The document is a very remarkable one, and from the point of view of continuity (of which it completely disposes) it is of very considerable interest.

Before you read it, and ponder over its contents, let me remind you that the writing of a letter in those days was a very serious business.  There was no post such as we have now, and special couriers had to be despatched from London to Rome.  Paper had not as yet been invented, so the message had to be carefully written, by paid scribes, on vellum or parchment.  Further, a letter from a King to the Pope was not a thing to be dashed off on the spur of the moment, but to be carefully thought out, and expressed with great accuracy.  The King would summon his advisers, and his Secretary of State, and probably consult some of the Bishops and weigh each word before committing his message to parchment.  In short, the document would represent his own deliberate convictions as well as those of his official advisers and counsellors.

After addressing the Pope in the usual respectful and filial way, he says:  “Let not the envious information of our detractors find place in the meek mind of your Holiness, or create any sinister opinion of a son” [observe the King calls himself a son of the Pope], “who after the manner of his predecessors” [so previous Kings were as loyal as he] “shall always firmly persist in amity and obedience to the Apostolic See.  Nay, if any such evil suggestion concerning your son should knock for entrance at your Holiness’s ears, let no belief be allowed it till the son who is concerned be heard, who trusts and always intends both to say and to prove that each of his actions is just before the tribunal of your Holiness, presiding over every creature, which to deny is to maintain heresy.”  Nothing could be stronger than this last sentence; but we will return to that later.  Then the King goes on to speak of others, who are dependent upon him, and proceeds as follows:  “And further, this we say, adjoining it as a further evidence of our intention and greater devotion, that if there be any one of our kindred or allies who walks not as he ought in the way of obedience towards the Apostolic See, we intend to bestow our diligence—­and we trust to no little purpose—­that leaving his wandering course, he may return into the path of duty and walk regularly for the future”.

From these words it is clear that the King of England, not satisfied with obeying the Pope himself, likewise insisted upon all under his authority obeying him likewise.  Indeed, he would have made short work of those who should refuse to do so.  Then, alluding to some reproach, admonition or censure which he had received from the Pope, he goes on to express himself in words strangely out of harmony with the whole tone and spirit of modern Anglicanism.  They are as follows:—­