Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/31

1533.] His marriage with his brother's wife had been pronounced illegal by the principal universities of Europe, by the clergy of the two provinces of the Church of England, by the most learned theologians and canonists, and finally, by the public judgment of the Church. He therefore had felt himself free; and, 'by the inspiration of the Most High, had lawfully married another woman.' Furthermore, 'for the common weal and tranquillity of the realm of England, and for the wholesome rule and government of the same, he had caused to be enacted certain statutes and ordinances, by authority of parliaments lawfully called for that purpose.' 'Now, however,' he continued, 'we fearing that his Holyness the Pope … having in our said cause treated us far otherwise than either respect for our dignity and desert, or the duty of his own office required at his hands, and having done us many injuries which we now of design do suppress, but which hereafter we shall be ready, should circumstances so require, to divulge … may now proceed to acts of further injustice, and heaping wrong on wrong, may pronounce the censures and other penalties of the spiritual sword against ourselves, our realm, and subjects, seeking thereby to deprive us of the use of the sacraments, and to cut us off, in the sight of the world, from the unity of the Church, to the no slight hurt and injury of our realm and subjects:

'Fearing these things, and desiring to preserve from