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240 YORK.
in the accustomed manner for the papal bullsauthorizing
the consecration, the delivery of the pall,
and other customary formalities. No opposition was
offered by the pope, and the bulls were issued.
They required ititer alia that the Archbishop elect
should take an oath of canonical obedience to the
pope. This obedience Cranmer certainly never
meant to pay, but he took the oath nevertheless,
salving his conscience by making a previous protest
in the presence of some chosen witnesses that in
so doing he did not intend to bind himself to anything
contrary to God's l.nv, to the king's authority,
or to such reforms as he might deem salutary to the
Church of England. No special pleading can acquit
Cranmer of disingenuousness, not to say of dishonesty,
in thus dealing with a solemn oath.
At this time Henry had already been married to
Anne Boleyn. The ceremony took place privately
on the 25th January, 1533. It was commonly
reported that Cranmer had officiated at this marriage,
but that was not the case.' His subservience
to the monarch's wishes was, however, speedily
shown. Katherine was cited to appear at an
ecclesiastical court held at Dunstable under the
presidency of the new primate, duly licensed by the
king, but she stedfastly refjised to obey the citation.
'
Cranmer writes to Hawkins, the English ambassador at
the court of the Emperor Charles V., "it has been reported
throughout a great part of the realm that I married her; which
was plainly false, for I myself knew not thereof a fortnight
after it was done."—Ellis, " Orig. Letters," 1st series, ii. p.
89.