HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH - ( CHAPTER 2 ) - { PT. 36 }

( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  35 } - The marriage with Catharine was declared null and void by Parliament on the ground principally that no man could dispense with God's law, and to prevent such incestuous unions in the future a list of the forbidden degrees was drawn up, and ordered to be exhibited in the public churches. To question the marriage of Henry with Anne Boleyn by writing, word, deed, or act was declared to be high treason, and all persons should take an oath acknowledging the succession under pain of misprision of treason. That the Parliament was forced to adopt these measures against its own better judgment is clear from the small number of members who  took their seats in the House of Lords, as well as from the fact that some of the Commoners assured the imperial ambassador that were his master to invade England he might count on considerable support.  In Rome the agents of Francis I., fearing that an alliance between France and England would be impossible were Henry to throw off his allegiance to the Church, moved heaven and earth to prevent a definitive sentence. The fact that the Emperor was both unable and unwilling to enforce the decision of the Pope, and that instead of desiring the excommunication and deposition of Henry he was opposed to such a step, made it more difficult for the Pope to take decisive measures.   
 

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THE HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH - ( CHAPTER 2 ) - { PT. 40 }

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( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  40 } - [ 29 ] An Act of Attainder was passed against Fisher, More, and all others who had refused submission. The First Fruits, formerly paid to the Pope, were to be paid to the king, and bishop were allowed to appoint men approved by the crown to be their assistants. By these measures the constitution of the Church, as it had been accepted for centuries by the English clergy and Iaity, was overturned. The authority of the Pope was rejected in favour of the authority of the king, who was to be regarded in the future as the source of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This great religious revolution was carried out without the consent of the bishops and clergy. With the single exception of Cranmer the bishops to a man opposed the change, and if they and the great body of the clergy made their submission in the end, they did so not because they were convinced by the royal arguments, but because they feared the royal displeasure. Neither was the ...
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HISTROY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH - ( CHAPTER 2 ) - { PT. 18 }

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  ( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  18 } - Bishop Fisher of Rochester spoke out manfully against the unnatural and unlawful proceedings, [ 11 ] and his protest found an echo not merely in the court it self but throughout the country. The friends of Henry, fearing that the Pope might revoke the power of the legates, clamoured for an immediate verdict; but this Campeggio was determined to prevent at all costs. By insisting upon all the formalities of law he took care to delay the proceeding till the 23rd July, when he announced that the legatine court should follow the rules of the Roman court, and should, therefore, adjourn to October. Already he was aware of the fact that Clement VII., yielding to the entreaties of Catharine and the demands of the Emperor, had had reserved the decision of the case to Rome ( 19th July ), and that the summons to the king and queen to proceed there to plead their cause was already on its way to England. [ 12 ] Henry, disguising his real fe...
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HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH - ( CHAPTER 2 ) - { PT. 39 }

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  ( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  39 } - A royal commission consisting of George Brown, Prior of the Augustinian Hermits, and Dr. Hilsey, Provincial of the Dominicans, was appointed to visit the religious houses and to obtain the submission of the members ( April 1534 ). By threats of dissolution and confiscation they secured the submission of most of the monastic establishment with the exception of the Observants of Richmond and Greenwich and the Carthusians of the Charterhouse, London. Many of the members of these communities were arrested and lodged in the Tower, and the decree went forth that the seven houses belonging yo the Observants, who had offered a strenuous opposition to the divorce, should be suppressed. [ 28 ] The Convocations of Canterbury and York submitted, as did also the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. When Parliament met again in November 1534 a bill was introduced proclaiming the king supreme head of the Church in England. The measure was ba...
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