ailing to move him,
he abandoned the Catholic faith, and established an independent
Protestant church in England, whose supreme authority _would_ annul the
marriage. Thus, in a great measure, came the Reformation in England.
The Catholics reproach us, and, it must be confessed, with some justice,
with the ignominiousness of its origin.

The course which things thus took created a great deal of delay in the
formal annulling of the marriage with Catharine, which Henry was too
impatient and imperious to bear. He would not wait for the decree of
divorce, but took Anne Boleyn for his wife before his previous
connection was made void. He said he was privately married to her. This
he had, as he maintained, a right to do, for he considered his first
marriage as void, absolutely and of itself, without any decree. When, at
length, the decree was finally passed, he brought Anne Boleyn forward as
his queen, and introduced her as such to England and to the world by a
genuine marriage and a most magnificent coronation. The people of
England pitied poor Catharine, but they joined very cordially,
notwithstanding, in welcoming the youthful and beautiful lady who was to
take her place. All London gave itself up to festivities and rejoicings
on the occasion of these nuptials. Immediately after this the young
queen retired to her palace in Greenwich, and in two or three months
afterward little Elizabeth was born. Her birth-day was the 7th of
September, 1533.

The mother may have loved the babe, but Henry himself was sadly
disappointed that his child was not a son. Notwithstanding her sex,
however, she was a personage of great distinction from her very birth,
as all the realm looked upon her as heir to the crown. Henry was
himself, at this time, very fond of Anne Boleyn, though his feelings
afterward were entirely changed. He determined on giving to the infant a
very splendid christening. The usage in the Church of England is to make
the christening of a child not merely a solemn religious ceremony, but a
great festive occasion of congratulations and rejoicing. The unconscious
subject of the ceremony is taken to the church. Certain near and
distinguished friends, gentlemen and ladies, appear as godfathers and
godmothers, as they are termed, to the child. They, in the ceremony, are
considered as presenting the infant for consecration to Christ, and as
becoming responsible for its future initiation into the Christian faith.
They are hence s