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11 | <title>Secondary Sources: The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, by JA Froude:
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12 | Chapter One</title>
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37 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
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38 | <p align="center"> </p>
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39 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">The Divorce of<br>Catherine of Aragon</font></b><br>
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40 | <font size="5">by
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41 | JA Froude, 1891</font></p>
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42 | <p align="center">
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43 | <img border="0" src="aragon-new1.jpg" alt="miniature portrait of Katharine of Aragon by Lucas Horenbout" width="325" height="321"></td>
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44 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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45 | </tr>
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46 | </table>
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47 | <blockquote>
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48 | <blockquote>
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49 | <font face="Times New Roman">
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50 | <div align="left">
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51 | <b><font size="4">CHAPTER ONE</font></b></div>
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52 | <blockquote>
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53 | <p align="left"><font size="4">Prospects of a disputed succession to the
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54 | crown -- Various claimants -Catherine incapable of having further children
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55 | -- Irregularity of her marriage with the King -- Papal dispensations --
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56 | First mention of the divorce -- Situation of the Papacy -- Charles V. --
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57 | Policy of Wolsey -- Anglo-French alliance -- Imperial troops in Italy --
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58 | Appeal of the Pope -- Mission of Inigo de Mendoza -- The Bishop of Tarbes
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59 | -Legitimacy of the Princess Mary called in question -- Secret meeting of
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60 | the Legates' court -- Alarms of Catherine -- Sack of Rome by the Duke of
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61 | Bourbon -- Proposed reform of the Papacy -- The divorce promoted by Wolsey
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62 | -- Unpopular in England -- Attempts of the Emperor to gain Wolsey.</font></p>
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63 | </blockquote>
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64 | <p align="left">IN the year 1526 the political prospects of England became
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65 | seriously clouded. A disputed succession had led in the previous century to
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66 | a desperate civil war. In that year it became known in private circles that
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67 | if Henry VIII. was to die the realm would again be left without a certain
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68 | heir, and that the strife of the Roses might be renewed on an even more
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69 | distracting scale. The sons who had been born to Queen Catherine had died in
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70 | childbirth or had died immediately after it. The passionate hope of the
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71 | country that she might still produce a male child who would survive had been
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72 | constantly disappointed, and now could be entertained no longer. She was
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73 | eight years older than her husband. She had "certain diseases" which made it
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74 | impossible that she should be again pregnant, and Henry had for two years
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75 | ceased to cohabit with her. He had two children still living -- the Princess
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76 | Mary, Catherine's daughter, then a girl of eleven, and an illegitimate son
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77 | born in 1519, the mother being a daughter of Sir John Blount, and married
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78 | afterwards to Sir Gilbert Talboys. By presumptive law the Princess was the
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79 | next heir; but no woman had ever sat on the throne of England alone and in
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80 | her own right, and it was doubtful whether the nation would submit to a
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81 | female sovereign. The boy, though excluded by his birth from the prospect of
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82 | the crown, was yet brought up with exceptional care, called a prince by his
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83 | tutors, and probably regarded by his father as a possible successor should
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84 | his sister go the way of her brothers. In 1525, after the King had
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85 | deliberately withdrawn from Catherine, he was created Duke of Richmond -- a
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86 | title of peculiar significance, since it had been borne by his grandfather,
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87 | Henry VII. -- and he was granted precedence over the rest of the peerage.
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88 | Illegitimacy was a serious, but, it might be thought, was not an absolute,
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89 | bar. The Conqueror had been himself a bastard. The Church, by its habits of
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90 | granting dispensations for irregular marriages or of dissolving them on
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91 | pleas of affinity or consanguinity or other pretext, had confused the
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92 | distinction between legitimate and illegitimate. A Church Court had
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93 | illegitimatised the children of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Grey, on the ground
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94 | of one of Edward's previous connections; yet no one regarded the princes
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95 | murdered in the Tower as having been illegitimate in reality; and to prevent
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96 | disputes and for an adequate object, the Duke of Richmond, had he grown to
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97 | manhood, might, in the absence of other claims, have been recognised by
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98 | Parliament. But the Duke was still a child, and might die as Henry's other
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99 | sons had died; and other claims there were which, in the face of the bar
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100 | sinister, could not fail to be asserted. James V. of Scotland was next in
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101 | blood, being the son of Henry's eldest sister, Margaret. There were the
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102 | Greys, inheriting from the second sister, Mary. Outside the royal house
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103 | there were the still popular representatives of the White Rose, the Marquis
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104 | of Exeter, who was Edward IV.'s grandson; the Countess of Salisbury,
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105 | daughter of Edward's brother the Duke of Clarence, and sister of the
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106 | murdered Earl of Warwick; and Henry's life was the only obstacle between the
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107 | collision of these opposing pretensions. James, it was quite certain, would
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108 | not be allowed to succeed without a struggle. National rivalry forbade it.
