"1 to determine the cause, "not doubting but that ye will have God and the justice of the said cause only before your eyes, and not regard any earthly or worldly affection therein. For assuredly the thing we most covet in this world is so to proceed in all our acts and doings as may be most acceptable to the pleasure of Almighty God, our Creator, and to the wealth, honour of us, our succession and posterity, and the surety of our realms and subjects within the same.' Considering that the king had been some time married to his second wife when he wrote this, it would be hard to find a more solemn piece of hypocrisy than this letter. We have Cranmer's own account of the way in which he carried out the king's license to determine the cause. "After the Convocation had determined in this matter, and agreed according to the former consent of the universities, it was thought convenient by the king and his learned counsel that I should repair unto Dunstable, which is within four miles unto Ampthill, where the said Lady Katherine keepeth her house, and there to call her before me, to hear the final sentence in this matter. Notwithstanding, she would not at all obey thereunto, for when she was by Doctor Lee called to appear to a day, she utterly refused the same, saying that inasmuch as her cause was before the pope, she would have none other judge, and therefore would not take me for her judge. Nevertheless, the 8th day of May, according to the said appointment, I came unto Dunstable, my Lord of Lincoln being assistant unto me, and my Lord of Winchester (Gardiner), Doctors Bell, Claybroke, Trygonnell, Hewes, Oliver, Brytten, Mr. Bedell, with divers others learned in the law, being counsellors in the law for the king's part; and so these at our coming kept a court for the appearance of the said Lady Katherine, where were examined certain witness, which testified that she was lawfully cited and called to appear, who for fault of appearance was declared contumax; proceeding in the said cause against her in pœnam contumuciæ, as the process of the law thereunto belongeth, which continued fifteen days after our coming thither; and the morrow after Ascension Day I gave final sentence therein, how that it was indispensable for the pope to license any such marriages.' The king was immediately informed by a special messenger of the divorce having been pronounced, at which it may be supposed he was duly gratified. A letter from Bedell, one of the counsel to Crumwell, illus 1 State Papers of Henry VIII. i. 393. 2 Cranmer to Archdeacon Hawkyns; Cranmer's Works, i. 244 (Park. Soc.) For the actual terms in which the marriage was annulled, see Notes and Illustrations. trates somewhat amusingly the irony of the whole proceeding "I trust the process here shall be somewhat shorter than it was devised before the king's grace. All that be here study to make things consonant to the law as far as the matter will suffer. My lord of Canterbury handleth himself very well and very uprightly, without any evident cause of suspicion to be noted in him of the counsel of the said Lady Katherine, if she had any present here." Happily for those engaged in the matter, there were no counsel of the Lady Catherine to comment on the proceedings. There was nothing so much dreaded by the judges as lest some such should appear. Cranmer writes to Crumwell-" If the said Lady Catherine should be moved, stirred, or persuaded to appear before me in the time or afore the time of sentence, I should be therefore greatly stayed and let in the process, and the king's grace's counsel here present shall be much uncertain what shall be then further done herein." § 33. It only remains to note the way in which the unfortunate lady, thus expelled from her wifely condition, her dignity, and title, received the intelligence. Lord Mountjoy, her chamberlain, with others joined with him, was appointed to communicate it to her. She would not grant them audience till the 3d of July, and received them lying on her couch, as she had injured her foot. When they read from their instructions the words, "Princess Dowager" (which it was ordered that she should henceforth be called), she said she was no princess dowager, but the queen, and the king's lawful wife, and that she would vindicate and challenge the name of queen all her life. She was then told that the king had married the Lady Anne, who had been anointed and crowned queen, to which she answered, that all the world knew how that was done; much more by power than by justice. She had never been divorced, as her cause was still before the pope. As for the universities, "it was well known that they were procured by merit ;" and as to the assent of the lords and commons she said, “The king may do in his realm by his royal power what he will." As for her possessions she cared not for them ; she would make no disturbance in the realm, nor attempt to court the favour of the people should they be against her. "Yet she trusted to go to heaven; for it was not for the favour of the people, nor yet for any trouble or adversity that could be devised for her, she would lose the favour of God." It was not for any vainglory that she refused to abandon the name of queen, but only for the discharge of her conscience to declare herself the 1 State Papers, i. 395. 