Where do we begin....
I guess Charles and Camilla could simply give a large, undisclosed amount of money to the church in exchange for an "annulment" of their previous marriages from the bishop.
....... Henry the VIII pushed through legislation removing the Bishop of Rome's authority in England (a process that had begun in 1214) in order to ensure the succession to the throne. In order to avoid another civil war upon his death (remember, Henry's father, Henry VII, had ended the the Wars of the Roses), Henry needed an heir; in order to have an heir, Henry needed a wife who could provide him one; in order to get such a wife, he needed an annulment from his current one on the grounds that she could not provide an heir (usually granted by the Bishop of Rome after payment of a large sum of money). The problem was that Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V, had captured Rome and thrown Clement VII in jail. In another words, the politics of continental Europe were preventing England from establishing a stable succession.
Here we have the occupant of the Chair of St Peter, St Clement, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, and Innocent III jailed by a member of his own flock. Who could blame Henry for wanting to get away from that mess?
....... Everytime I see the seasonal missilettte (sp?) being used in Roman Catholic churches, I remember that the man who championed the concept of printing the service and Scriptures in the vernacular language books so that the whole congregation could follow along and participate. That man was Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, who was burned at the stake for his reform by the Inquisition.
Not Anglican bashing, but thats what I learned in school.
and the way the American branch of the Anglican church is going...