This quarrel need never have arisen had not Henry, perjured and
adulterous, desired to make the Pope his accomplice in putting away
his lawful wife in order that he might marry Anne Boleyn. Because the
Pope refused to aid him in this crime Henry destroyed the Catholic
Church in England, and he and his successors founded the so-called
Church of England, with himself as first Supreme Governor.

Among those who had most strenuously opposed the claim for divorce was
Blessed John Fisher of Rochester, and with equally unflinching
firmness he opposed the doctrine of the royal supremacy. He asserted
that "The acceptance of such a principle would cause the clergy of
England to be hissed out of the society of God's Holy Catholic
Church." He was right, his prophecy has come true, and he nearly won.
His opposition so far prevailed that a saving clause was added to the
oath of convocation, "so far as the law of God allows." This Henry
refused. The King persecuted him, Anne Boleyn tried to poison him, all
England was putrid with lies concerning him contrived by those masters
of lies, the Tudors; but the imperial ambassador asserted that the
Bishop of Rochester was "the paragon of Christian prelates both for
learning and holiness," and the Pope made him Cardinal with the title
of San Vitalis. Henry, in November 1534, with the passing of the Act
of Supremacy, attainted him of treason and declared the see of
Rochester vacant. But Blessed John Fisher said, as St Thomas had said,
"The King our Sovereign is not supreme head on earth of the Church in
England." For this he was condemned to die a traitor's death; that is,
to be hanged, disembowelled, and quartered at Tyburn in order that
Henry might enjoy his Kentish mistress in peace, and found a new
Church eager to acknowledge his adultery as lawful and to enjoy the
spoil of God.