15. Catherine had been the wife of the king's deceased brother, Arthur; and a marriage with a deceased brother's widow was regarded as contrary to the law of God.[43] Henry therefore applied to the pope for the annulment of his marriage, since his conscience would not permit him to cohabit longer with his deceased brother's wife. The conduct of the king, however, was such as to give strong ground to the belief that it was his love for Ann Boleyn, an English lady of high birth, and not conscientious scruples as to the lawfulness of his marriage with Catherine. The queen's beauty had faded and some disease, it is said, had rendered her person less agreeable. Still, to do Henry justice, it must not be concealed that his father had scrupled the legitimacy of the marriage; a foreign {259} court had made it an objection to intermarriage with his children by his wife; and the people of England very generally entertained fears respecting the succession to his crown, and these political considerations doubtless had their influence.[44] Still it will not be denied that after the king had fallen in love with Ann Boleyn, his love for her and not political considerations, or religious scruples, was the incentive that prompted him to seek a divorce. 16. The Rupture with the Pope.--The pope, Clement VII, evaded a direct answer to Henry's appeal. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, and perhaps Clement feared that he would offend that monarch--to whom he looked to suppress the Reformation in Germany--if he granted the divorce. Henry, impatient of these enforced delays, consulted the universities of Europe, and as most of them pronounced marriage with a deceased brother's wife unlawful, he divorced Catherine without the consent of the pope. A quarrel ensued between the king and the pontiff, which resulted in the former casting off the authority of the latter, and the pope excommunicated the king. In 1533 Henry was declared head of the British church and Defender of the Faith, by the English parliament. He thereupon ejected the monks from their possessions, disposed of their property at his own good pleasure, and abolished in toto the authority of the pope in England.