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109 | Yet it was no less certain that he would try, and would probably be backed
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110 | by France. There was but one escape from convulsions which might easily be
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111 | the ruin of the realm. The King was in the flower of his age, and might
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112 | naturally look for a Prince of Wales to come after him if he was married to
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113 | a woman capable of bearing one. It is neither unnatural nor, under the
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114 | circumstances, a matter to be censured if he and others began to reflect
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115 | upon the peculiar character of his connection with Catherine of Aragon. It
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116 | is not sufficiently remembered that the marriage of a widow with her
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117 | husband's brother was then, as it is now, forbidden by the laws of all
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118 | civilised countries. Such a marriage at the present day would be held <i>
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119 | ipso facto</i> invalid and not a marriage at all. An irregular power was
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120 | then held to rest with the successors of St. Peter to dispense, under
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121 | certain conditions, with the inhibitory rules. The popes are now understood
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122 | to have never rightly possessed such an authority, and therefore, according
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123 | to modern law and sentiment, Henry and Catherine never were husband and wife
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124 | at all. At the time it was uncertain whether the dispensing power extended
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125 | so far as to sanction such a union, and when the discussion rose upon it the
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126 | Roman canonists were themselves divided. Those who maintained the widest
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127 | view of thepapal faculty yet agreed that such a dispensation could only be
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128 | granted for urgent cause, such as to prevent foreign wars or internal
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129 | seditions, and no such cause was alleged to have existed when Ferdinand and
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130 | Henry VII. arranged the marriage between their children. The dispensation
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131 | had been granted by Pope Julius with reluctance, had been acted upon after
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132 | considerable hesitation, and was of doubtful validity, since the necessary
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133 | conditions were absent. The marriages of kings were determined with little
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134 | reference to the personal affection of the parties. Between Henry and
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135 | Catherine there was probably as much and as little personal attachment as
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136 | there usually is in such cases. He respected and perhaps admired her
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137 | character; but she was not beautiful, she was not attractive, while she was
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138 | as proud and intractable as her mother Isabella. Their union had been
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139 | settled by the two fathers to cement the alliance between England and Spain.
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140 | Such connections rest on a different foundation from those which are
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141 | voluntarily entered into between private persons. What is made up for
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142 | political reasons may pardonably be dissolved when other reasons of a
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143 | similar kind require it; and when it became clear that Catherine could never
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144 | bear another child, that the penalty threatened in the Levitical law against
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145 | marriages of this precise kind had been literally enforced in the death of
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146 | the male offspring, and that civil war was imminent in consequence upon the
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147 | King's death, Henry may have doubted in good faith whether she had ever been
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148 | his wife at all -- whether, in fact, the marriage was not of the character
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149 | which everyone would now allow to attach to similar unions. Had there been a
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150 | Prince of Wales, the question would never have arisen, and Henry, like other
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151 | kings, would have borne his fate. But there was no prince, and the question
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152 | had risen, and there was no reason why it should not. There was no trace at
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153 | the outset of an attachment to another woman. If there had been, there would
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154 | be little to condemn; but Anne Boleyn, when it was first mooted, was no more
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155 | to the King than any other lady of the court. He required a wife who could
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156 | produce a son to secure the succession. The powers which had allowed an
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157 | irregular marriage could equally dissolve it, and the King felt that he had
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158 | a right to demand a familiar concession which other sovereigns had often
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159 | applied for in one form or another, and rarely in vain. </p>
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160 | <p align="left">Thus as early as 1526 certainly, and probably as much as a
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161 | year before, Cardinal Wolsey had been feeling his way at Rome for a
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162 | separation between Henry and Catherine. On September 7 in that year the
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163 | Bishop of Bath, who was English Ambassador at Paris, informed the Cardinal
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164 | of the arrival there of a confidential agent of Pope Clement VII. The agent
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165 | had spoken to the Bishop on this especial subject, and had informed him that
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166 | there would be difficulties about it. The "blessed divorce" -- <i>benedictum
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167 | divorcium</i> the Bishop calls it -- had been already under consideration at
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168 | Rome. The difficulties were not specified, but the political features of the
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169 | time obliged Clement to be circumspect, and it was these that were probably
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170 | referred to. Francis I. had been defeated and taken prisoner by the
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171 | Imperialists at Pavia. He had been carried to Spain, and had been released
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172 | at Henry's intercession, under severe conditions, to which he had
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173 | reluctantly consented, and his sons had been left at Madrid as hostages for
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174 | the due fulfilment of them. The victorious army, half Spanish, half German,
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175 | remained under the Duke of Bourbon to complete the conquest of Italy; and
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176 | Charles V., with his already vast dominions and a treasury which the world
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177 | believed to be inexhaustibly supplied from the gold mines of the New World,
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178 | seemed advancing to universal empire. </p>
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179 | <p align="left">France in the preceding centuries had been the hereditary
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180 | enemy of England; Spain and Burgundy her hereditary friends. The marriage of
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181 | Catherine of Aragon had been a special feature of the established alliance.
