Ehses, _Roemische Dokumente zur Geschichte
der Ehescheidung Heinrichs VIII. von England_,
1893; these documents had all, I think, been
previously printed by Laemmer or Theiner, but only
from imperfect copies often incorrectly deciphered.
Ehses has printed the originals with the utmost
care, and thrown much new light on the subject. The
story of the divorce is retold in this new light by
Dr. Gairdner in the _English Historical Review_,
vols. xi. and xii.; the documents in _L. and P._
must be corrected from these sources.]

[Footnote 585: _L. and P._, iv., 4881.]

[Footnote 586: _Ibid._, iv., 4897.]

[Footnote 587: _Ibid._, iv., 4167; _cf._ iv., 5156,
and Ehses, _Roemische Dokumente_, No. 20, where
Cardinal Pucci gives a somewhat different account
of the interviews.]

[Footnote 588: _L. and P._, iv., 5038, 5417, 5476.]

[Footnote 589: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 309.]

From the point of view of justice, the Pope had an excellent case;
even the Lutherans, who denied his dispensing power, denounced the
divorce. _Quod non fieri debuit_, was their just and common-sense
point, _factum valet_. But the Pope's case had been hopelessly
weakened by the evil practice of his predecessors and of himself.
Alexander VI. had divorced Louis XII. from his Queen for no other
reasons than that Louis XII. wanted to unite Brittany with France by
marrying its duchess, and that Alexander, the Borgia Pope, required
Louis' assistance in promoting the interests of the iniquitous Borgia
family.[590] The injustice to Catherine was no greater than that to
Louis' Queen. Henry's sister Margaret, and both the husbands of his
other sister, Mary, had procured divorces from Popes, and why not
Henry himself? Clement was ready enough to grant Margaret's
divorce;[591] he was willing to give a dispensation for a marriage
between the Princess Mary and her half-brother, the Duke of (p. 213)
Richmond; the more insuperable the obstacle, the more its removal
enhanced his power. It was all very well to dispense with canons and
divine laws, but to annul papal dispensations--was that not to cheapen
his own wares? Why, wrote Henry