In Spain, orthodoxy triumphed still more easily. Cardinal Ximenes (d. 1517) had, by the most drastic disciplinary action, raised the Spanish clergy far above the general European level of morals and learning : consequently there was a strong party which could accuse even Erasmus of wild exaggeration in his attack upon Church abuses ; distinguished men were condemned for f a vouring "Erasmic" propositions. Secret communities of Protes tants gradually formed at Seville (where we are told of nearly I,000 members) and at Valladolid. But two autos da fe 6o) burned 24 men and women at Seville; two others burned 27 at Valladolid; there were other sporadic executions, and the Spanish non-conformists, like the Italian, could find safety only in flight. In Portugal, where the Inquisition was even more rigorous, we can scarcely guess what might have been the result if anything like private judgment had been possible for the peo ple; what actually happened was that the country produced very few Protestants.
The English story is peculiar in one most important particular. In its beginnings, the Reformation was strongly political, yet not anti-Catholic ; Henry VIII.'s ideal was "the papacy without the pope." Here, as in Germany, the ground was well prepared. Lollardy had been driven underground; but it was still very far from com plete extinction. The clergy were, on the whole, unpopular, especially in London. The bishop of London wrote to Wolsey in 1515: "Assured am I, if my chancellor be tried by any [jury of] 12 men in London, they be so maliciously set in favour of hereti cal pravity that they will cast and condemn any cleric, though he were as innocent as Abel." And Charles V.'s envoy, Chapuys, re ported to his master from London in 1529: "Nearly all the people here hate the priests." Here, therefore, as in many other parts of Europe, the mediaeval concordat between Church and State was already breaking down.
And here also the Renaissance had already begun to undermine the old fabric. In 1516, More told Erasmus that the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, a bitter satire upon the monks and the tra ditional philosophy, was "read everywhere" in England. Eras mus's own writings had enjoyed great popularity; and Colet, dean of St. Paul's, supported the new learning against tradition with a boldness which naturally started other men upon still bolder courses; moreover, More's Utopia, published in 1516, was almost as revolutionary on the theological as on the social and political side. All religions are tolerated in Utopia, and almost all religious discussion. For in this country "nothing is seen or heard in the churches, but that which seemeth to agree indifferently with them all. If there be a distinct kind of sacrifice peculiar to any several sect, that they execute at home in their own houses." Wider knowledge of the universe was beginning to break down that mediaeval condemnation of all non-Christians to hell; and this breakdown must, sooner or later, involve a break with yet other mediaeval tenets.
four heretics were burned in the diocese of Lincoln, while 5o more abjured their creed. But Lutheran groups began to form at the two universities, especially at Cambridge; which produced eight leaders of the new movement. Here, in 1525, the prior of the Austin Friars, Dr. Barnes, preached a sermon which caused his prosecution for heresy; he was compelled to abjure at St. Paul's, in company with four German merchants. But, a year later, the king was planning a divorce and remarriage, since it was politically necessary for him to have a definite heir to the throne.
This has often been represented as a mere piece of sensuality; but the facts speak plainly to the contrary. There was nothing to prevent Henry, if he had wished it, from keeping a harem like those of his contemporary Francis I. in France and his successor Charles II. in England. Moreover, before the question of Catha rine's divorce came up, Henry was already taking very strong measures in another direction; he heaped honours upon his one known illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, and planned, with the advice of his council, the proclamation of this six-year-old boy as heir to the throne. But the plan broke down and Henry's attach ment to Anne Boleyn now contributed to suggest the other ex pedient of a divorce from Catharine. (In the strict technical sense it was not a divorce, but a decree of nullity; however, the briefer term was very commonly used then, as since.) This complicated story may be reduced to a few simple issues. In the minds of all the principal actors except Catharine, the problem was mainly or wholly political. The king needed a male heir ; he and his counsellors augured disaster to the kingdom from a female or a disputed succession. So also with Rome; Clement VII. himself was long in making up his mind as to the Catharine case; and, most significant of all, he actually suggested in 1530 that the problem might be solved without divorce, by allowing Henry two wives at once. (A. F. Pollard, Henry VIII. [1905], p. 207.) Even if, as some of Henry's advisers suggested, this was merely a diplomatic feint, it is no less significant in this present connection. Henry had thought of the proposal seriously at an earlier stage, and based it upon Old Testament precedents. As Pollard points out, Eugenius IV. had actually granted similar licence to Henry IV. of Castile, for similar political reasons, in 1437. For the pope's real difficulty was not in the moral problem of the Boleyn marriage but in the political problem of the divorce, since Catharine was aunt to the most powerful sovereign in Europe, and the one from whom Clement had most to fear personally. Therefore the pope evaded all definite decisions, shifting in response to the shifting political situation, for three years (1527-29), when at last he transferred the case to Rome.