it is more generally believed that the origin of his doubts was the passion he had formed for Anne Boleyn. The great question of "the divorce" was first mooted about the year 1527, and it soon became the source of the most important results in both church and state, and to the nation at large. The pope was appealed to for a bull pronouncing the marriage of Henry and Catherine to be unlawful, and a dispensation for king Henry to marry again. The pope was now in a great perplexity. If he declared the marriage of the royal pair to be unlawful, he would thereby affirm to all Christendom that his infallible predecessor, Julius II., had made a mistake in declaring it to be lawful. Still, the artful pope, who was most anxious to oblige the king of England, would have had little difficulty in making that straight; but the armies of the powerful Charles -nephew to Catherine-were then in Italy, and he was indignant at the repudiation of his aunt.
This complication of interests led to the most shameful artifices and intrigues on the part of the papal court, in which the double dealing of Wolsey-who had been promised the tiara by Charles if he threw difficulties in the way of the divorce-being discovered by the king, led to his disgrace and his ignominious end. For seven long years the pope, by his diplomatic strategy, kept the impetuous Henry waiting, which shows, on the other side, the immense hold which the word of a pope had upon the mind of an absolute monarch. Driven to extremities, Henry resolved to take the law into his own hands, and entirely abolish the pope's power in England. "In 1534 an act of parliament was passed, with very little opposition, which put an end to the papal authority, as well as to the various payments of whatever kind which had hitherto been made by the laity or clergy to the see of Rome."