Since England had joined in the great game of European politics, she
had advanced from being a third-rate power to the front rank among
nations; so it was with great satisfaction that Catholic Europe heard
Henry VIII. denounce the new Reformation, which had swiftly assumed
alarming proportions.

[Sidenote: Marriage with Anne Boleyn, 1533.]

But a woman's eyes were to change all this. As Henry looked into the
fair face of Anne Boleyn, his conscience began to be stirred over his
marriage with his brother's widow, Katharine. He confided his scruples
to Wolsey, who promised to use his efforts with the Pope to secure a
divorce from Katharine. But this lady was niece to Charles V., the
great Champion of the Church in its fight with Protestantism. It would
never do to alienate him. So the divorce was refused.

Henry VIII. was not as flexible and amiable now as the youth of
eighteen had been. He defied the Pope, married Anne (1533), and sent
his Minister into disgrace for not serving him more effectually. "There
was the weight which pulled me down," said Wolsey of Anne, and death
from a broken heart mercifully saved the old man from the scaffold he
would certainly have reached.

The legion of demons which had been slumbering in the King were
awakened. He would break no law, but he would bend the law to his will.
He commanded a trembling Parliament to pass an act sustaining his
marriage with Anne. Another permitting him to name his successor, and
then another--making him _supreme head of the Church in England_. The
Pope was forever dethroned in his Kingdom, and Protestantism had