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“Henry’s libido won, but this business of appointing bishops wasn’t all it was claimed to be. “

Gross abbreviation of history. Divorce (or “anullment”), such as the one Henry sought were routinely granted by the Catholic Church for monarchs and other influential folks. In Henry’s case, it was favoring Spain over England that was more of a factor.

This is cheap XVI century English propaganda devoid of all factual content (besides, at the time the Church was having problems with the Spanish crown as well). The Church has always prohibited divorce as commanded by Jesus. Henry had contracted a valid marriage and he had no chance of ever obtaining a declaration of nullity.

Of course there have been abuses on behalf of some ecclesiastical courts in granting declarations of nullity, but that was always IN VIOLATION of clear and constant and never abrogated Church doctrine and canon law. And, there is no such thing as an “annulment”. Marriage can never be “annulled”: either it exists or it doesn’t. Only if it can be ascertained - and it seldom can - that it never existed in the first place can nullity be granted. Just the other day Pope Benedict insisted on the need to be more strict in granting declarations of nullity. This has been also a battle of John Paul II to combat the secularist/protestant mentality that has become widespread among ecclesiastical judges and bureacrats. You won’t find a single Pope from Peter to Benedict XVI teaching or allowing something different as regards marriage. All Popes have insisted on the indissoluble nature of marriage and warned against putting eternal salvation at risk by messing with the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Well, the Spanish were at the time invading and looting and desecrating Rome. Plus Hnery VIII wanted an annullment because he suddenly thought that his entire marriage had been invalid and therefore reduced his wife Katherine of Aragon to an unwitting concubine and his daughter Mary illegitimate. Then in the end the Church of England simply became a vehicle for an easy annulment/divorce whenever Henry got tired of his wives. The Church at that point was just a religious organization suited to make laws for the convenience of the monarch’s lifestyle choices.

In Henry’s case, the problem was he had already had to go to the Pope to marry his first wife, Catherine of Aragorn, inasmuch as the marriage would have been considered incestuous, because she was his brother’s widow. The Pope gave him the sought after dispensation.It was a bit rich of Henry to go back to the same Pope seeking an annulment from the same wife he got the dispensation for.

In Henry’s case, it was favoring Spain over England that was more of a factor.

I don't think St. Thomas More and Bishop St. John Fisher would agree that a question of foreign policy was all that was at stake—as opposed to the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage and the teaching authority of the Pope—when they chose to go to their executions rather than change their minds.