Actually the marriage between Arthur and Catherine was consumated. Though Catherine claimed it was not, there were plenty of witnesses brought at the legitine trial to take the consumation as having happened - a fact.
Yes, there was a dispensation given for Catherine's marriage to Henry because she had been married to his brother and could not, in the Catholic Church, be married by any priest within the church without a dispensation from the Pope.
The real reason Henry wanted the annullment had nothing to do with politics or religion, but good old fashioned lust, as well as the fact that he had no living male heir.
He wanted Anne Bolelyn. She wouldn't sleep with him until he married her. Catherine had given him no male heir. Anne was young and he believed she could. So he had to have the marriage annulled.
It was Anne who first introduced Henry to the arguments concerning the annullment. She was a Reformer and wanted to change England to Reform. As Anne told Henry it was simple:
He had married his brother's wife, and God's Law said it was a sin:
Quote:
Leviticus 20:21
"If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless."
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Catherine obviously HAD consumated the marriage to Arthur as she and Henry were childless. At least they were unable to have a son, which in Henry's eyes amounted to the same thing.
Therefore, the Pope had erred in giving the dispensation for the marriage and it was his duty to rescind it.
When the Pope refused to grant Henry's request, he simply took the custom and priviledge of England and became head of the Anglican church himself. He got most of the European theological colleges on his side. He chose his own Archbishop of Cantebury, (Cranmer) and the new Archbishop made sure the annullment went through and that Anne and Henry were legally married.