It would have been immensely convenient and "politic" for Pope Clement VII to accede to the English King's vehement desire to put away his wife Catherine. Henry could have made it very profitable to him. England might still be Catholic! Protestantism may have spluttered out on the Continent! Thomas More and John Fisher would have died of old age!
All it would have taken is the dishonoring and humiliation of one ageing, infertile, loyal but unloved wife.
And Clement was a Pope who did not always ---ahem--- act on principle.
But this time he did. And the result? Catastophic. It sparked a conflagration that cost the lives of uncountable people; wrecked Europe; and cost the Catholic Church far more dearly than any other institution.
No good deed ever goes unpunished, as they say.
But the story isn't over. And we will all see how it works out in the end.