indefatigable ardor, exclaimed that ‘the just cause of the king was approved by all the doctors of Italy.’[63] [Sidenote: Protestants Condemn The Divorce.] In the midst of this harmony of catholicity, there was one exception, of which no one had dreamt. That divorce which, according to the frivolous language of a certain party, was the cause of the Reformation in England, found opponents among the fathers and the children of the Reformation. Henry’s envoys were staggered. ‘My fidelity bindeth me to advertise your Highness,’ wrote Crooke to the king, ‘that all Lutherans be utterly against your Highness in this cause, and have letted [hindered] as much with their wretched poor malice, without reason or authority, as they could and might, as well here as in Padua and Ferrara, where be no small companies of them.’[64] The Swiss and German reformers having been summoned to give an opinion on this point, Luther, Œcolampadius, Zwingle, Bucer, Grynæus, and even Calvin,[65] all expressed the same opinion. ‘Certainly,’ said Luther, ‘the king has sinned by marrying his brother’s wife; that sin belongs to the past; let repentance, therefore, blot it out, as it must blot out all our past sins. But the marriage must not be dissolved; such a great sin, which is future, must not be permitted.[66] There are thousands of marriages in the world in which sin has a part, and yet we may not dissolve them. _A man shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh._ This law is superior to the other, and overrules the lesser one.’ The collective opinion of the Lutheran doctors was in conformity with the just and Christian sentiments of Luther.[67] Thus (we repeat) the event which, according to Catholic writers, was the cause of the religious transformation of England, was approved by the Romanists and condemned by the evangelicals. Besides, the latter knew very well that a Reformation must proceed, not from a divorce or a marriage, not from diplomatic negotiations or university statutes, but from the power of the Word of God and the free conviction of Christians. [Sidenote: English Address To The Pope.]