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182 | She was given first to Prince Arthur, and then to Henry, as link in the
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183 | confederacy which was to hold in check French ambition. Times were changing.
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184 | Charles V. had been elected emperor, largely through English influence; but
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185 | Charles was threatening to be a more serious danger to Europe than France
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186 | had been. The Italian princes were too weak to resist the conqueror of Pavia.
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187 | Italy once conquered, the Papacy would become a dependency of the empire,
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188 | and, with Charles's German subjects in open revolt against it, the Church
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189 | would lose its authority, and the organisation of the Catholic world would
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190 | fall into hopeless decrepitude. So thought Wolsey, the most sharp-sighted of
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191 | English ministers. He believed that the maintenance of the Papacy was the
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192 | best defence of order and liberty. The only remedy which he could see was a
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193 | change of partners. England held the balance between the great rival powers.
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194 | If the English alliance could be transferred from the Empire to France, the
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195 | Emperor could be held in check, and his supposed ambition neutralised.
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196 | Wolsey was utterly mistaken; but the mistake was not an unnatural one.
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197 | Charles, busy with his Italian wars, had treated the Lutheran schism with
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198 | suspicious forbearance. Notwithstanding his Indian ingots his finances were
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199 | disordered. Bourbon's lansquenets had been left to pay themselves by
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200 | plunder. They had sacked monasteries, pillaged cathedral plate, and ravished
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201 | nuns with irreverent ferocity. The estates of the Church had been as little
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202 | spared by them as Lombardy; and to Clement VII. the invasion was another
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203 | inroad of barbarians, and Bourbon a second Attila. What Bourbon's master
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204 | meant by it, and what he might intend to do, was as uncertain to Clement as
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205 | perhaps it was to Charles himself. In the prostrate, degraded, and desperate
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206 | condition into which the Church was falling, any resolution was possible. To
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207 | the clearest eyes in Europe the Papacy seemed tottering to its fall, and
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208 | Charles's hand, if he chose to raise it, might precipitate the catastrophe.
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209 | To ask a pope at such a time to give mortal offence to the Spanish nation by
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210 | agreeing to the divorce of Catherine of Aragon was to ask him to sign his
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211 | death-warrant. No wonder, therefore, that he found difficulties. Yet it was
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212 | to France and England that Clement had to look for help in his extremities.
