Wolsey met the objection with a legal point, perfectly good in itself, but trivial.

There were two canonical disabilities which the dispensation must meet for Henry's marriage to be valid; first, the consummation of Catherine's marriage with Arthur; secondly, the marriage, even though it was not consummated, was yet celebrated _in facie ecclesiae_, and generally reputed complete.

There was thus an _impedimentum publicae honestatis_ to the marriage of Henry and Catherine, and this impediment was not mentioned in, and therefore not removed by, the dispensation.[617] [Footnote 614: _Ibid._, iv., 5376-77, 5470-71, 5486-87.

For the arguments as to its validity see Busch, _England under the Tudors_, Eng.trs., i., 376-8; Friedmann, _Anne Boleyn_, ii., 329; and Lord Acton in the _Quarterly Rev._, cxliii., 1-51.] [Footnote 615: She made this statement to Campeggio in the confessional (_L.

and P._, iv., 4875).] [Footnote 616: _Ibid._, iv., 5377, 5438; _Sp.
Cal._, iii., 276, 327.] [Footnote 617: _L.