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The Reformation

The Divorce

In July 1529, pressed by the emperor, Clement finally revoked the case to Rome. This now brought the business to a crisis, for if the case were heard at Rome, Henry's petition would surely be denied and then he would be stuck with Catherine. He was more and more smitten with Anne, so this alternative Henry refused to accept.

The question, then, was how and on what legal basis to defy the pope. He could do so openly and simply suffer excommunication, as other English kings had done, but this was a desperate course made doubly risky in that it would leave the door open for the religious radicals. Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's chief advisor, died in November 1530. Wolsey had skillfully strung the matter along while avoiding an open break with Rome.

Some time in 1531, the idea was floated (probably first by Thomas Cromwell) that Henry might turn to Parliament for a solution. This was not Henry's first choice, for Parliament wanted to talk about religious reform and Henry did not—he only wanted the divorce, and he still really wanted papal permission. But by 1532 he was persuaded to Cromwell's argument that England was an empire unto itself and that Henry as its king was utterly independent of Rome.

The divorce itself was granted by Parliament in May 1533. This was fortuitous, for Henry had secretly married Anne in January of that year, and she was already pregnant. The culmination of the process came in the Act of Supremacy in 1534, which declared that Henry as King of England was the sole head of the English church. Henry, who merely wanted a new wife, had had to create a new church in order to accomplish that.