Papacy

The Papacy is the highest external religious authority in the novel’s struggles over marriage, succession, and control of the Church. Its rulings and offices initially offer a means to settle disputes that English power cannot resolve alone; later, Henry VIII’s campaign to rule the Church himself turns the question of papal authority into a test of obedience, conscience, and political survival.

Authority and the Marriage Dispute

The Papacy’s role is first made concrete through the dispensation connected to the marriage of Prince Arthur and Katherine of Aragon. In a courtly argument over whether that marriage had been consummated, Margaret insists that the Pope’s dispensation had been arranged by Katherine’s mother and was framed to cover either possibility. The competing account is politically consequential: if the marriage had been consummated, Henry VIII’s marriage to his brother’s widow could be challenged on religious grounds; if it had not, Katherine’s claim that her marriage to Henry remained valid gained support. The dispensation therefore appears not as a remote abstraction but as a document whose wording could shape the Tudor succession.

The dispute also shows how papal authority becomes entangled with evidence and accusation. Anne Hastings presses Margaret to affirm that Prince Arthur and Katherine had been together regularly, while Margaret objects that the dispensation already addressed the uncertainty. Another courtly accusation treats Katherine’s denial of consummation as a lie that could imperil the king’s household. The Papacy’s earlier provision is thus pulled into a later political struggle: each side seeks to make a contested past determine what the Church may permit in the present.

Wolsey’s Office and Royal Diplomacy

Papal authority is also expressed through appointments and diplomacy. Thomas Wolsey’s elevation to papal legate is treated as a new honor conferred by the Holy Father, one that adds to his standing at court. The appointment places him in a position associated with peacemaking: he proposes peace between England and the Kingdom of France and a marriage between Princess Mary Tudor and the dauphin. Yet Wolsey’s influence remains politically exposed. The king favors war with France, encouraged by the prospect of recovering the title King of France, while Wolsey favors the French. The contrast reveals that an office bestowed by the Papacy does not make its holder master of royal policy.

The king’s effort to obtain a judgment against his marriage to Katherine also depends on the Pope’s capacity to decide the matter. At the Blackfriars hearing, Katherine asks to appeal to Rome, then leaves the court. The appeal rejects the idea that an English hearing can settle the marriage in a way binding on her. Henry VIII responds by seeking arguments and authorities beyond England: Reginald Pole is sent to Paris to consult scholars and obtain books for the king’s case. The need for foreign counsel underscores the continuing reach of papal jurisdiction. Unless the Pope rules for the king, the court fears that the marriage will remain valid in the sight of God and cannot simply be set aside by an English verdict.

Captivity and the Failure of an Appeal

The balance of power changes when Charles V invades Rome and captures the Pope. From a distant western residence, Margaret’s household receives the news without reliable information about what may be happening in London. The Pope’s confinement makes an appeal more than a formal question of procedure: a ruler who is effectively held by Katherine’s nephew is in no position to act freely against her. The political circumstance frustrates Henry VIII’s attempt to secure a ruling against the marriage, while Katherine continues to maintain that her marriage is valid and that her place as queen was appointed by God.

This episode sharply distinguishes the Papacy’s claimed religious authority from the material conditions under which it must operate. The Pope’s judgment could affect the English crown, but access to that judgment is vulnerable to the power of an emperor. Meanwhile, Katherine’s refusal to accept an English ruling rests on a hierarchy of authority in which the Holy Father, not the king’s court, can release her from her position. Her appeal therefore holds together personal conviction and jurisdictional resistance: the English hearing can proceed, but she does not treat it as the final court.

Royal Supremacy and the Limits of Papal Rule

The conflict eventually becomes a direct contest over who governs the Church in England. Margaret is told that the Church has yielded to the king: the Pope is to be disregarded in England, and Henry VIII will rule the Church himself. Thomas More responds to the change by returning the Lord Chancellor’s seal, resigning, and going home. His departure makes the transfer of authority visible as a breach within the king’s own government, not merely a change in religious language.

The new order is reinforced through an oath of succession administered to the peers at the Palace of Westminster by Thomas Cromwell. The oath brings the nobility into the altered settlement by requiring them to affirm the king’s arrangements. The king had promised Thomas More that he would not force him to face such a test, but breaks that promise. The scene connects the institutional displacement of the Papacy with personal consequences: resistance to the new settlement is no longer only disagreement about theology but a demand that subjects publicly submit to the king’s authority.

Papal authority remains a source of political fear even after the king’s claim to supremacy. Montague explains that Thomas Cromwell wants Reginald Pole to stop writing against the king and urging the Pope to act. He also reports fear that the Pope might excommunicate the king and Cromwell, after which people might refuse to obey them. The concern reveals the continuing force attributed to papal sanctions: the king may disregard the Pope within England, but his ministers still worry that a judgment from beyond the realm could undermine their commands. Cromwell’s insecurity is heightened by the king’s changing advice and by the possibility of suffering the fate of Wolsey.

Appeals, Persecution, and Hopes of Restoration

The Papacy remains a possible refuge for people caught in the religious settlement. Margaret writes to Reginald through a messenger in Flanders after her priory is given to a stranger who will dismiss its priests and close it. Her appeal asks that the Holy Father be told that the Church cannot endure such treatment. The letter places the family’s distress alongside the institutional loss: the closure of a religious house and the removal of its community are presented as consequences of the king’s policy, while Rome remains the destination for an appeal that cannot be safely made through royal channels.

The same conflict touches Princess Mary Tudor. Montague reports that there is an effort to obtain a papal dispensation so she can take an oath accepting that her parents’ marriage was invalid, that she is illegitimate, and that the king is head of the Church. He says she must swear or risk arrest and execution, and that the oath is meant to buy time while her supporters seek to get her away. The Papacy is therefore invoked both to enable submission and to preserve the possibility of escape: a dispensation might make the oath possible, while papal opposition to the king remains part of the threat his advisers fear.

Even after the Papacy has been displaced from formal authority in England, hope of its intervention persists among the northern rebels. A report says that a cardinal is expected to come to England and restore the Church to its former glory once the king agrees to the pilgrims’ demands. The expectation is conditional and political; it does not mean that restoration has occurred. Rather, it shows that the Papacy continues to supply an imagined alternative to the king’s religious settlement. Across the novel, its changing place—from provider of a marriage dispensation, to appellate authority, to a power obstructed by captivity, and finally to a hoped-for source of restoration—marks the struggle over whether religious legitimacy can still be determined beyond the king’s reach.