ter's _Cranmer_, p. 24
_n._).]

Matrimonial discords have, from the days of Helen of Troy, been the
fruitful source of public calamities; and one of the most decisive
events in English history, the breach with the Church of Rome, found
its occasion in the divorce of Catherine of Aragon. Its origin has
been traced to various circumstances. On one hand, it is attributed to
Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn, on the other, to doubts of the
validity of Henry's marriage, raised by the Bishop of Tarbes in 1527,
while negotiating a matrimonial alliance between the Princess Mary and
Francis I. These are the two most popular theories, and both are
demonstrably false.[490] Doubts of the legality of Henry's marriage
had existed long before the Bishop of Tarbes paid his visit to
England, and even before Anne Boleyn was born. They were urged, not
only on the eve of the completion of the marriage, but when it was
first suggested. In 1503, when Henry VII. applied to Julius II. for a
dispensation to enable his second son to marry his brother's (p. 174)
widow, the Pope replied that "the dispensation was a great matter; nor
did he well know, _prima facie_, if it were competent for the Pope to
dispense in such a case".[491] He granted the dispensation, but the
doubts were not entirely removed. Catherine's confessor instilled them
into her mind, and was recalled by Ferdinand on that account. The
Spanish King himself felt it necessary to dispel certain "scruples of
conscience" Henry might entertain as to the "sin" of marrying his
brother's widow.[492] Warham and Fox debated the matter, and Warham
apparently opposed the marriage.[493] A general council had pronounced
against the Pope's dispensing power;[494] and, though the Popes had,
in effect, established their superiority over general councils, those
who still maintained the contrary view can hardly have failed to doubt
the legality of Henry's marriage.

[Footnote 490: See, besides the original
authorities cited in this chapter, Busch, _Der
Ursprung der Ehescheidung Koenig Heinrichs VIII._
(Hist. Taschenbuch, Leipzig, VI., viii., 271-327).]

[Footnote 491: _L. and P._, iv., 5773; Pocock,
_Records of the Reformation_, i., 1.]

[Footnote 492: _Sp. Cal._, vol. ii., Pref., p.
xiv., No. 8.]

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