t your Majesty has consented to the
marriage."

CHAPTER XIII.

The King's claim--The obstinacy of Catherine--The Court at Dunstable--
Judgment given by Cranmer--Debate in the Spanish Council of State--
Objections to armed interference--The English opposition--Warning given to
Chapuys--Chapuys and the Privy Council--Conversation with Cromwell--
Coronation of Anne Boleyn--Discussions at Rome--Bull _supra Attentatis_--
Confusion of the Catholic Powers--Libels against Henry--Personal history
of Cromwell--Birth of Elizabeth--The King's disappointment--Bishop Fisher
desires the introduction of a Spanish army into England--Growth of
Lutheranism.

If circumstances can be imagined to justify the use of the dispensing
power claimed and exercised by the Papacy, Henry VIII. had been entitled
to demand assistance from Clement VII. in the situation in which he had
found himself with Catherine of Aragon. He had been committed when little
more than a boy, for political reasons, to a marriage of dubious legality.
In the prime of his life he found himself fastened to a woman eight years
older than himself; the children whom she had borne to him all dead,
except one daughter; his wife past the age when she could hope to be again
a mother; the kingdom with the certainty of civil war before it should the
King die without a male heir. In hereditary monarchies, where the
sovereign is the centre of the State, the interests of the nation have to
be considered in the arrangements of his family. Henry had been married
irregularly to Catherine to strengthen the alliance between England and
Spain. When, as a result, a disputed succession and a renewal of the civil
wars was seen to be inevitable, the King had a distinct right to ask to be
relieved of the connection by the same irregular methods. The _causa
urgentissima_, for which the dispensing power was allowed, was present in
the highest degree, and that power ought to have been made use of. That it
was not made use of was due to a control exerted upon the Pope by the
Emperor, whose pride had been offended; and that such an influence could
be employed for such a purpose vitiated the tribunal which had been
trusted with a peculiar and exceptional authority. The Pope had not
concealed his conviction that the demand was legitimate in itself, or
that, in refusing, he was yielding to intimidation, and the inevitable
consequences had followed. Royal persons who receive from birth and
station