conferred on the prelate, the exclusive right of printing it, during the course of three years*. Henry's work is still preserved in the Vatican. library. The following verses are subjoined to it; and the name of the monarch is written under them with his own hand. Anglorum rex Henricus, Leo Maxime, mittit The bull, by which Leo granted the title of Defender of the Faith to Henry, is still preserved in The first edition of the work of Henry the eighth is in particular request. It is intituled "Assertio Septem Sacra"mentorum aduersus Martin. Lutheru, &c. Apud inlytam "vrbem Londinum in ædibus Pynsonianis. An. M. D.XXI. " quarto Idus Julij. Cum privilegio a rege indulto." quarto. The earl Spencer possesses a magnificent copy of it, upon vellum, splendidly illuminated.-A collection, containing, 1st. The speech of Dr. Clarke, when he delivered the work to the pope; 2dly. The answer of the pope; 3dly. The bull of the pope, confirming the work; 4thly. A summary of the indulgences, granted to the readers of it; 5thly. The royal book, libellus regius; and 6thly. The letter of the king to the dukes of Saxony,was printed by Pynson, in the same year; and reprinted at Strasbourg in the following year, with a preface by Erasmus. The letter of Henry the eighth to Luther was printed by Pynson, both in English and Latin.This acconut of the editions of these works is taken from Mr. Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 484 et seq. The fullest account of the proceedings at Rome, respecting the work of Henry, is to be found in cardinal Pallavicini's History of the Council of Trent. An elaborate discussion of the whole transaction is to be found in Disputatio circularis de titulo Defensoris Fidei,--a Joh. Christophero Majero Cuzelsavia-Franco-Altdorfii 1706. pro the British Museum *. It was confirmed two years afterwards by Clement the seventh†, and was recalled by the bull of Paul, issued in 1535 and mulgated in 1538, which we shall soon have occasion to mention; but the act passed in 1543, "for the ❝ratification of his majesty's style," declares it to be thenceforth united and annexed for ever to the imperial crown of England: thus the kings of England bear the title, not under the papal grants, but under an act of the British legislature. CHAP. XIII. THE DIVORCE OF HENRY THE EIGHTH FROM QUEEN KATHARINE. 1533. THE subject of these pages neither requires nor admits of more than I. A short mention of the transactions which attended this interesting event: II. Some observations on the lawfulness of the marriage of Henry the eighth with queen Katharine : III. Some account of the sentence, pronounced by It is copied in Selden's Titles of Honour, part i. c. 5; and Rymer's Fœdera, tom. xiii. p. 756: he gives a fac simile engraving of it,-a letter is inserted in the Report on Public Records, App. p. 6. + Rym. Fœd. tom. xiv. fol. 14. See Mr. Luders's learned article in the British Archæologia, vol. xix. p. 1. It contains much curious information on the subject, and the styles of the most christian king of France and the most catholic king of Arragon. Clement the seventh for its validity: IV. And of the act of parliament, ratifying the divorce and establishing the marriage of Henry with Anne Boleyn. XIII. 1. Principal Events in the History of the Divorce of MARRIAGE with the widow of a deceased brother, is prohibited in Leviticus*: the same prohibition is afterwards repeated in itt, with a denunciation that the marriage should be unfruitful. This denunciation imported, not that God would miraculously prevent the parents from having offspring; but, that the children should not be entitled to the rights of heirship; so that, in a civil sense, the parents would be childless. This was the general rule Moses excepted from it the case where the deceased brother left no child: in that case, the legislator not only permitted but commanded, as a civil duty, the next brother to marry the widow. Henry was in this situation: on the 14th of November 1501, Katharine, the daughter of Ferdinand king of Spain, was married to prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry the seventh. The prince died in the following April. Soon after his decease, it was agreed by both parents that Katharine should be espoused to prince Henry. Her previous marriage was a canonical impediment; as, under the christian dispensation, marriages, within † xx. 16. Deut. xxv. 9. * xviii. 6. VOL. I. L the degrees prohibited by Leviticus, were unlawful, and the exception of the case, where the deceased brother had died childless, was not admitted. The canonical impediment was, however, removed by a bull of dispensation from Julius the second, dated the 26th of December 1503. Soon after it was obtained, the contract was signed: but, for some reason or other, when prince Henry arrived at a sufficient age, it was annulled:Henry the seventh died on the 7th of April 1509: he was succeeded by his son, Henry the eighth ; the marriage between him and Katharine was, with the full consent of both parties, and the advice of the council of state, solemnized, on the 3d of the following June. The queen had several miscarriages, and some children, who were born alive, but died almost immediately; and one daughter, Mary, who lived to inherit the crown. The king seems, for the first time, to have expressed scruples respecting the lawfulness of the marriage, about the year 1527. The pope's commission, (authorizing cardinal Wolsey, in conjunction with the archbishop of Canterbury, or any other bishop, to examine, juridically, the validity of the marriage, and the dispensations on which it was founded,) is dated on the 13th of April 1528. On the 15th of July, in the following year, the pope annulled, by his bull, the power of the commissioners, and evoked the cause to Rome. On the 23d of May 1533, Cranmer, then archbishop of Canterbury, declared the marriage null. In the following November, Henry publicly married Anne Boleyn. One child, Elizabeth, afterwards queen of England, was the issue of this marriage. On the 23d of May 1534, the pope pronounced the marriage between Henry and Katharine to be valid. On the 6th of January 1536, Katharine died. XIII. 2. Observations on the Lawfulness of the Marriage of Henry the eighth with queen Katharine. THE circumstance of the lawfulness, according to the christian dispensation, of the marriage between Henry and Katharine,-considering it as the abstract question of a marriage between a brother and the widow of his brother, was certainly attended with considerable difficulties*. The unlawfulness of such a marriage, by the injunctions in the Levitical law, admitted of no doubt: but, were these injunctions of the Levitical law adopted by the christian code? if they were, then, besides being a rule of the christian œconomy, were they also a rule of the natural law? if they were,-could they admit of dispensation? On each of these points, opinions were divided. It is certain, that doubts had been entertained of the lawfulness of the marriage, before Henry's scruples provoked the discussion. This is evident from several circumstances: 1. Henry the seventh caused prince Henry, as * The principal arguments on each side of the question may be seen in Dupin's Ecclesiastical History of the 16th century, book ii. c. 26. |