consult all the universities of Europe with regard to this controverted
point: if they agreed to approve of the king's marriage with Catharine,
his remorses would naturally cease; if they condemned it, the pope would
find it difficult to resist the solicitations of so great a monarch,
seconded by the opinion of all the learned men in Christendom.[*] When
the king was informed of the proposal, he was delighted with it; and
swore, with more alacrity than delicacy that Cranmer had got the right
sow by the ear: he sent for that divine; entered into conversation with
him; conceived a high opinion of his virtue and understanding; engaged
him to write in defence of the divorce; and immediately, in prosecution
of the scheme proposed, employed his agents to collect the judgments of
all the universities in Europe.

* Fox, p. 1860 2d edit. Burnet, vol. i. p. 79. Speed, p.
769. Heylin, p. 5

Had the question of Henry's marriage with Catharine been examined by the
principles of sound philosophy, exempt from superstition, it seemed not
liable to much difficulty. The natural reason why marriage in certain
degrees is prohibited by the civil laws, and condemned by the moral
sentiments of all nations, is derived from men's care to preserve
purity of manners; while they reflect, that if a commerce of love
were authorized between near relations, the frequent opportunities of
intimate conversation, especially during early youth, would introduce a
universal dissoluteness and corruption. But as the customs of countries
vary considerably, and open an intercourse, more or less restrained,
between different families, or between the several members of the same
family, we find that the moral precept, varying with its cause, is
susceptible, without any inconvenience, of very different latitude in
the several ages and nations of the world. The extreme delicacy of the
Greeks permitted no communication between persons of different sexes,
except where they lived under the same roof; and even the apartments
of a step-mother and her daughters were almost as much shut up against
visits from the husband's sons, as against those from any stranger or
more distant relation: hence, in that nation, it was lawful for a man to
marry not only his niece, but his half-sister by the father; a liberty
unknown to the Romans, and other nations, where a more open intercourse
was authorized between the sexes. Reasoning from this principle, it
would appear, th