Church with being guilty of the same crime of
which Wolsey had been accused (S346). The clergy, in their terror,
made haste to buy a pardon at a cost reckoned at nearly $5,000,000 at
the present value of money.

They furthermore declared Henry to be the supreme head on earth of the
Church of England, adroitly adding, "in so far as is permitted by the
law of Christ." Thus the Reformation came into England "by a side
door, as it were." Nevertheless, it came.

349. Henry marries Anne Boleyn; Act of Supremacy, 1534.

Events now moved rapidly toward a crisis. In 1533, after having
waited over five years, Henry privately married Anne Boleyn (S343),
and she was soon after crowned in Westminster Abbey. When the Pope
was informed of this, he ordered the King, under pain of
excommunication (S194), to put her away, and to take back Queen
Catharine (S345).

Parliament met that demand by passing the Act of Supremacy, 1534,
which declared Henry to be without reservation the sole head of the
Church, making denial thereof high treason.[1] As he signed the act,
the King with one stroke of his pen overturned the traditions of a
thousand years, and England stood boldly forth with a National Church
independent of the Pope.[2]

[1] Henry's full title was now "Henry VIII, by the Grace of God, King
of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the
Church of England, and also of Ireland, on earth the Supreme Head."
[2] Attention is called to the fact that a controversy, more or less
serious in its character, had been going on, at intervals for nearly
five hundred years, between the English sovereigns (or the barons) and
the popes. It began with William the Conqueror in 1076 (S118). It
was continued by Henry I (S136), by Henry II (SS163-170), by John
(S194), by the barons under Henry III (S211), by the Parliament of
Merton (S211), by Edward I (S226), and it may be said to have
practically culminated under Henry VIII in the Act of Supremacy of
1534 (S349). But after the formal establishment of Protestantism by
Edward VI in 1549 (S362) we find the Act of Supremacy reaffirmed, in
slightly different form, by Queen Elizabeth in 1559 (S382). Finally,
the Revolution of 1688 settled the question (S497).

350. Subserviency of Parliament.

But as Luther said, Henry had a pope within him. The King now
proceeded to prove the truth of Luther's declaration. We have already
seen (S328) that since the Wars of the Roses had