Yet this orthodox king, to whom as "Defender of the Faith," Leo X. had sent a sword still preserved in the Ashmolean, was on the brink of a breach with Rome. For Henry, with his curious mania for matrimony, had determined to marry Anne Boleyn, but he failed to obtain from the Papal Legates in England a decree for the dissolution of his marriage. It was a failure fraught with enormous consequences. The fortunes of Oxford were involved in it. The King gladly availed himself of the suggestion of a Cambridge scholar, Thomas Cranmer, that the Universities should be called on for their judgment. They were thus placed in a position analogous to that of an oecumenical council with power to control a pontifical decree. For the Pope's predecessor had granted a dispensation for Henry's marriage with Catherine, his brother's wife. Every learned man in Europe, but for bribery or threats, would have condemned Henry's cause on its merits. But it was evident that the question would not be decided on its merits. From a packed commission at Cambridge a decision favourable to a divorce was with difficulty extorted; but even so it was qualified by an important reservation. The marriage was declared illegal, if it could be proved that Catherine's marriage with Prince Arthur had been consummated. Cambridge was praised by the King for her "wisdom and good conveyance." Yet that reservation, if the testimony of the Queen herself was to go for anything, amounted to a conclusion against the divorce. It was not expected that a favourable verdict would be obtained so easily from Oxford. At the end of his first letter, in which the King called upon the University to declare their minds "sincerely and truly without any abuse," a very plain threat is added, which left no doubt as to the royal view of what could be considered "sincere and true": "And in case ye do not uprightly according to divine learning handle yourselves herein, ye may be assured that we, not without great cause, shall so quickly and sharply look to your unnatural misdemeanour therein that it shall not be to your quietness and ease hereafter." It was proposed that the question should be referred to a packed committee. But the Masters of Arts refused to entrust the matter wholly to the Faculty of Theology. They claimed to nominate a certain number of delegates. Their attitude provoked sharp reproval and further threats from the imperious monarch. The youths of the University were warned not to play masters, or they would soon learn that "it is not good to stir up a hornets' nest."