ment
forbade by statute any further appeals to the papal court; and on a
petition from the clergy in convocation the houses granted power to the
King to suspend the payments of first-fruits, or the year's revenue
which each bishop paid to Rome on his election to a see. All judicial,
all financial connection with the papacy was broken by these two
measures. The last, indeed, was as yet but a menace which Henry might
use in his negotiations with Clement. The hope which had been
entertained of aid from Charles was now abandoned; and the overthrow of
Norfolk and his policy of alliance with the Empire was seen at the
midsummer of 1532 in the conclusion of a league with France. Cromwell
had fallen back on Wolsey's system; and the divorce was now to be looked
for from the united pressure of the French and English kings on the
papal court.

But the pressure was as unsuccessful as before. In November Clement
threatened the King with excommunication if he did not restore Catherine
to her place as queen and abstain from all intercourse with Anne Boleyn
till the case was tried. But Henry still refused to submit to the
judgment of any court outside his realm; and the Pope, ready as he was
with evasion and delay, dared not alienate Charles by consenting to a
trial within it. The lavish pledges which Francis had given in an
interview during the preceding summer may have aided to spur the King to
a decisive step which closed the long debate. At the opening of 1533
Henry was privately married to Anne Boleyn. The match, however, was
carefully kept secret while the papal sanction was being gained for the
appointment of Cranmer to the see of Canterbury, which had become vacant
by Archbishop Warham's death in the preceding year. But Cranmer's
consecration at the close of March was the signal for more open action,
and Cromwell's policy was at last brought fairly into play.

The new primate at once laid the question of the King's marriage before
the two houses of convocation, and both voted that the license of Pope
Julius had been beyond the papal powers and that the marriage which it
authorized was void. In May the King's suit was brought before the
Archbishop in his court at Dunstable; his judgment annulled the marriage
with Catherine as void from the beginning, and pronounced the marriage
with Anne Boleyn, which her pregnancy had forced Henry to reveal, a
lawful marriage. A week later the hand of Cranmer placed upon Anne's
brow the crown