Anne Boleyn: A Novel by Evelyn Anthony Page B

paper. There was silence for some moments while he read, holding the letter close to his eyes.
    The situation in England was very dangerous, Wolsey had written. The anticlerical party was using the King’s wish for a divorce as a lever with which to dislodge him and strike a blow at the independence of the Church in the Kingdom...Clement frowned.
    The English Church was well known for its independence of Rome anyway; the management was left entirely to the English Cardinal and the English bishops, all the Holy See received was the friendship of the King and a few revenues. Clement read on.
    Feeling against Wolsey was high in the country, and his enemies at court had a powerful advocate in the woman whom the King had determined to marry. In order to safeguard the Church’s interests in England, it was vital that he should retain the favor of the King and remain in office, and he begged the Holy Father to take all these factors into consideration when listening to the petition of Foxe and Gardiner.
    In other words, Wolsey was in mortal danger unless he got for Henry and the woman what they wanted; and as he said, the interests of the Church in England were probably in danger too Clement nodded to himself. He understood how Wolsey felt.
    But the danger of the Church in England was nothing compared to the danger of the Church on the continent. Rome, the heartbeat of the Christian faith, was only a city built on seven hills, ringed by the nationalistic designs of the Italian Princes and the dictatorial might of France and the Empire.
    Europe was in a religious ferment; the whole structure of medieval society had been changing for years, as the power of the monarch superseded that of the feudal nobility. With the centralization of power, the Papacy faced its first challenge; and with the spread of learning and the founding of lay universities, it faced the deadlier challenge of heresy.
    Clement still held the letter, apparently reading, while his mind ran on. He and his Church were paying for the sins of previous Popes, for the worldliness and power politics of the Borgias, who had transformed the mighty spiritual power of the Papacy into an armed political force. Once already the Church had been threatened by the laxity of its members in medieval times, and the great army of Franciscans roamed Europe, preaching and purging into the heart of Rome itself. Now the reformers were attacking not only the human abuses but the spiritual structure of Christianity itself. The Church of God was held in contempt, Clement said to himself, concentrating on the scrawl of Wolsey’s signature at the end of the page; she was despised by even those who professed her doctrines and drove merciless bargains in return for their protection. And the wave of austerity sweeping from Lutheran Germany was turning many away from the forms and rituals which were part of her worship.
    The Church in England was in danger; if he wished to preserve it, he had better grant the King his freedom. And risk the fury of the Catholic Emperor, who had already permitted his troops to sack Rome.
    He looked up at Gardiner, folding the letter.
    “I am well pleased with the Cardinal’s letter,” he said. “I have a high opinion of his judgment, and he recommends you both to me.”
    Gardiner cleared his throat.
    “We have come to you on a delicate matter, Your Holiness. The Cardinal has undoubtedly explained it, and I am commissioned to place the details before you. His Grace the King of England desires that you appoint a commission to try the validity of his marriage. He has been gravely troubled for some years because he married his brother’s widow, and the deaths of all his male children have convinced him that he is under the judgment of God and living in conditions of scandal before his Maker and before men.”
    It was a good clear speech, and the Pope measured his man by the short way in which he delivered it.
    Clement nodded. “I appreciate the King’s wish for