This King Henry married his deceased brother's wife before the marriage of the latter was fully consummated. It is a settled doctrine of the Catholic Church that when both parties to a marriage enter into it of their own free will and accord, and that no moral objection is standing in the way of the ceremony, upon the consummation of marriage no priest nor power on earth can divorce and religiously remarry any of the parties while they both live.[1] Henry VIII knew this. After being for twenty years married, he pretended to feel frightfully uneasy because "it was wrong for him to marry his brother's wife" after the brother's death. He applied for a divorce to the Pope, and the Pope refused to grant him a divorce. He at once established his own ecclesiastical courts, declared himself head of the Church, and his courts at once granted him a divorce from his lawful wife. Immediately he married one Anne Boleyn, whom he divorced and killed for another wife. In all he had six wives, one of whom he caused to be ripped open on child's birth. He seized and confiscated the churches, chapels and all religious houses in England and converted them to his own use. Of course these acts were resisted with bloodshed. The foundation on which the Protestant Reformation was founded in England, was born in lust, murder and plunder. The British sovereign declared himself supreme head of the Church on earth, and substituted the parson for the priest. Henry VIII attempted to introduce his new-made religion into Ireland. This religion was not Catholic nor was it Protestant. Ireland rejected it and Henry VIII was not able to enforce his orders there. In the year 1553, Edward VI died, and Queen Mary, daughter of Henry and of Catherine of Aragon, became Queen of England. This Queen was a staunch Roman Catholic. Maddened at the ill-treatment of her mother at the hands of Henry VIII, his ministers, the ecclesiastical courts and reformers, she restored the Catholic religion, recovered Catholic churches, monasteries and like property, and tortured and burned Protestant leaders, especially those who refused to deliver up the property. By Protestant historians she is styled "Bloody Mary." As Ireland was always Catholic, her reign there did not cause much disturbance. _Queen Elizabeth._--After her came Queen Elizabeth, called the "Virgin Queen" by Protestants, because she never married. However, she was the reverse of a virgin. She declared herself a Catholic, but when the Pope was notified that she ascended the throne by hereditary rights and the will of the people, it appears he made use of some language to the effect that he did not see how she could claim the Crown of England by hereditary rights, as she was the daughter of Henry VIII with Anne Boleyn while his first wife was alive. Queen Elizabeth, fearing the influence of Rome might deprive her of the crown, at once declared herself a Protestant.