of your majesty.' It was well known that the king did not love Anne, and that he was even in love with another.[360] This is a striking instance of the degree of meanness to which Henry VIII. had reduced his parliament; for an assembly, even if some mean souls are to be found in it, undertakes not to be despicable, and what is noblest in it usually comes to the surface. But if the shameful compliances of the parliament astonish us, the audacious hypocrisy of Henry VIII. surprises us still more. He stood up to answer as if in the presence of the Deity; and concealing his real motives he said,--'There is nothing in the world more dear to me than the glory of God, the good of England, and the declaration of the truth.' All the actors in this comedy played their parts to perfection.[361] The king immediately sent to Richmond some of his councillors, amongst them Suffolk and Gardiner, to communicate to the queen the demand of the parliament and to ascertain her opinion with respect to it. After many long conferences, Anne gave her consent to the proposal.[362] [Sidenote: EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES.] The next day, July 7, the matter was brought before Convocation by Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who was very anxious to see a Roman Catholic queen upon the throne of England. A committee was nominated for the purpose of examining the witnesses; and of this committee the bishop was a member. An autograph declaration of the king was produced, in which he dwelt strongly on the fact that he took such a dislike to Anne as soon as he saw her that he thought instantly of breaking off the match; that he never inwardly consented to the marriage, and that in fact it had never been consummated.[363] Within two days all the witnesses were heard. Henry was impatient; and the Roman party urgently appealed to the assembly to deliver a judgment which would rid England of a Protestant queen. Cranmer, out of fear or feebleness (he had just seen Cromwell lose his head), went with the rest of them. In his view the will of Henry VIII. was almost what destiny was for the ancients-- ---- Des arrêts du destin l'ordre est invariable. ---- On July 9, Convocation, relying upon the two reasons given by the king, and upon the fact that there was something ambiguous in Anne's engagement with the son of the duke of Lorraine, decided that his majesty 'was at liberty to contract another marriage for the good of the realm.'[364] None of these reasons had any validity.[365] Nor did Henry escape the condemnation and the raillery which he had so much feared. 'It appears,' said Francis I., 'that over there they are pleased to do with their women as with their geldings,--bring a number of them together and make them trot, and then take the one which goes easiest.'[366] [Sidenote: THE DIVORCE ACCEPTED.]