2 Cranmer's Works, i. 242. king's true wife; and "neither for her daughter, family, possession, nor any worldly adversity or displeasure that might ensue, would she yield in this cause to put her soul in danger;" alleging the words of the gospel, that they should not be feared which have power of the body, but He only that hath power of the soul. She required all who were present to bear record that she there affirmed upon her soul that she was the king's true wife "until she was declared to be otherwise by the pope and the college of cardinals." The next day, the queen desiring to see the report which the commissioners were going to make of her, spoke somewhat more warmly: "She had always demeaned herself well and truly towards the king, and if it can be proved that she hath either stirred or procured anything against his grace, she is willing to suffer for it; but if she should agree to our motions and persuasions she should be a slanderer of herself, and confess to have been the king's traitor these twenty-four years, in which she should do such offence against God and her conscience, that no priest then, nor yet her ghostly father, could dispense herewith." She scoffed at "the Bishop of Canterbury" as a man of the king's own making,” and at the king's claim as supremum caput ecclesiæ," but finally begged that nothing in her words might be taken against her, as she was no English woman, but a Spaniard born, and no counsel there to assist her."2 Such were the touching and dignified utterances with which this unfortunate lady retired from the long and harassing trial which had been forced upon her, which she in no way deserved, and throughout which she had carried herself with unfailing dignity. Doubtless it was no small consolation to Catherine that the pope, on hearing of Cranmer's proceedings, immediately pronounced their nullity, and threatened the king with excommunication; and at length (March 23, 1534) solemnly issued a decree exactly contrary to that of Cranmer, declaring the marriage to be legitimate, and that Henry could have no other lawful wife so long as Catherine lived.3 The unfortunate queen survived the dissolution of her marriage about three years. She retired to Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire, where she passed her time in great devotion and austerity, and died in January 1536, in the fifty-third year of her age. 66 § 34. Within a week after the sentence at Dunstable, Cranmer pronounced at Lambeth the validity of the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and after gorgeous processions and pageants in the city of London on Whitsunday (June 1, 1533), Cranmer assisted For the text of this decree, see Notes and Illustrations. at the ceremony of her coronation, six other bishops, numerous abbots and priors, and a large number of nobles, assisting in the splendid ceremonial and festivities. On September 5, 1533, the Princess Elizabeth was born, and the archbishop acted as godfather at her baptism.1 1 Cranmer's Works, i. 245. Herbert's Henry VIII. (ap. Kennett), ii. 169. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A) EARLY LIFE OF ANNE Scarcely any subject has been more misrepresented by historians than the early life of Anne Boleyn. The following is abridged from Mr. Brewer's account of her, he being the best authority for the reign of Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn was born in 1507, being the second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn of Blickling, Norfolk, knight, and the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. She was thus by her mother's side descended from the proudest family of England. Her father was employed as ambassador to France, and took with him his daughter Anne to that country when she was about fifteen. Her stay would not seem to have been long, for she was in England in the year 1522. This sufficiently confutes the monstrous lies heaped together against her by Sanders. She thus became first known at the English court when she was about sixteen. Her beauty and grace caused a great sensation. She was of dark complexion, with wonderful eyes, and long black hair of exquisite softness. There had been a negotiation, in which the king and cardinal had taken part, for betrothing her to Sir Piers Butler, in order to reconcile the conflicting claims of the Butlers and Boleyns to the earldom of Ormond. Anne's grandmother was an Ormond. But the negotiation never came to a final issue. Anne had numerous admirers in the English court, among whom the king was soon to be counted. She was an accomplished musician and dancer, and still more remarkable for her grace than her beauty. There was a sort of rivalry between Sir Thomas Wyat and the king, as to who should be her chosen knight, in which, as might be expected, the king proved victorious. There was certainly no contract of marriage between Anne and the Lord Percy, as alleged by Cavendish, though there probably may have been some love-making. Anne, 1 fact, was a lively and fascinating coquette, attracting all more or less, but especially exercising her fascination on the king. "Whether it was the contrast between her and Catherine that piqued his fancy, or whether from idle gallantry he fell into more serious passion, the fascination that Anne exercised over him was complete."