gin;
Parliament was to meet again in February, and the King needed all the help
that he could find in the House of Lords. The Bishops were still but half
conquered. A man of intellect and learning was required at the head of
them. "King Henry loved a man," it was said. He knew Cranmer and valued
him. The appointment was made known in the first month of the new year.
Before the new Primate could be installed a Bull of Confirmation was still
legally necessary from Rome. The King was in haste. The annates due on the
vacancy of the see of Canterbury were despatched at once, the King himself
advancing the money and taking no advantage of the late Act. Such unusual
precipitancy raised suspicions that something more was contemplated in
which Cranmer's help would be needed.

The knot had, in fact, been cut which Henry had been so long struggling to
untie. The Lady Anne had aspired to being the central figure of a grand
ceremony. Her nuptials were to be attended with the pomp and splendour of
a royal marriage. Public feeling was in too critical a condition to permit
what might have been resented; and, lest the prize should escape her after
all, she had brought down her pride to agree to a private service. When it
was performed, and by whom, was never known. The date usually received was
"on or before the 25th of January." Chapuys says that Cranmer himself
officiated in the presence of the lady's father, mother and brother, two
other friends of the lady, and a Canterbury priest.[204] But Chapuys was
relating only the story current at the time in society. Nothing authentic
has been ascertained.... The fact that the marriage had taken place was
concealed till the divorce could be pronounced by a Court protected by Act
of Parliament, and perhaps with the hope that the announcement could be
softened by the news that the nation might hope for an heir.

Dispatch was thus necessary with Cranmer's Bulls. He himself spoke without
reserve on the right of the King to remarry, "being ready to maintain it
with his life." Chapuys and the Nuncio both wrote to request the Pope not
to be in a hurry with the confirmation of so dangerous a person.[205] The
Pope seemed determined to justify the suspicions entertained of him by his
eagerness to meet Henry's wishes. It is certain that the warning had
reached him.[206] He sent the Bulls with all the speed he could. He knew,
perhaps, what they were needed for.

Henry meanwhile was preparing to meet the