d the alleged intrigue had then been the
common subject of talk in Catholic circles and among the Opposition
members of Parliament. The Act says that the cause was a fact confessed
by the Lady Anne. The Lady Anne might confess her own sins, but her
confession of the sins of others was not a confession at all, and could
have carried no validity unless supported by other evidence. Chapuys's
assertion requires us to suppose that Henry, being informed of Anne's
allegation, consented to the establishment of his own disgrace by making
it the subject of a legal investigation; that he thus himself allowed a
crime to be substantiated against him which covered him with infamy, and
which no other attempt was ever made to prove. How did Chapuys know that
this was the cause of the divorce of Anne? If it was communicated to
Parliament, it must have become the common property of the realm, and have
been no longer open to question. If it was not communicated, but was
accepted by Parliament, itself on the authority of the Council, who were
Chapuys's informants, and how did they know? Under Chapuys's hypothesis
the conduct of King, Council, Parliament, and Convocation becomes
gratuitous folly--folly to which there was no temptation and for which
there was no necessity. The King had only to deny the truth of the story,
and nothing further would have been made of it. The real evidence for the
_liaison_ with Mary Boleyn is the ineradicable conviction of a certain
class of minds that the most probable interpretation of every act of Henry
is that which most combines stupidity and wickedness. To argue such a
matter is useless. Those who believe without reason cannot be convinced by
reason.

The Northumberland explanation is less improbable, but to this also there
are many objections. Northumberland himself had denied on oath, a few days
before, that any contract had ever passed between Anne and himself. If he
was found to have perjured himself, he would have been punished, or, at
least, disgraced; yet, a few months later, in the Pilgrimage of Grace, he
had the King's confidence, and deserved it by signal loyalty. The Norris
story is the least unlikely. The first act of criminality with Anne
mentioned in the indictment was stated to have been committed with Norris
four weeks after the birth of Elizabeth, and the intimacy may have been
earlier; while the mystery observed about it may be better accounted for,
since, if it had been avowed, Elizabet