make the Princess Mary a bastard, for the
cognisance of cases concerning legitimacy belonged
to ecclesiastical judges"; to which Henry replied
that "he did not care for all the canons which
might be alleged, as he preferred his laws
according to which he should have illegitimacy
judged by lay judges who could also take cognisance
of matrimonial causes".]

[Footnote 756: _L. and P._, iv., 5925.]

[Footnote 757: _Ibid._, iv., 6325.]

[Footnote 758: _Ibid._, iv., 6385.]

[Footnote 759: The net result at the time was a
royal proclamation promising an authorised version
of the Scriptures in English "if the people would
come to a better mind" (_L. and P._, iv., 6487).]

[Footnote 760: _L. and P._, v., App. 7.]

[Footnote 761: _Ibid._, v., 148, 850.]

But, however Lutheran Anne Boleyn may have been, Henry was still true
to the orthodox faith. If he dallied with German princes, and held out
hopes to his heretic subjects, it was not because he believed in the
doctrines of either, but because both might be made to serve his own
ends. He rescued Crome from the flames, not because he doubted or
favoured Crome's heresy, but because Crome appealed from the Church to
the King, and denied the papal supremacy; that, said Henry, is not
heresy, but truth.[762] When he sent to Oxford for the articles on
which Wycliffe had been condemned,[763] it was not to study the great
Reformer's doctrine of the mass, but to discover Wycliffe's reasons
for calling upon the State to purify a corrupt Church, and to digest
his arguments against the temporal wealth of the clergy. When he
lauded the reforms effected by the German princes he was thinking of
their secularisation of ecclesiastical revenues. The spoliation (p. 275)
of the Church was consistent with the most fervent devotion to its
tenets. In 1531 Henry warned the Pope that the Emperor would probably
allow the laity "to appropriate the possessions of the Church, which
is a matter which does not touch the foundations of the faith; and
what an example this will afford to others, it is easy to see".[764]
Henry managed to improve upon Charles's example in this respect. "He
meant,"