and Francis simultaneously. Possibly he anticipated no difficulty in
legitimating Mary while annulling her mother's marriage--as was ultimately
done. It may be noted that it is absolutely impossible to maintain that
_both_ Mary and Elizabeth were born in lawful wedlock; yet the country
accepted both as legitimate without demur. But this French treaty darkens
rather than illuminates the problem.

The only fact definitely apparent in the papers of 1527 is that Henry had
determined to make Anne his wife. There is no hint of the conscientious
scruples or the patriotic motives afterwards alleged, though that of course
does not preclude their having been present. Those two alleged motives
require to be examined merely as _a priori_ hypotheses.

[Sidenote: Theoretical excuses]

There was one possible plea, then, for urging that a divorce was necessary:
namely that political considerations made it imperative for the good of the
nation that the King should take to himself a wife who might bear him a
male heir to the throne. And there was one possible plea for demanding a
formal enquiry into the validity of the dispensation: namely a
conscientious doubt on the part of the King or Queen whether the union with
a brother's widow was contrary to the Moral Law. No doubt existed as to the
Pope's power of abrogating a law, made by the Church for the public good,
in a specific case; but it was not claimed that he could abrogate the Law
of God in like manner. If this was a case in which the Pope possessed the
dispensing power, the dispensation held; if it was not, the marriage was no
marriage however innocently the parties entered upon it. One or other of
these pleas must be made the pretext of any public action.

[Sidenote: The need of an heir]