d as the king wished that his marriage was
null; Wittenberg and Marburg rendered contrary opinions. Many
theologians, including Erasmus, Luther, and Melanchthon, expressed the
opinion that bigamy would be the best way to meet the situation.

But more was needed to make the annulment legal than the verdict of
universities. Repulsed by Rome Henry was forced to make an alliance,
though it proved but a temporary one, with the Reforming and
anti-clerical parties in his realm. At Easter, 1529, Lutheran books
began to circulate at court, books {288} advocating the confiscation of
ecclesiastical property and the reduction of the church to a state of
primitive simplicity. To Chapuis, the imperial ambassador, Henry
pointedly praised Luther, whom he had lately called "a wolf of hell and
a limb of Satan," remarking that though he had mixed heresy in his
books that was not sufficient reason for reproving and rejecting the
many truths he had brought to light. To punish Wolsey for the failure
to secure what was wanted from Rome, [Sidenote: November 4, 1530] the
pampered minister was arrested for treason, but died of chagrin before
he could be executed. "Had I served my God," said he, "as diligently
as I have served my king, he would not have given me over in my grey
hairs."

[Sidenote: Reformation Parliament, November 3, 1529]

In the meantime there had already met that Parliament that was to pass,
in the seven years of its existence, the most momentous and
revolutionary laws as yet placed upon the statute-books. The elections
were free, or nearly so; the franchise varied from a fairly democratic
one in London to a highly oligarchical one in some boroughs.
Notwithstanding the popular feeling that Catharine was an injured woman
and that war with the Empire might ruin the valuable trade with
Flanders, the "government," as would now be said, that is, the king,
received hearty support by the majority of members. The only possible
explanation for this, apart from the king's acknowledged skill as a
parliamentary leader, is the strength of the anti-clerical feeling.
The rebellion of the laity against the clergy, and of the patriots
against the Italian yoke, needed but the example of Germany to burst
all the dykes and barriers of medieval custom. The significance of the
revolution was that it was a forcible reform of the church by the
state. The wish of the people was to end ecclesiastical abuses without
much regard to doctrine;