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YORK.
CHAPTER
XVII.
Whatever Wolsey's ulterior projects might have been
with regard to the reformation of the Church, circumstances
arose to give it a direction which, but a veiy
few years before, could never have been foreseen.
The question of the divorce from Katherine brought
Henry VIII. into violent collision with Rome. It
ended in his throwing off all allegiance to the pojje,
and declaring himself to be the one supreme authority
in all matters, ecclesiastical as well as temporal, within
his realm of England. There was a sort of foreshadowing
of this bold step in a treaty which was
arranged in 1527 between Henry and Francis I., which
contained a provision that " whatsoever by the cardinal
of York, assisted by the prelates of England assembled
and called together by the authority of the king,
should be determined concerning the administration of
ecclesiastical affairs in the said Kingdom of England
.... should, the consent of the king being first
:
had, be decreed and observed " and corresponding
stipulations were inserted in behalf of Francis and his
clergy. Herbert, who relates this in his " Life of
Henry VIII." (p. 209), remarks "
: And here certainly
began the taste that our king took of governing in
chief the clergy." Some little time elapsed, however,
before this " taste " was fully gratified.
In 1528 Cardinal Campeggio came over to