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213 | The divorce perhaps had as yet been no more than a suggestion, a part of a
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214 | policy which was still in its infancy. It could wait at any rate for a more
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215 | convenient season. Meantime he sent his secretary, Sanga, to Paris to beg
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216 | aid; and to Henry personally he made a passionate appeal, imploring him not
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217 | to desert the Apostolic See in its hour of extreme need. He apologised for
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218 | his importunacy, but he said he hoped that history would not have to record
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219 | that Italy had been devastated in the time of Clement VII. to the dishonour
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220 | of the King and of Wolsey. If France and England failed him, he would
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221 | himself be ruined. The Emperor would be universal monarch. They would open
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222 | their eyes at last, but they would open them too late. So piteous was the
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223 | entreaty that Henry when he read the Pope's letter burst into tears. Clement
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224 | had not been idle. He had brought his own small army into the field to
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225 | oppose Bourbon; he joined the Italian League, and prepared to defend
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226 | himself. He was called the father of Christendom, yet he was at open war
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227 | with the most Catholic king. But Wolsey reasonably considered that unless
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228 | the Western powers interfered the end would come. </p>
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229 | <p align="left">If England was to act, she could act only in alliance with
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230 | France. The change of policy was ill understood, and was not popular among
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231 | Henry's subjects. The divorce as yet had not been spoken of. No breath of
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232 | such a purpose had gone abroad. But English sentiment was imperial, and
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233 | could endure with equanimity even the afflictions of a pope. The King was
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234 | more papal than his people; he allowed Wolsey to guide him, and negotiations
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235 | were set on foot at once for a special treaty with France, one of the
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236 | conditions of which was to be the marriage of the Princess Mary -- allotted
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237 | like a card in a game -- either to Francis or to one of his sons; another
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238 | condition being that the English crown should be settled upon her should
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239 | Henry die without a legitimate son. Sir John Russell was simultaneously
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240 | despatched to Rome with money to help the Pope in paying his troops and
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241 | garrisoning the city. The ducats and the "kind words" which accompanied them
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242 | "created incredible joy," encouraged his Holiness to reject unjust
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243 | conditions which had been offered, and restored him, if for the moment only,
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244 | "from death to life." If Russell described correctly what he saw in passing
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245 | through Italy, Clement had good cause for anxiety. "The Swabians and
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246 | Spaniards," he wrote, "had committed horrible atrocities. They had burnt
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247 | houses to the value of two hundred million ducats, with all the churches,
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248 | images, and priests that fell into their hands. They had compelled the
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249 | priests and monks to violate the nuns. Even where they were received without
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250 | opposition they had burned the place; they had not spared the boys, and they
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251 | had carried off the girls; and whenever they found the Sacrament of the
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252 | Church they had thrown it into a river or into the vilest place they could
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253 | find. If God did not punish such cruelty and wickedness, men would infer
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254 | that He did not trouble Himself about the affairs of this world."</p>
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255 | <p align="left">The news from Italy gave a fresh impulse to Wolsey's policy
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256 | and the Anglo-French Alliance, which was pushed forward in spite of popular
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257 | disapproval. The Emperor, unable to pay, and therefore unable to control,
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258 | his troops, became himself alarmed. He found himself pressed into a course
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259 | which was stimulating the German revolt against the Papacy, and he professed
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260 | himself anxious to end the war. Inigo de Mendoza, the Bishop of Burgos, was
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261 | despatched to Paris to negotiate for a general pacification. From Paris he
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262 | was to proceed to London to assure Henry of the Emperor's inalienable
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263 | friendship, and above all things to gain over Wolsey by the means which
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264 | experience had shown to be the nearest way to Wolsey's heart. The great
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265 | Cardinal was already Charles's pensionary, but the pension was several years
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266 | in arrear. Mendoza was to tell him not only that the arrears should be
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267 | immediately paid up, but that a second pension should be secured to him on
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268 | the revenues of Milan, and that the Emperor would make him a further grant
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269 | of 6,000 ducats annually out of the income of Spanish bishoprics. No means
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270 | was to be spared to divert the hostility of so dangerous an enemy.</p>
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271 | <p align="left">Wolsey was not to be so easily gained. He had formed large
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272 | schemes which he did not mean to part with, and in the matter of pensions
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273 | Francis I. was as liberal in promises as Charles. The Pope's prospects were
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274 | brightening. Besides the English money, he had improved his finances by
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275 | creating six new cardinals, and making 240,000 crowns out of the disposition
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276 | of these sacred offices. A French embassy, with the Bishop of Tarbes at its
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277 | head, came to England to complete the treaty with Henry in the Pope's
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278 | defence. Demands were to be made upon the Emperor; if those demands were
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279 | refused, war was to follow, and the cement of the alliance was to be the
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280 | marriage of Mary with a French prince. It is likely that other secret
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281 | projects were in view also of a similar kind. The marriage of Henry with
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282 | Catherine had been intended to secure the continuance of the alliance with
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283 | Spain. Royal ladies were the counters with which politicians played; and
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284 | probably enough there were thoughts of placing a French princess in
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285 | Catherine's place. However this may be, the legality of the King's marriage
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286 | with his nominal queen was suddenly and indirectly raised in the discussion
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287 | of the terms of the treaty, when the Bishop of Tarbes inquired whether it
