ENG] 
but ferved God as diligently as I have ferved the king, 
he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. But 
this is the juft reward that I muft receive for my indul¬ 
gent pains and ftudy, not regarding my fervice to God, 
but only to my prince.” He died November 39, 1530 ; 
and left two natural children, one of whom, being a 
prieft, was loaded with church preferments. 
Henry thus freed from the controul of a perfon who 
had for fome time been an obftacle to his views, he, by 
Cranmer’s advice, had the legality of his marriage can- 
vaffed in all the noted univerfities of Europe. It was 
very extraordinary to fee the king of England on one fidy 
foliciting the univerfities to be favourable to his paftion; 
and, on the other, the emperor of Germany preftingthem 
with equal ardour to be favourable to his aunt. Henry 
liberally revvarded thofe who declared on his fide; and 
the emperor granted benefices to fuch as voted in con¬ 
formity to his willies. Time has completely developed 
thefe intrigues'. In this conteft the liberalities, and con- 
fequently the votes, of Henry prevailed. All the col¬ 
leges of Italy and France unanimoufiy declared his mar¬ 
riage with Catharine to have been repugnant to all law 
divine and human ; and therefore alleged, that it was 
not in the power of the pope himfelf to grant a difpen- 
fation. The only places where this decilion was mod 
warmly oppofed, were at Oxford and Cambridge : but 
they alfo finally concurred in the fame opinion. But the 
agents of Henry were not content with the fuffrages of 
the univerfities alone; the opinions of the Jewilh rab- 
bies were alfo demanded, becaufe their fuffrages were 
eafily bought up. 
Henry, thus fupported by the.fuffrages of the univer¬ 
fities, was refolved to oppofe even the pope himfelf, and 
began in parliament by reviving an oid law againft the 
clergy, by which it was decreed, that all thofe who had 
fubmitted to the legatine authority, had incurred fevere 
penalties. The clergy, to conciliate the king’s favour, 
were obliged to pay a fine of n8,oool. A confeflion was 
likewife extorted from them, that the king alone was the 
protedtor and fupreme head of the church and the clergy 
of England. By thefe conceftions a great part of the 
profits, and ftill more of the power, of the church of 
Rome was cut off. An aft was alfo palled againft levy¬ 
ing the firft fruits, or a year’s rent, of all the bifhcprics 
that fell vacant. The tie that held Henry to the church 
being thus broken, he determined to keep no further 
meafures with the pontiff. He therefore privately mar¬ 
ried Anna Boleyn, whom he had created marchionefs of 
Pembroke ; the duke of Norfolk, uncle to the new queen, 
her father, mother, and dodtor Cranmer, being all pre- 
fent at the ceremony. Soon after, finding the queen 
pregnant, he publicly acknowledged his marriage, and, 
to give his renunciation of the pope an appearance of tri¬ 
umph, he paffed with his beautiful bride throng^ Lon¬ 
don, with a magnificence greater than had ever been 
known before. The ftreets were ftrewed with flowers, 
the walls of the houfes were hung with tapeftries, the 
conduits ran with wine, and an univerfal joy pervaded 
all ranks of the people, who were more pleafed with the 
feftivity,- than folicitous about the motives of it. Catha¬ 
rine, who had all along fupported her claims with refo- 
lution, and yet with modefty, was cited to a trial; but, 
refilling to appear, (lie was pronounced contumacious, 
and judgment given againft the validity of her marriage 
with the king. At length, finding the inutility of fur¬ 
ther reliftance, (lie retired to Ampthill, near Dunftable, 
were (lie wore out the reft of her life in privacy and 
peace. 
In the mean time, this intelligence had no fooner reach¬ 
ed the court of Rome, than the conclave was in commo¬ 
tion ; and the pope, incited by their ardour, and terrified 
by the menaces of the emperor, publifhed a bull, declar¬ 
ing queen Catharine alone to be Henry’s lawful wife ; and 
requiring him to take her again, with a denunciation of 
cenfures in cafe of a refufal. On the other hand, Henry, 
Vol. VI. No. 379. 
