[Short Bus]

In those days, it’s hardly surprising — politics could get rough and personal, and the Pope was as much into the game as any king.

[katana]

The royal relations of Catherine of Aragon, including Holy Roman Emperor, had significantly more political leverage with the Bishop of Rome than the king (second one in a young dynasty recently come out of a bitter civil war) of a foggy little island in the North Sea. That foggy island eventually ended up ruling approximately half the globe, but at that time England had a relatively weak hand to play in European politics, in which the Church and her Pope were central players.

Henry's appeal for annulment of a twenty year marriage that had produced a daughter was a legal stretch in the best of circumstances anyway, but till his death he considered himself a better Catholic than the Pontiff. Protestantism did not have a firm grasp on the country till Elizabeth was able to survive several assassination attempts and a serious threat of Spanish invasion and turn the country into a power to be reckoned with.

Rough and personal indeed.

[A.A. Cunningham]

politics could get rough and personal

Just ask Saint Thomas More about that goon Cromwell.

[cloudmountain]

In those days, it’s hardly surprising — politics could get rough and personal, and the Pope was as much into the game as any king.

True, especially during the times of the Medicis.
One note for interest: all those popes, even the worst, NEVER failed at their job, that is, preach the established dogmas/doctrines and moral codes from those Biblical/Apostolic tradition sources.
They may have failed as men and politicians but not as "popes."