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288 | was certain that Catherine's daughter was legitimate. </p>
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289 | <p align="left">Mr. Brewer, the careful and admirable editor of the "Foreign
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290 | and Domestic Calendar of State Papers," doubts whether the Bishop did
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291 | anything of the kind. I cannot agree with Mr. Brewer. The Bishop of Tarbes
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292 | was among the best-known diplomatists in Europe. He was actively concerned
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293 | during subsequent years in the process of the divorce case in London, in
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294 | Paris, and at Rome. The expressions which he used on this occasion were
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295 | publicly appealed to by Henry in his addresses to the peers and to the
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296 | country, in the public pleas which he laid before the English prelates, in
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297 | the various repeated defences which he made for his conduct. It is
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298 | impossible that the Bishop should have been ignorant of the use which was
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299 | made of his name, and impossible equally to suppose that he would have
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300 | allowed his name to be used unfairly. The Bishop of Tarbes was
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301 | unquestionably the first person to bring the question publicly forward. It
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302 | is likely enough, however, that his introduction of so startling a topic had
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303 | been privately arranged between himself and Wolsey as a prelude to the
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304 | further steps which were immediately to follow. For the divorce had by this
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305 | time been finally resolved on as part of a general scheme for the alteration
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306 | of the balance of power. The domestic reasons for it were as weighty as ever
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307 | were alleged for similar separations. The Pope's hesitation, it might be
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308 | assumed, would now be overcome, since he had flung himself for support upon
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309 | England and France, and his relations with the Emperor could hardly be worse
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310 | than they were. </p>
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311 | <p align="left">The outer world, and even the persons principally concerned,
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312 | were taken entirely by surprise. For the two years during which it had been
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313 | under consideration the secret had been successfully preserved. Not a hint
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314 | had reached Catherine herself, and even when the match had been lighted by
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315 | the Bishop of Tarbes the full meaning of it does not seem to have occurred
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316 | to her. Mendoza, on his arrival in England, had found her disturbed; she was
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317 | irritated at the position which had been given to the Duke of Richmond; she
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318 | was angry, of course, at the French alliance; she complained that she was
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319 | kept in the dark about public affairs; she was exerting herself to the
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320 | utmost among the friends of the imperial connection to arrest Wolsey's
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321 | policy and maintain the ancient traditions; but of the divorce she had not
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322 | heard a word. It was to come upon her like a thunderstroke.</p>
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323 | <p align="left">Before the drama opens a brief description will not be out
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324 | of place of the two persons who were to play the principal parts on the
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325 | stage, as they were seen a year later by Ludovico Falieri, the Venetian
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326 | ambassador in England. Of Catherine his account is brief. </p>
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327 | <p align="left">"The Queen is of low stature and rather stout; very good and
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328 | very religious; speaks Spanish, French, Flemish, and English; more beloved
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329 | by the Islanders than any queen that has ever reigned; about forty-five
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330 | years old, and has been in England thirty years. She has had two sons and
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331 | one daughter. Both the sons died in infancy. One daughter survives." </p>
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332 | <p align="left">On the King, Falieri is more elaborate. </p>
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333 | <p align="left">"In the 8th Henry such beauty of mind and body is combined
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334 | as to surprise and astonish. Grand stature, suited to his exalted position,
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335 | showing the superiority of mind and character; a face like an angel's, so
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336 | fair it is; his head bald like Cæsar's, and he wears a beard, which is not
|
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337 | the English custom. He is accomplished in every manly exercise, sits his
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338 | horse well, tilts with his lance, throws the quoit, shoots with his bow
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339 | excellent well; he is a fine tennis player, and he practises all these gifts
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340 | with the greatest industry. Such a prince could not fail to have cultivated
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341 | also his character and his intellect. He has been a student from his
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342 | childhood; he knows literature, philosophy, and theology; speaks and writes
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343 | Spanish, French, and Italian, besides Latin and English. He is kind,
|
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344 | gracious, courteous, liberal, especially to men of learning, whom he is
|
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345 | always ready to help. He appears religious also, generally hears two masses
|
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346 | a day, and on holy days High Mass besides. He is very charitable, giving
|
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347 | away ten thousand gold ducats annually among orphans, widows, and cripples."</p>
|
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348 | <p align="left">Such was the King, such the Queen, whom fate and the
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349 | preposterous pretensions of the Papacy to dispense with the established
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350 | marriage laws had irregularly mated, and whose separation was to shake the
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351 | European world. Pope Clement complained in subsequent years that the burden
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352 | of decision should have been thrown in the first instance upon himself. If
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353 | the King had proceeded at the outset to try the question in the English
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354 | courts; if a judgment had been given unfavourable to the marriage, and had
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355 | he immediately acted upon it, Queen Catherine might have appealed to the
|
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356 | Holy See; but accomplished facts were solid things. Her case might have been
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357 | indefinitely protracted by legal technicalities till it died of itself. It
|
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358 | would have been a characteristic method of escape out of the difficulty, and
|
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359 | it was a view which Wolsey himself perhaps at first entertained. He knew
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360 | that the Pope was unwilling to take the first step.</p>
|
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361 | <p align="left">On the 17th of May, 1527, after a discussion of the Treaty
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362 | with France, he called a meeting of his Legatine court at York Place.
