. . wills of the first decades of the sixteenth century (up to the 1540's) show English men and women . . . pouring into their parish churches gifts of money, sheep, cattle, timber, crops of wheat, rye and beans, bushels of malt and loads of stone, beehives and barrels of salt and fish, jewels and rings, silver and pewter plate, gowns of silk, satin and sarsenet . . . . all these legacies went to parish churches and chapels of ease to embellish and repair them, and to endow high altars dedicated to various saints . . . . They left money and goods for repairs and new buildings, for church furnishings, for organs, clocks and especially church bells. They left their worldly goods to religious contrafraternities, to choirs, and for the upkeep of churchyards . . . . there was still an intense preoccupation with expiatory bequests, that is, bequests which, directly or indirectly, resulted in masses, prayers, and sacrificial offering to Heaven of earthly possessions for the repose of the souls of the benefactor and his or her kin . . . . There is no evidence that any less was being done for the glory of God.
Henry had taken strong positions against Luther, and had been granted a title “Defender of the Faith”.
Again, the government and the church were strongly conflated in those days. Henry thought the church should have recognized his desires for an anullment, and granted the annullement.
I got a dispensation when I was first married. My best point of argument was that if not given it, I would simply marry outside the Church. Well, Henry had the same option as I, but even better!