iage was impure and thus the marriage produced no male heir as a punishment. Henry believed that no man, even the pope, could not go against the word of God. This belief came from Henry's extensive training in the Humanist tradition and thus helped to strengthen Henry's resolve in this matter. No matter what the explanation was Henry was not going to except the dispensation and no special circumstances mattered. The dispensation stated that because of special circumstances, namely that the marriage was never consummated, that the passage from Leviticus did not apply. Henry's quest had begun in secret in 1527 and in May he sent Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Warham to plead to have the marriage annulled, in secret. In June Henry's plan hit an obstacle, Charles V. Charles V was the Emperor in Spain and had sacked Rome, taking the Pope, Clement VII, prisoner. The one complicating factor was that Charles V was the nephew of Queen Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and Issabella of Spain. With Charles "advising" Pope Clement VII he had little choice but to submit to Charles will. This also meant that Catherine would appeal to Rome if the marriage was annulled and what is more important is that appeal would be upheld by Clement and thus Henry began seeking a method of annulment that would not be overturned. One way this could have been carried out was through a plan devised by Cardinal Wolsey. The plan was that Wolsey, himself, would set up a papacy in exile in Avignon. Pope Clement VII could delegate authority to Wolsey and he could in turn solve the problem for Henry and save himself in the process.4 The plan was good for Wolsey, who always aspired to become pope, but soon the pope, his cardinals and eventually all of Europe including England, refused to participate in such a plan. Soon Henry would no longer keep his plans for an annulment secret, telling a distraught Catherine that she was no longer his wife on June 22, 1527. ...