|
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363 | Archbishop Warham sate with him as assessor. The King attended, and the
|
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364 | Cardinal, having stated that a question had arisen on the lawfulness of his
|
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365 | marriage, enquired whether the King, for the sake of public morals and the
|
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366 | good of his own soul, would allow the objections to be examined into. The
|
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367 | King assented, and named a proctor. The Bull of Julius II. was introduced
|
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368 | and considered. Wolsey declared that in a case so intricate the canon
|
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369 | lawyers must be consulted, and he asked for the opinions of the assembled
|
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370 | bishops. The bishops, one only excepted, gave dubious answers. The aged
|
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371 | Bishop of Rochester, reputed the holiest and wisest of them, said decidedly
|
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372 | that the marriage was good, and the Bull which legalised it sufficient. </p>
|
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373 | <p align="left">These proceedings were not followed up, but the secrecy
|
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374 | which had hitherto been observed was no longer possible, and Catherine and
|
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375 | her friends learnt now for the first time the measure which was in
|
---|
376 | contemplation. Mendoza, writing on the day following the York Place meeting
|
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377 | to the Emperor, informed him, as a fact which he had learnt on reliable
|
---|
378 | authority, that Wolsey, for a final stroke of wickedness, was scheming to
|
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379 | divorce the Queen. She was so much alarmed that she did not venture herself
|
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380 | to speak of it, but it was certain that the lawyers and bishops had been
|
---|
381 | invited to sign a declaration that, being his brother's widow, she could not
|
---|
382 | be the wife of the King. The Pope, she was afraid, might be tempted to take
|
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383 | part against her, or the Cardinal himself might deliver judgment as Papal
|
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384 | Legate. Her one hope was in the Emperor. The cause of the action taken
|
---|
385 | against her was her fidelity to the Imperial interests. Nothing as yet had
|
---|
386 | been made formally public, and she begged that the whole matter might be
|
---|
387 | kept as private as possible.</p>
|
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388 | <p align="left">That the Pope would be willing, if he dared, to gratify
|
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389 | Henry at Charles's expense was only too likely. The German Lutherans and the
|
---|
390 | German Emperor were at the moment his most dangerous enemies. France and
|
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391 | England were the only Powers who seemed willing to assist him, and a week
|
---|
392 | before the meeting of Wolsey's court he had experienced in the most terrible
|
---|
393 | form what the imperial hostility might bring upon him. On the 7th of that
|
---|
394 | same month of May the army of the Duke of Bourbon had taken Rome by storm.
|
---|
395 | The city was given up to pillage. Reverend cardinals were dragged through
|
---|
396 | the streets on mules' backs, dishonoured and mutilated. Convents of nuns
|
---|
397 | were abandoned to the licentious soldiery. The horrors of the capture may
|
---|
398 | have been exaggerated, but it is quite certain that to holy things or holy
|
---|
399 | persons no respect was paid, and that the atrocities which in those days
|
---|
400 | were usually perpetrated in stormed towns were on this occasion eminently
|
---|
401 | conspicuous. The unfortunate Pope, shut up in the Castle of St. Angelo,
|
---|
402 | looked down from its battlements upon scenes so dreadful that it must have
|
---|
403 | appeared as if the Papacy and the Church itself had been overtaken by the
|
---|
404 | final judgment. We regard the Spaniards as a nation of bigots, we consider
|
---|
405 | it impossible that the countrymen of Charles and Philip could have been
|
---|
406 | animated by any such bitterness against the centre of Catholic Christendom.
