was highly embarrassing to him. Catharine was aunt to the Emperor, Charles the Fifth, whom he greatly feared to offend. Of Henry, too, who had obtained from Leo the title of "Defender of the Faith," he stood almost equally in awe. His only resource was to procrastinate and place obstacles in the way.

Cardinal Campeggio, after his arrival in England, used many arguments to persuade the King to renounce his intentions. At this attempt, Henry was greatly enraged, and said, it was evident that the Pope had sent him to confirm, rather than annul, his marriage. Campeggio then showed him a bull, in which the Pope had granted the divorce, if matters could not be brought to a friendly conclusion. This bull, however, he acknowledged, was only to be shown to the King and Wolsey, and not to be trusted out of his own hands. He entreated the King not to be precipitate in the affair, as great advantages might be taken from that, by the Queen's party; that, therefore, it was fit to proceed slowly; but he assured him, that the decision would finally be according to his wishes.

At length, after many adjournments, the court sat to decide the matter, and Gardiner, who was the head of the King's Council, desired sentence might be given. Both the King and Anne Boleyn were sanguine, at this crisis, that no further obstacles would be made to their union; and

Henry stationed himself in an adjoining room, where he could have the pleasure of hearing the sentence pronounced. What was his indignation, when Campeggio declared, that the court must be adjourned till October, (it was then July,) as no causes could be heard in vacation time, according to the rules of the Consistory of Rome.

It soon became evident that Wolsey was losing confidence and favor with the King, who suspected that much of this delay arose from his ill offices. It does not appear that he had any cause for this suspicion; but, unfortunately for the Cardinal, with all the deception he had practised, he was not able to counterfeit upright and undeviating principle; and neither the monarch nor the favorite could have had much confidence in, or respect for, the other. Seven months had passed since Campeggio's arrival, and Henry found himself no nearer obtaining a divorce, than when he first arrived. Yet his passion for Anne did not decline on account of the obstacles placed in his path. He took the decisive step of dismissing Catharine to Greenwich, and sent for Anne to return to the Court. She had judiciously withdrawn to her father's house. It was said, that she returned with reluctance, and only yielded to the entreaties of her father. Henry gave her a splendid establishment, and apartments richly furnished, and exacted the utmost deference towards her from his courtiers.

CHAPTER III.

WHILE not only England, but Europe, was agitated by this important question of the divorce, a minor affair took place in Jesus College, Cambridge, which excited some attention.

Thomas Cranmer, a young man of ancient family, a fellow of the College, forfeited his fellowship by his marriage. Though only twentythree, he had distinguished himself by his talents, and was much esteemed for the virtues of his character. His separation from the College, which became necessary according to the regulations, was greatly regretted by the friends of learning.

The early education of Cranmer had inured him to discipline. The most approved school in the neighbourhood was held by the parish-clerk, whose manners naturally partook of the rudeness and barbarity of the age. To this the boy was sent. Though his disposition was mild, and his habits studious, he could not escape the tyrannical and domineering cruelty of the pedagogue. His father, however, did not confine him to the instruction of the school-master, but had him edu

cated in gentlemanly exercises, shooting, hunting, and hawking. He was also skilled in horsemanship; and, in mature life, when his dignities and honors crowded upon him, he still retained his fondness for shooting with the cross-bow, and his skill and fearlessness in managing the wildest horses. He lost his father early, and, at fourteen, his mother sent him to study at Cambridge, in the year 1503.

In reading the history of distinguished men, maternal influence is often traced. A widowed mother, who consummates her early lessons by giving up her only son, her solace and her joy, for his advantage, and, perhaps, toils to supply the means for his education, unaided and alone, not only affords him the best example of disinterestedness, but the strongest incitement to virtue and improvement. Cranmer appears to have determined to turn to their best uses the opportunities offered to him; and, though he was immediately initiated in the "dark riddles " of the age, his own good sense led him at length to a different course of study. Erasmus was a resident in the University, and Cranmer soon became familiar with the works of this accomplished scholar. A new impulse was given to his mind. He entered the walks of ancient and classic literature, and made himself master of the Greek and Hebrew languages. When Cranmer began to write,

he earnestly studied his books, and "bent himself to try out the truth herein." He read with his pen in hand, and constantly marked, or copied out, what particularly arrested his attention. The intellectual treasures, which he in this way acquired, were in after life an exhaustless mine of wealth.

Such a young man could not fail of being esteemed; and, when his marriage, at the age of twenty-three, obliged him to relinquish his fellowship in the College, it was deeply regretted. He was solicited, however, to fill a humbler place in Buckingham College. Of his marriage, there is little recorded. The early death of his wife, the same year they were married, left him a widower, and, contrary to general usage, he was again elected a fellow of his College.

When Wolsey was selecting men of talents and learning for his College at Oxford,* he offered Cranmer a fellowship; but Cranmer declined it, and preferred remaining where he was.

It was about this time that the King, seeking to beguile the weariness which arose from the postponement of his marriage with Anne Boleyn, made several excursions to the country-seats of his courtiers. At Mr. Cressy's, in Waltham, a town where the King rested, Cranmer was then residing with two of that gentleman's sons; they

* Wolsey founded Christ Church College.