Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/338

318 confident that they would make no improper demands, they laid before him the proposition which they had heard from the woolsack, and added their own entreaties that he would be pleased to consent. The King was gracious, but the canon law required also the consent of the Queen; for which, therefore, the Duke of Suffolk, the Bishop of Winchester, and other noblemen were despatched to Richmond, and with which they soon returned. Six years were spent over the affair with Queen Catherine: almost as many days sufficed to dispose of Anne of Cleves.

On the Wednesday morning the clergy assembled, and Gardiner, in 'a luminous oration,' invited them to the task which they were to undertake. Evidence was sent in by different members of the privy council whom the King had admitted to his confidence; by the ladies of the Court who could speak for the condition of the Queen; and finally, by Henry himself, in a paper which he wrote with his own