|
---|
407 | Charles himself is not likely to have intended the humiliation of the Holy
|
---|
408 | See. But Clement had reason for his misgivings, and Wolsey's policy was not
|
---|
409 | without excuse. Lope de Soria was Charles's Minister at Genoa, and Lope de
|
---|
410 | Soria's opinions, freely uttered, may have been shared by many a Catholic
|
---|
411 | besides himself. On the 25th of May, a fortnight after the storm, he wrote
|
---|
412 | to his master the following noticeable letter: -- </p>
|
---|
413 | <p align="left">"The sack of Rome must be regarded as a visitation from God,
|
---|
414 | who permits his servant the Emperor to teach his Vicar on earth and other
|
---|
415 | Christian princes that their wicked purposes shall be defeated, the unjust
|
---|
416 | wars which they have raised shall cease, peace be restored to Christendom,
|
---|
417 | the faith be exalted, and heresy extirpated. . . . Should the Emperor think
|
---|
418 | that the Church of God is not what it ought to be, and that the Pope's
|
---|
419 | temporal power emboldens him to promote war among Christian princes, I
|
---|
420 | cannot but remind your Majesty that it will not be a sin, but a meritorious
|
---|
421 | action, to reform the Church; so that the Pope's authority be confined
|
---|
422 | exclusively to his own spiritual affairs, and temporal affairs to be left to
|
---|
423 | Cæsar, since by right what is God's belongs to God, and what is Cæsar's to
|
---|
424 | Cæsar. I have been twenty-eight years in Italy, and I have observed that the
|
---|
425 | Popes have been the sole cause of all the wars and miseries during that
|
---|
426 | time. Your Imperial Majesty, as Supreme Lord on earth, is bound to apply a
|
---|
427 | remedy to that evil."</p>
|
---|
428 | <p align="left">Heretical English and Germans were not the only persons who
|
---|
429 | could recognise the fitness of the secular supremacy of princes over popes
|
---|
430 | and Churches. Such thoughts must have passed through the mind of Charles
|
---|
431 | himself, and of many more besides him. De Soria's words might have been
|
---|
432 | dictated by Luther or Thomas Cromwell. Had the Emperor at that moment placed
|
---|
433 | himself at the head of the Reformation, all later history would have been
|
---|
434 | different. One statesman at any rate had cause to fear that this might be
|
---|
435 | what was about to happen. Wolsey was the embodiment of everything most
|
---|
436 | objectionable and odious to the laity in the ecclesiastical administration
|
---|
437 | of Europe. To defend the Papacy and to embarrass Charles was the surest
|
---|
438 | method of protecting himself and his order. The divorce was an incident in
|
---|
439 | the situation, but not the least important. Catherine represented the
|
---|
440 | Imperialist interest in England. To put her away was to make the breach with
|
---|
441 | her countrymen and kindred irreparable. He took upon himself to assure the
|
---|
442 | King that after the last outrage the Pope would agree to anything that
|
---|
443 | France and England demanded of him, and would trust to his allies to bear
|
---|
444 | him harmless. That the divorce was a thing reasonable in itself to ask for,
|
---|
445 | and certain to be conceded by any pope who was free to act on his own
|
---|
446 | judgment, was assumed as a matter of course. Sir Gregory Casalis, the
|
---|
447 | English agent at Rome, was instructed to obtain access to Clement in St.
|
---|
448 | Angelo, to convey to him the indignation felt in England at his treatment,
|
---|
449 | and then to insist on the illegality of the King's relations with Catherine,
|
---|
450 | on the King's own scruples of conscience, and on the anxiety of his subjects
|
---|
451 | that there should be a male heir to the crown. The "urgent cause" such as
|
---|
452 | was necessary to be produced when exceptional actions were required of the
|
---|
453 | popes was the imminence or even certainty of civil war if no such heir was
|
---|
454 | born. </p>
|
---|
455 | <p align="left">Catherine meanwhile had again communiated with Mendoza. She
|
---|
456 | had spoken to her husband, and Henry, since further reticence was
|
---|
457 | impossible, had told her that they had been living in mortal sin, and that a
|
---|
458 | separation was necessary. A violent scene had followed, with natural tears
|
---|
459 | and reproaches. The King endeavoured to console her, but it was not a matter
|
---|
460 | where consolation could avail. Wolsey advised him to deal with her gently,
|
---|
461 | till it was seen what the Pope and the King of France would do in the
|
---|
462 | matter. Wolsey himself was to go immediately to Paris to see Francis, and
|
---|
463 | consult with him on the measures necessary to be taken in consequence of the
|
---|
464 | Pope's imprisonment. It was possible that Clement, finding himself helpless,
|
---|
465 | might become a puppet in the Emperor's hands. Under such circumstances he
|
---|
466 | could not be trusted by other countries with the spiritual authority
|
---|
467 | attaching to his office, and schemes were being formed for some interim
|
---|
468 | arrangement by which France and England were to constitute themselves into a
|
---|
469 | separate patriarchate, with Wolsey at its head as Archbishop of Rouen.
