The controversies which had raged were not concerned with spiritual supremacy nor were they peculiar to England. Much worse ones had arisen to disturb the friendly relations that should exist between the Holy See and France or Spain, and yet nobody would care to deny that both of these nations acknowledged their subjection to Rome. Neither were they between the English clergy or the English people and the Pope; they were waged rather between the Crown and the Holy See. As royal absolutism began to develop in Europe the policy of kings was to increase their power over the ecclesiastical organisation in their dominions by lessening the authority of the Pope. This tendency is brought out clearly in the concessions wrung from the Pope by Ferdinand I. of Spain and Louis XII. of France, but more especially in the Concordat negotiated between Leo X. and Francis I. (1516), according to which all appointments in the French Church were vested practically in the hands of the king. Henry VIII. was a careful observer of Continental affairs and was as anxious as Francis I. to strengthen his own position by grasping the authority of the Church. He secured a /de facto/ headship of the Church in England when he succeeded in getting Cardinal Wolsey invested with permanent legatine powers. Through Wolsey he governed ecclesiastical affairs in England for years, and on the fall of Wolsey he took into his own hands the control that he had exercised already through his favourite and minister. Had Leo X. consented to a concordat similar to that concluded with France, whereby the royal demands would have been conceded frankly and occasions of dispute removed, or else had he taken the strong step of refusing to delegate his authority indefinitely to a minister of the king, he would have prevented trouble and misunderstanding, and would have made the battle for royal supremacy much more difficult than it proved to be in reality. ---------- [1] Lupton, /Life of Dean Colet/, 1887. [2] Gasquet, /Eve of the Reformation/, 142. [3] Chalmers, /History of the College ... of Oxford/. Mullinger, /The University of Cambridge to 1535/. [4] Leach, /English Schools at the Reformation/, 1896, p. 6 (a valuable book). [5] Gasquet, op. cit., ix-xiii., English works of Sir Thomas More, 1557, (especially /The Dyalogue/, 1529). [6] Wilkins, /Concilia/, iii. 317. [7] Gasquet, op. cit., chap. viii., /The Old English Bible/, iv., v. Maitland, /The Dark Ages/, 1845, no. xii. [8] Gairdner, /Lollardy and the Reformation/, vol. ii., 221-303. [9] On this subject, cf. Gasquet, /Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries/. Gairdner, /Lollardy and the Reformation/, vol. ii., 3-221. Jessopp, /Visitation of the Diocese of Norwich/, 1492-1532 (Camden Society). [10] /Cambridge Modern History/, i., chap. xv.