like thy preachings. Tell me the truth, and I will bear with thee upon amendment."

"Your Grace must understand," said Latimer, "that the Bishop of Ely cannot favor me, for that not long ago I preached before him, in Cambridge, a sermon on this text, Christus existens pontifex, wherein I described the office of a bishop so uprightly as I might, according to the text, that never after he could abide me; but hath not only forbidden me to preach in his diocese, but also found the means to inhibit me from preaching in the University."

"I pray you, tell me," said the Cardinal, "what time didst thou preach before him. from that text?"

Latimer briefly explained the occasion and the sermon.

"Did you not preach any other doctrine than you have rehearsed?"

After an examination, with the doctors, of the charges brought against the divine, the Cardinal expressed his satisfaction in decided terms: "If the Bishop of Ely cannot abide such doctrine as you have here repeated, you shall have my license, and shall preach it

LICENSE FROM WOLSEY.

49

unto his beard, let him say what he will." He was then, after a gentle monition, dismissed with the Cardinal's license to preach anywhere in England. He returned home to resume, with renewed heart and energy, his interrupted labors.

5

CHAPTER V.

THE WAR OF THE ROSES-HENRY VIII. MARRIED TO CATHARINE-THE KING DESIRES A DIVORCE-ANNE BOLEYN -THE POPE'S DILEMMA-CRANMER-APPEAL TO THE

UNIVERSITIES MARRIAGE -NEGOTIATIONS-HENRY VIII. HEAD OF THE CHURCH.

H

ENRY THE SEVENTH ascended the throne of England by virtue of his victory over Richard the Third at the battle of Bosworth Field. This engagement closed the war of the White and Red roses, a contest so long protracted and so fiercely waged, that we may fancy the emblems of York and Lancaster to have often changed hue; the white dyed to scarlet in the blood which flowed so freely from the best veins of England, and the red blanched to white with the terrors of the strife. The nation was weary of battle, and Henry the Seventh held his throne in peace. Naturally desirous to strengthen it by powerful alliances, he married his son Arthur, Prince of Wales, to

THE DISPUTED MARRIAGE.

51

Catharine, the fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The prince dying a few months after the wedding, the king, unwilling to lose the alliance, forced his next son Henry, then, in 1502, but twelve years of age, to engage himself to the widow, six years his senior.

Seven years later the prince succeeded his father as Henry the Eighth. One of his first acts was to consider with his council the celebration of his marriage. A union to a deceased brother's wife was in opposition to the Levitical law and to the law of the Church, and was opposed on this ground by Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The political advantages of the union outweighed this objection; a dispensation from the Pope, then a usual remedy in such cases, was obtained, and the marriage took place. He had several children, but all, except one daughter, died in early infancy. As years rolled by, he began again to doubt as to the lawfulness of his union. The loss of children was one of the penalties prophesied by the Levitical text, which condemned such unions. It was a misfortune to the nation as well as the King, as the succession, the cause of so

many and long wars, hung upon the life of a frail girl. The fading youth of the Queen brought the difference in their ages still more prominently to view. All this combined to create a wish in his mind for a divorce.

The King communicated his scruples to the bishops. The difficulty caused by the previous relationship had always been recognized by the Church as an obstacle, and the prelates approved of an application for a divorce. Meanwhile, the King's desire for a release had become intensified by an attachment he had formed for a beautiful young lady of his court, Anne Boleyn. The curious combination of ecclesiastical, political, and personal considerations thus entered into this as into all of the transactions of which we are speaking. The King desired a young wife, not only for her attractions, but that the succession to the throne might be strengthened. The Reformers favored his wish because Anne Boleyn, having been brought up at the court of the Duchess d'Alençon, known as a sympathizer with the Protestants, was herself inclined to the Protestant faith.

The Pope would in ordinary circumstances