be
overcome, for Henry was ever a stickler for correctness in form, and
wanted the divorce to have an appearance of defensible legality. The
bishops in Parliament were sounded, but it was soon evident that they as a
body would not fly in the face of the Papacy and the Catholic interests,
even to please the King. Timid, tired old Warham, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, was approached with a suggestion that he, as Primate, might
convene a quorum of prelates favourable to Henry, who would approve of the
entire repudiation of the Papal authority in England, and themselves
pronounce the King's divorce. But Warham was already hastening to the
grave, and flatly refused to stain his last hours by spiritual revolt.
Despairing of the English churchman, Henry then turned to the lay peers
and commons, and, through Norfolk, asked them to decide that the
matrimonial cause was one that should be dealt with by a lay tribunal; but
Norfolk's advocacy was but half-hearted, and the peers refused to make the
declaration demanded.[84]

The fact is clear that England was not yet prepared to defy spiritual
authority to satisfy the King's caprice; and Anne was nearly beside
herself with rage. She, indeed, was for braving everybody and getting
married at once, divorce or no divorce. Why lose so much time? the French
ambassador asked. If the King wanted to marry again let him do as King
Louis did, and marry of his own motion.[85] The advice pleased both Henry
and his lady-love, but Norfolk and Anne's father were strongly opposed to
so dangerous and irregular a step, and incurred the furious displeasure of
Anne for daring to thwart her. Every one, she said, even her own kinsmen,
were against her,[86] and she was not far wrong, for with the exception of
Cranmer in Germany and Cromwell, no one cared to risk the popular anger by
promoting the match. Above all, Warham stood firm. The continued attacks
of the King at Cromwell's suggestion against the privileges of the clergy
hardened the old Archbishop's heart, and it was evident that he as Primate
would never now annul the King's marriage and defy the authority of Rome.
The opposition of Lord Chancellor More and of the new Bishop of
Winchester, Gardiner, to Cromwell's anti-clerical proposals in Parliament
angered the King, and convinced him that with his present instruments it
would be as difficult for him to obtain a divorce in legal form in England
as in Rome itself. More was made to feel that his posi