ed to be present. Other evidence was
doubtless collected from various sources, and, on 17th May, a week
after Tarbes's departure, Wolsey summoned Henry to appear before him
to explain his conduct in living with his brother's widow.[560] Wolman
was appointed promoter of the suit; Henry put in a justification, (p. 199)
and, on 31st May, Wolman replied. With that the proceedings terminated.
In instituting them Henry was following a precedent set by his
brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk.[561] In very early days that
nobleman had contracted to marry Sir Anthony Browne's daughter, but
for some reason the match was broken off, and he sought the hand of
one Margaret Mortimer, to whom he was related in the second and third
degrees of consanguinity; he obtained a dispensation, completed the
marriage, and cohabited with Margaret Mortimer. But, like Henry VIII.,
his conscience or other considerations moved him to regard his
marriage as sin, and the dispensation as invalid. He caused a
declaration to that effect to be made by "the official of the
Archdeacon of London, to whom the cognisance of such causes of old
belongs," married Ann Browne, and, after her death, Henry's sister
Mary. A marriage, the validity of which depended, like Henry's, upon a
papal dispensation, and which, like Henry's, had been consummated, was
declared null and void on exactly the same grounds as those upon which
Henry himself sought a divorce, namely, the invalidity of the previous
dispensation. On 12th May, 1528, Clement VII. issued a bull confirming
Suffolk's divorce and pronouncing ecclesiastical censures on all who
called in question the Duke's subsequent marriages. That is precisely
the course Henry wished to be followed. Wolsey was to declare the
marriage invalid on the ground of the insufficiency of the papal
dispensation; Henry might then marry whom he pleased; the Pope was to
confirm the sentence, and censure all who should dispute the second
marriage or the legitimacy of its possible issue.

[Footnote 559: _L. and P._, iv., 5291. This
examination took place on 5th and 6th April.]

[Footnote 560: _Ibid._, iv., 3140.]

[Footnote 561: _L. and P._, iv., 5859; _cf._ iv.,
737.]

Another precedent was also forced on Henry's mind. On 11th March, (p. 200)
1527, two months before Wolsey opened his court, a divorce was granted
at Rome to Henry's sister Marga