-(Brewer.) There could not, however, have been anything specially marked in the king's devotion to her before 1525, if (as is supposed), Wolsey in that year thought that the king might take to wife the Duchess of Alençon. It was probably not till 1526 that the cardinal became aware of the real strength of Henry's passion for Anne, and then, if Cavendish may be trusted, he went on his knees to the king, to dissuade him from trying to make her his wife. This wouid fully account for the hostility which Anne and her family always entertained towards the cardinal. Anne seems to have played the rôle of coquette with consummate skill. Often the king was reduced to despair by her suddenly quitting court, or by some unexpected slight and coldness. She thus caused him to commit to writing distinct promises that he would marry her. With regard to the point to which their intimacy advanced before marriage. Mr. Brewer, we think, says most judiciously, "She was not a woman of any high principle, but, like her father, she was not deficient in worldly wisdom and ambition. That she loved the king at any time is questionable-that she would stoop to his advances, as others had done, and throw away her chances of an honourable marriage, was not to be expected." This, however, is intimately connected with the point discussed in the next section. (B) DATE OF THE MARRIAGE OF HENRY AND ANNE BOLEYN. The older chroniclers (Hall, p. 794), make the king to have been married to Anne Boleyn privately by Roland Lee on Nov. 14, 1532, being St. Erkenwuld's day. This is also distinctly asserted by Sanders (De Schismate Anglic. p. 60.) Cranmer, however, in a letter to Archdeacon Hawkins, says that they were married "much about St. Paul's day." This has been generally supposed to mean Jan. 25, the day in the calendar of the Apostle Paul. Mr. Pocock, an able critic of the history of these times, says, "This is a very loose expression, and even if Cranmer was not designedly vague, his testimony is not worth much. It is yet possible that Sanders' story of the marriage having taken place on Nov. 14, 1552, may be true, though it has been thought that this date has been assigned to it in order to save Anne Boleyn's reputation." (Records of Reformation, Introduction, p. xxvi.) Certainly this motive would have no power with Sanders. It is probable, however, that Cranmer's expression, "much about St. Paul's day," and the date of the chroriclers, "the feast of St. Erkenwuld " may be reconciled, and that in fact they mean the same thing. St. Erkenwuld's day was kept with great ceremony and observance at St. Paul's Church. St. Erkenwuld was a canonised bishop of London. In the year 1386 a decree was published by Robert, Bishop of London, ordering special honour to be done to this festival, appointing collects to be said at the office of the mass, and granting forty days' indulgence to those who assisted at the celebration. — (Wilkins' Concil. iii. 196.) May it not have been the custom to describe this festival day at St. Paul's as "St. Paul's day," and may not Cranmer have meant this day? (C) EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS THOMAS CRANMER was born at Aslacton, Notts, July 2, 1484. He was the second F son, and had two brothers and four sisters. His father was a country gentleman of good property. Cranmer was sent, when a boy, to a school where a very severe master so ill-treated him, that his secretary, Ralph Morice, says he never fully recovered the effects. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Cambridge, and became a member of Jesus College, of which society he was afterwards fellow. He was much addicted to field sports, and does not appear to have gained any special eminence at the university. Dr. Hook, his latest biographer, thinks that he had chosen the study of the law for his profession. He married, while still a layman, the daughter or niece of an innkeeper, who died before the expiration of his year of grace, so that he was reinstated in his fellowship. In the year 1523 he entered holy orders, and was soon after made Doctor of Divinity. Cardinal Wolsey is said to have invited him with other Cambridge men to his new college at Oxford, but this Cranmer declined. Mr. Brewer asserts (we are not aware upon what evidence) that Cranmer was chaplain to Lord Rochford, and tutor to Anne Boleyn. He also thinks it probable that he was early employed in the negotiations for the divorce, and was sent to Rome with the draft of a new dispensation forwarded to Dr. Knight. It was during the prevalence of the sweating sickness, when all who could retreated from the towns, that Cranmer was acting as tutor to the sons of Mr. Cressy, when he met with Gardiner and Fox, and was introduced to the king. (D) THE FORM OF THE ANNULLING OF THE MARRIAGE OF HENRY AND CATHERINE. "Plene et evidenter invenimus et comperimus prædictum matrimonium inter præfatos illustrissimum et potentissimum principem et dominum nostrum Henricum octavum, ac serenissimam dominam Catherinam, ut præmittitur, contractum et consummatum, nullum et invalidum omnino fuisse et esse, ac divino jure prohibente contractum et consummatum fuisse idcirco nos Thomas Archiepiscopus, Primas et Legatus antedictus, Christi nomine primitus invocato, et solum Deum præ oculis nostris habentes, pro nullitate et invaliditate dicti matrimonii pronunciamus decernimus et declaramus, ipsumque prætensum matrimonium fuisse et esse nullum et invalidum et divino jure prohibente contractum et consummatum, nulliusque valoris aut |