Franciscans And the Protestant Revolution in England

olitical interest but mutual affection and esteem that had joined Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon in the bonds of wedlock. As years wore on, however, Henry's attitude toward his saintly queen underwent a sad change. Of the various causes that conspired to divert him from the path of duty, the principal one was the loose life at court. Some historians assert that it is doubtful whether he was ever a faithful husband. How far Henry in this respect shared the disgrace of other crowned heads of his time, it would be hard to determine. At all events, his frequent addresses to persons of indifferent morals were sufficient cause for alarm. The queen, no doubt, had her suspicions, but for obvious reasons remained silent; while Cardinal Wolsey, who could and should have warned the heedless king, refrained from doing so on personal as well as on political grounds.1 Hence, in 1527, when Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn, a lady in the Queen's household, had got the better of him, he openly urged the question of a divorce from Catherine, feigning scruples of conscience regarding the validity of the dispensation he had obtained from Rome to marry her. The case was eventually brought before the Roman court, and the Pope appointed a specialcommission to examine it. All during the lengthy and complicated proceedings of this commission, the king as well as his cringing partisans among the nobility and higher clergy knew fully well that Catherine was his lawful consort, and tha...