|
---|
470 | Mendoza says that this proposal had been actually made to Wolsey by the
|
---|
471 | French Ambassador. In Spain it was even believed to be contemplated as a
|
---|
472 | permanent modification of the ecclesiastical system. The Imperial
|
---|
473 | Councillors at Valladolid told the Venetian Minister that the Cardinal
|
---|
474 | intended to separate the Churches of England and France from that of Rome,
|
---|
475 | saying that as the Pope was a prisoner he was not to be obeyed, and that
|
---|
476 | even if the Emperor released him, he still would not be free unless his
|
---|
477 | fortresses and territory now in the Emperor's hands were restored to him.
|
---|
478 | Wolsey had reason for anxiety, for Catherine and Mendoza were writing to the
|
---|
479 | Emperor insisting that he should make the Pope revoke Wolsey's Legatine
|
---|
480 | powers. </p>
|
---|
481 | <p align="left">In spite of efforts to keep secret the intended divorce, it
|
---|
482 | soon became known thoughout England. The Queen was personally popular. The
|
---|
483 | nation generally detested France, and looked on the Emperor as their
|
---|
484 | hereditary friend. The reasons for the divorce might influence statesmen,
|
---|
485 | but did not touch the body of the people. They naturally took the side of an
|
---|
486 | injured wife, and if Mendoza can be believed (and there is no reason why he
|
---|
487 | should not be believed), the first impression was decidedly unfavourable to
|
---|
488 | a project which was regarded as part of the new policy. Mendoza made the
|
---|
489 | most of the opposition. He told the Emperor that if six or seven thousand
|
---|
490 | men were landed in Cornwall, forty thousand Englishmen would rise and join
|
---|
491 | them. He saw Wolsey -- he reasoned with him, and when he found reason
|
---|
492 | ineffectual, he named the bribe which the Emperor was willing to give.
|
---|
493 | Knowing what Francis was bidding, he baited his hook more liberally. He
|
---|
494 | spoke of the Papacy: "how the chair was now in the Emperor's hands, and the
|
---|
495 | Emperor, if Wolsey deserved it, would no doubt promote his elevation." The
|
---|
496 | glittering temptation was unavailing. The papal chair had been Wolsey's
|
---|
497 | highest ambition, but he remained unmoved. He said that he had served the
|
---|
498 | Emperor in the past out of disinterested regard. He still trusted that the
|
---|
499 | Emperor would replace the Pope and restore the Church. Mendoza's answer was
|
---|
500 | not reassuring to an English statesman. He said that both the spiritual and
|
---|
501 | temporal powers were now centred in his master, and he advised Wolsey, if he
|
---|
502 | desired an arrangement, to extend his journey from France, go on to Spain,
|
---|
503 | and see the Emperor in person. It was precisely this centering which those
|
---|
504 | who had charge of English liberties had a right to resent. Divorce or no
|
---|
505 | divorce, they could not allow a power possessed of so much authority in the
|
---|
506 | rest of Christendom to be the servant of a single prince. The divorce was
|
---|
507 | but an illustration of the situation, and such a Papacy as Mendoza
|
---|
508 | contemplated would reduce England and all Catholic Europe into fiefs of the
|
---|
509 | Empire. </p>
|
---|
510 | </font>
|
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511 | <font face="Times New Roman" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
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512 | <hr>
|
---|
513 | <p align="left"><font size="2">From <i>The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon:
|
---|
514 | The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry
|
---|
515 | VIII</i> by J.A. Froude. Published in New York by C. Scribner's Sons,
|
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516 | 1891.</font></p>
|
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517 | </blockquote>
|
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518 | </blockquote>
|
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519 |
|
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520 | <p align="center"><font size="2">
|
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521 | <a href="froudetwo.html">to Chapter Two</a></font></p>
|
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522 | <p align="center"><a href="secondary.html">
|
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523 | <font size="2">to Secondary Sources</font></a></p>
|
---|
524 | <p align="center">
|
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525 | <a href="monarchs/aragon.html"><font size="2">to
|
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526 | Katharine of Aragon website</font></a></p>
|
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527 | </font>
|
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528 | <blockquote>
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529 | <blockquote>
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530 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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531 | <font face="Times New Roman">
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532 | </font><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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533 | </font>
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534 | <p class="3text" align="left"> </p>
|
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535 | </font>
|
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536 | </blockquote>
|
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537 | </blockquote>
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538 |
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539 | </body>
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540 |
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