and P._, vi., 241.] [Footnote 529: E.L.Taunton, _Wolsey_, 1902, p.
173, where the words are erroneously given as "To the King's ten mistresses"; "the King's" is an interpolation.] [Footnote 530: _L.

and P._, iv., 3748.] The gross immorality so freely imputed to Henry seems to have as little foundation as the theory that his sole object in seeking the divorce from Catherine and separation from Rome was the gratification of his passion for Anne Boleyn.

If that had been the case, there would be no adequate explanation of the persistence with which he pursued the divorce.

He was "studying the matter so diligently," Campeggio says, "that I believe in this case he knows more than a great theologian and jurist"; he was so convinced of the justice of his cause "that an angel descending from heaven would be unable to persuade him otherwise".[531] He sent embassy after embassy to Rome; he risked the enmity of Catholic Europe; he defied the authority of the vicar of Christ; and lavished vast sums to obtain verdicts in his favour from most of the universities in Christendom.

It is not (p.