No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
I. Henry VIII's Use of his Spiritual and Temporal Jurisdictions in his Great Causes of Matrimony, Legitimacy, and Succession
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2010
Extract
The Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome of 1533 has become one of the most controversial statutes of what Dr G. R. Elton has called the ‘Tudor revolution’. The central issue seems to be Elton's view that the term ‘empire’ in the Act's famous preamble provided the theoretical basis for Henry VIII's claim to a jurisdiction in spiritual cases. It is not my intention to enter this high and perhaps irresolvable debate; rather I propose to consider the solution that the Act provided for the practical problem that was its occasion, namely, the king's ‘great matter’, and the inadequacy of that solution for problems that developed subsequently. The political doctrines stated or implied in Tudor statutes are interesting and significant, but, as Elton has written in connexion with the causes of the Reformation, ‘Anne Boleyn should not be forgotten’.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967
References
1 Cf. Elton, G. R., England under the Tudors (London, 1955), pp. 132-3, 160–4Google Scholar ; idem, ‘The Evolution of a Reformation Statute’, English Historical Review, LXIV (1949), 178-9, 184-5; idem., ‘The Political Creed of Thomas Cromwell’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., VI (1956), 86-91; idem., ‘The Tudor Revolution: A Reply’, Past and Present, XXIX (December 1964), 28-36; G. L. Harriss, ‘Medieval Government and Statecraft’, ibid, xxv (July 1963), 9-12; Koebner, Richard, ‘“The Imperial Crown of the Realm”: Henry VIII, Constantine the Great, and Polydore Vergil’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XXVI (1953), 30, 40-4, 47–8Google Scholar.
2 Elton, G. R., The Tudor Constitution (Cambridge, 1960), p. 318.Google Scholar
3 24 Henry VIII, c. 12; The Statutes of the Realm (London, 1810-1828), in, 428Google Scholar.
4 Mattingly, Garrett, Catherine of Aragon (New York, 1960), p. 307Google Scholar ; Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII (London, 1862-1910), v, 27, 31, 45, 805Google Scholar.
5 Henry had written: ‘As metropolitan the Archbishop must necessarily intervene as judge in this matter, as no other judgment would be sufficient’ (Letters and Papers, v, 327).
6 Ibid, v, 805.
7 Two years later Henry himself, though probably under the influence of Thomas Cromwell, made a similar claim (ibid, VII, 232). The claim was radical but not unanticipated by Clement VII. In January 1531 he wrote to Henry forbidding ‘any one in England, of ecclesiastical or secular dignity, universities, parliaments, courts of law, &c, to make any decision in an affair the judgment of which is reserved for the Holy See’ (ibid, V, 27).
8 A few months later the House of Commons gave indication of hostility to the divorce by its favourable reception of the motions of two members that the king be asked to take back Catherine as his wife (ibid, v, 989).
9 Sir Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, F. W., The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (Cambridge, 1899), II, 367–8.Google Scholar
10 Rotuli Parliamentarian (London, 1832), VI, 240–1Google Scholar . There is no evidence that Parliament's declaration was based on any ecclesiastical trial. Levine, Mortimer, ‘Richard III-Usurper or Lawful King?’, Speculum, XXXIV (1959), 392-3 II., 396-7, 399Google Scholar.
11 A contemporary and Yorkist chronicler reported that Parliament was at first' unable to give a definition' of Richard's rights ‘when the question of the marriage was discussed’, but, due to its fear of his adversaries, ‘it presumed to do so’ ( Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, trans, and ed. Riley, H. T., London, 1854, pp. 495–6)Google Scholar.
12 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, VI, 332.
13 See Cranmer, Thomas, Works, ed. Cox, J. E. (Parker Society, 1844-1846), II, 243–4 II.Google Scholar
14 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, VII, 232.
15 Calendar of State Papers, Venetian (London, 1846-1898), 11, 479.Google Scholar
16 See Pollard, A. F., Henry VIII (London, 1905), pp. 58-60, 141.Google Scholar
17 Friedmann, Paul, Anne Boleyn (London, 1884), 1, 231 and n.Google Scholar
18 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, VII, 232.
19 25 Henry VIII, c. 22; Statutes of the Realm, III, 472-3.
20 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, VII, 530.
21 See Statutes of the Realm, III, 471-4.
22 E.g. Merriman, R. B., The Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (Oxford, 1902), I, 114Google Scholar ; Prescott, H. F. M., Mary Tudor (London, 1952), p. 51Google Scholar.
23 Levine, Mortimer, ‘A Parliamentary Title to the Crown in Tudor England’, Huntington Library Quarterly, XXV (1962), 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24 , Elton, England under the Tudors, p. 135.Google Scholar
25 Ibid. pp. 168-70, 174-5.
26 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, X, 909.
27 See , Pollard, Henry VIII, p. 276 and n.Google Scholar
28 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, X, 909.
29 28 Henry VIII, c. 7; Statutes of the Realm, III, 658-60.
30 35 Henry VIII, c. 1; ibid. Ill, 955-6.
31 1 Mary, st. 2, c. 1; ibid. IV, 200-1.
32 Holinshed, Raphael, Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ed. Sir Ellis, Henry (London, 1807-1808), III, 1066.Google Scholar
33 1 Elizabeth, c. 3; Statutes of the Realm, IV, 358-9.
34 The Pilgrimage of Grace, though one of the many rebel demands was for Mary to be declared legitimate (Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, XII, pt. i, 901), would scarcely qualify as such a civil war.