ipped
into it which destroyed its efficacy, because it left the final decision
to the Pontiff after all.

It may be asked, if Henry believed, as he now pretended, that his first
marriage had never been legal in consequence of Katharine being his
brother's widow, why he needed a Papal dispensation to break it. The Papal
brief that had been previously given allowing the marriage, was asserted
by Henry's ecclesiastical friends to be _ultra vires_ in England, because
marriage with a brother's widow was prohibited under the common law of the
land, with which the Pope could not dispense. But the matter was
complicated with all manner of side issues: the legitimacy of the Princess
Mary, the susceptibilities of the powerful confederation that obeyed the
Emperor, the sentiment of the English people, and, above all, the
invariable desire of Henry to appear a saint whilst he acted like a sinner
and to avoid personal responsibility; and so Henry still strove with the
ostensible, but none too hearty, aid of Wolsey, to gain from the Pope the
nullification of a marriage which he said was no marriage at all. Wolsey's
position had become a most delicate and dangerous one. As soon as the
Emperor learned of Anne's rise, he had written to Mendoza (30th September
1527), saying that the Cardinal must be bought at any price. All his
arrears of pension (45,000 ducats) were to be paid, 6000 ducats a year
more from a Spanish bishopric were to be granted, and a Milanese
marquisate was to be conferred upon him with a revenue of 15,000 ducats a
year, if he would only serve the Emperor's interests. But he dared not do
it quickly or openly, dearly as he loved money, for Anne was watchful and
Henry suspicious of him. His only hope was that the King's infatuation for
this long-faced woman with the prude's mouth and the blazing eyes might
pall. Then his chance would come again.

Far from growing weaker, however, Henry's passion grew as Anne's virtue
became more rigid. She had not always been so austere, for gossip had
already been busy with her good name. Percy and Sir Thomas Wyatt had both
been her lovers, and with either or both of them she had in some way
compromised herself.[54] But she played her game cleverly, for the stake
was a big one, and her fascination must have been great. She was often
away from Court, feigning to prefer the rural delights of Hever to the
splendours of Greenwich or Richmond, or offended at the significant
tittle-tattle ab