1 A N D. 637 
finding his fubjefts had taken part with him, and willing 
to break the papal yoke, refolved no longer to renew 
thefe fubmiffions, which had never been in their power 
to extort. The people had been prepared by degrees 
for this great innovation: care had been taken for fome 
years to inculcate the doftrine, that the pope Was en¬ 
titled to no authority beyond the limits of iiis own dio- 
cefe. The king, therefore, no longer hefitated. The 
parliament was at his devotion ; the majority of the clergy 
was for him, as they had already declared againft the pope, 
by decreeing in favour of the divorce; and the people, 
above all, wiflied to fee the church humbled, which had 
fo long controuled them, and grown opulent by their la¬ 
bours and diftrefles. Thus all things confpiririg to co¬ 
operate with his defigns, he ordered himfelf to be de¬ 
clared by bis clergy the fupreme head of the church, 
A. D. 1534; the parliament confirmed, the title, abolilhed 
all authority of the pope in England, voted till tributes 
formerly paid to the holy fee as illegal, and entrufied 
the king with the collation to all ecclefiaftical benefices. 
The nation came into the king’s meafures with joy, and 
now firft took an oath, called the oath of fupremacy ; all 
the credit of the pope, that ■ had fubfifted for ages, was 
at once overthrown, and none feemed to'repine at the re¬ 
volution, except thofe who were immediately interefted 
by their dependence on the court of Rome. 
But, though Henry had thus feparated from the papal 
church, yet he not attached himfelf to the fyltem of any 
reformer. The young queen, however, engaged by in- 
tereft as well as inclination, favoured the caufe of Lu¬ 
ther. Thomas Cromwell, who, from being a creature of 
Wolfey, and who, by an admirable defence of the con¬ 
duct of his old mafter, had been taken into the confi¬ 
dence of the king, embraced the fame views. Being a 
man of prudence and ability, he was very fuccefsful in 
promoting the reformation, though in a concealed man¬ 
ner. Cranmer, who was now become archbifhop of Can¬ 
terbury, had all along adopted the proteftant tenets, and 
had gained Henry’s friendfhip by his candour and fince- 
rity. On the other hand, the duke of Norfolk adhered 
to the old mode of worfhip ; and, by the greatnefs of his 
rank, as well as by his talents for peace and war, he had 
great weight in the king’s council. Gardiner, lately cre¬ 
ated biftiop of Winchefter, had enlifted himfelf in the 
fame party ; and the fupplenefs of his character, and the 
dexterity of his conduct, had rendered him extremely 
ufeful to it. The king, mean while, who held the ba¬ 
lance between thefe contending factions, was enabled, by 
the courtlhip paid him by both proteftants and catholics, 
to affume an irnmeafiirable authority. Yet, as the minds 
of thofe who were of oppofite fentiments, were extremely 
exafperated with each other, it naturally followed that 
feveral muft fall a facrifice in the conteft between ancient 
eftabliftiments and modern reformation. The reformers 
were the firft exhibited as unhappy fpeftacles of the vin¬ 
dictive fury of thofe who fupported ancient fuperftitions. 
James Bainhum, a gentleman of the Temple, being ac- 
cufed of favouring the doftrines of Luther, had been 
brought before fir Thomas More during his chancellor- 
fliip ; and, after being put to the torture, was condemned 
as a heretic, and burnt in Smithfield. Thomas Bilney, 
a prieft, had embraced the new doftrine ; but, being ter¬ 
rified into an abjuration, he was fo flung with remorfe, 
that he went into Norfolk, publicly recanting, and ex- 
pofing the errors of popery. He alfo was feized, tried 
in the bilhop’s court, condemned, and burnt. On thq 
other hand, Henry was not remifs in punilbing thofe who 
dared to call in queftion the propriety of his late defec¬ 
tion from Ro'me ; and the monks, as they luffered mod 
by the reformation, fo they were the moft free to the 
royal refentment. To bring them more readily to punifn- 
ment, the parliament had made it capital to deny the 
king’s fupremacy over the church ; and many ecclefiaf- 
tics loft their lives by this new l'pecies of crime. But of 
all who fell a facrifice to this law, none are fo much to 
