keep the sentence secret till the pope had seen your Majesty;
he replied it was impossible."[418]

Thus the statute became law which transferred to the English courts of law
the power so long claimed and exercised by the Roman see. There are two
aspects under which it may be regarded, as there were two objects for which
it was passed. Considered as a national act, few persons will now deny that
it was as just in itself as it was politically desirable. If the pope had
no jurisdiction over English subjects, it was well that he should be known
to have none; if he had, it was equally well that such jurisdiction should
cease. The question was not of communion between the English and Roman
churches, which might or might not continue, but which this act would not
affect. The pope might still retain his rights of episcopal precedency,
whatever those might be, with all the privileges attached to it. The
parliament merely declared that he possessed no right of interference in
domestic disputes affecting persons and property.

But the act had a special as well as a national bearing, and here it is
less easy to arrive at a just conclusion. It destroyed the validity of
Queen Catherine's appeal; it placed a legal power in the hands of the
English judges to proceed to pass sentence upon the divorce; and it is open
to the censure which we ever feel entitled to pass upon a measure enacted
to meet the particular position of a particular person. When embarrassments
have arisen from unforeseen causes, we have a right to legislate to prevent
a repetition of those embarrassments. Our instincts tell us that no
legislation should be retrospective, and should affect only positions which
have been entered into with a full knowledge at the time of the condition
of the laws.

The statute endeavours to avoid the difficulty by its declaratory form; but
again this is unsatisfactory; for that the pope possessed some authority
was substantially acknowledged in every application which was made to him;
and when Catherine had married under a papal dispensation, it was a strange
thing to turn upon her, and to say, not only that the dispensation in the
particular instance had been unlawfully granted, but that the pope had no
jurisdiction in the matter by the laws of the land which she had entered.

On the other hand, throughout the entire negotiations King Henry and his
ministers had insisted jealously on the English privileges. They had
declared from th