HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH - { PT. 26 }


 { PT.  26 } - This tendency is brought out clearly in the concessions wrung from the Pope by Ferdinand 1. of Spain and Louis XII. of France, but more especially in the Concordat negotiated between Leo X, and Francis 1. ( 1516 ), according to which all appointments in the French Church were vested practically in the hands of the king. Henry VIII, was a careful observer of Continental affairs and was as anxious as Francis 1. to strengthen his own position by grasping the authority of the Church. He secured a /de facto/ headship of the Church in England when he succeeded in getting Cardinal Wolsey invested with permanent legatine powers. Through Wolsey he governed ecclesiastical affairs in England for years, and on the fall of Wolsey he took into his own hands the control that he had exercised already through his favourite and minister. Had Leo X. consented to a concordat similar to that concluded with France, whereby the royal demands would have been conceded frankly and occasions of dispute removed, or else had he taken the strong step of refusing to delegate his authority indefinitely to a minister of the king, he would have prevented trouble and misunderstanding, and would have made the battle for royal supermacy much more difficult than it proved to be in reality.-------[ 1 ] Luton, /Life of Dean Colet/, 1887. [ 2 ] Gasquet, /Eve of the Reformation/, 142. 

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