DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69603#0079
ENGLAND.] KATHARINE OF ARRAGON.
a calamity :—And the King was thus impelled, both by
his private passions, and by considerations of* public in-
terest, to seek the dissolution of his inauspicious, and as
he now esteemed it, unlawful marriage, with Katharine.
He asserted, that his scruples arose entirely from private
reflection. Himself a casuist and divine, he examined
the question with, what he imagined to be, impartial atten-
tion, and thought he had discovered in his favourite po-
lemical author, Thomas Aquinas, a passage that precisely
involved his own case, and as decidedly condemned it.
Armed with this, and other authorities, he opened him-
self to his confidential ministers, and, receiving from
them opinions favourable to his design, he dispatched
a secretary to Rome, to solicit a divorce. It is well
known, however, and we need not enlarge upon it in
this place, that Henry was swayed, though not, perhaps,
first excited, by a motive still more powerful, and that
his growing love for Anne Boleyn greatly accelerated,
if it was not the principal inducement to, this measure.
It would lead us too far to detail the proceedings of this
extraordinary divorce, which so long occupied the atten-
tion of England and of Europe, It will be sufficient to
state, that Clement the Seventh, after the most tedious
delay, which the impatience and irascibility of the King,
perhaps, increased,—and many struggles between his de-
sire of obliging Henry, and his dread of offending the em-
peror, the powerful nephew of Katharine, at length
granted a commission to Campeggio and Wolsey, to in-
quire into the circumstances of the case.
The conduct of the Queen, upon this trying occasion,
was dignified and interesting; and forcibly recommends
her to our pity and esteem. Though naturally of a mild
and placid disposition, she could, when it was necessary,
a calamity :—And the King was thus impelled, both by
his private passions, and by considerations of* public in-
terest, to seek the dissolution of his inauspicious, and as
he now esteemed it, unlawful marriage, with Katharine.
He asserted, that his scruples arose entirely from private
reflection. Himself a casuist and divine, he examined
the question with, what he imagined to be, impartial atten-
tion, and thought he had discovered in his favourite po-
lemical author, Thomas Aquinas, a passage that precisely
involved his own case, and as decidedly condemned it.
Armed with this, and other authorities, he opened him-
self to his confidential ministers, and, receiving from
them opinions favourable to his design, he dispatched
a secretary to Rome, to solicit a divorce. It is well
known, however, and we need not enlarge upon it in
this place, that Henry was swayed, though not, perhaps,
first excited, by a motive still more powerful, and that
his growing love for Anne Boleyn greatly accelerated,
if it was not the principal inducement to, this measure.
It would lead us too far to detail the proceedings of this
extraordinary divorce, which so long occupied the atten-
tion of England and of Europe, It will be sufficient to
state, that Clement the Seventh, after the most tedious
delay, which the impatience and irascibility of the King,
perhaps, increased,—and many struggles between his de-
sire of obliging Henry, and his dread of offending the em-
peror, the powerful nephew of Katharine, at length
granted a commission to Campeggio and Wolsey, to in-
quire into the circumstances of the case.
The conduct of the Queen, upon this trying occasion,
was dignified and interesting; and forcibly recommends
her to our pity and esteem. Though naturally of a mild
and placid disposition, she could, when it was necessary,