THE AUTHOR OF EPISCOPALIANISM.
VERSAILLES, Mo., August 31.—Editor, ICONOCLAST: Will
you please inform me who was the father of Anne Boleyn,
second wife of Henry the Eighth, giving citations.
JOHN D. BOHLING.
Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Henry VIII. of
England, and Lady Boleyn. This is so well known to every
student of history that "giving citations" seems
superfluous; but of the first that comes to my mind I'll furnish
a few: Dr. Bayley ("Life of Bishop Fisher") says that
before the wedding of King Henry to Anne occurred, Lady
Boleyn addressed to the former these words: "Sir, for
the reverence of God, take heed what you do in marrying
my daughter, for, if you record your own conscience well,
she is your own daughter as well as mine"; to which the
king replied: "Whose daughter soever she is, she shall
be my wife." Dr. Sander ("Anglican Schism") says
that Henry VIII. was the father of his second wife, Anne
Boleyn. Dr. D. Lewis, in his introduction to the book,
says that both Lady Boleyn and her daughter Mary were
King Henry's mistresses, and adds: "Nothing remains
but to accept the fearful story told, not by Dr. Sander
only, nor by him before all others, and say that, at least
by the confession of the King and both Houses of Parliament,
Anne Boleyn was Henry's child." Van Ortroy (Vic
de B. Martyr Jean Fisher") says that Anne was the
daughter of Henry, and that the fact was so generally
known that it was the subject of ribald songs in
continental capitals. William Cobbett ("History of the
Protestant Reformation") says that Anne Boleyn became
first the mistress and then the wife of her father.
Gasquet, in his notes on that work, endorses the statement.
By act of Parliament (28 Henry VIII C. 7) Elizabeth,
daughter of Henry and Anne, was declared a bastard;
that "certain just and lawful impediments" were
unknown to the King when the marriage occurred, but had
since been officially "confessed by the said Lady Anne."
Archbishop Cranmer, who divorced Henry from Catherine,
also divorced him from Anne, declaring in his latter
decree "in the name of Christ and for the honor of God,
the marriage was and always had been null and void."
This sentence was signed by both houses of Convocation.
It was approved by Parliament. Yet Cranmer, the
Convocation and Parliament recognized Henry's divorce from
Catherine as valid. According to English law, both
religious and secular, Henry had no other wife when he
married Anne, she no other husband. The only "lawful
impediments" to the marriage were those stated by Anne's
mother. They were positively known before Anne's
marriage to Henry, the first official head of the Church of
England, and who formulated and enforced its first body
of doctrine, and there is every reason to believe that they
were known at that time to Cranmer, the first archbishop
of the parent of Episcopalianism, the sweet-scented author
of the "Book of Common Prayer."
* * *
Dr. Rufus C. Burleson is not a perfect man. He has
not always treated the ICONOCLAST either with Christian
charity or courtesy; but as men go, he's far above the
average. While he was president of Baylor University
its students did not get drunk. They were not encouraged
to arm themselves and commit lawless acts of violence.
All the good that is in Baylor University is due
to his untiring efforts and self-sacrifice. There would be
no Baylor University to-day but for Dr. Burleson; yet
after nearly half a century of service, he has been pitched
out and humiliated and lied about by creatures who are
not worthy to breathe the same atmosphere. The Baptist
fight is none of mine; but I am the champion of fair play;
and I say here that even in his so-called "dotage," Dr.
Burleson has more brains, more good morals, more manhood,
than have Carroll, Cranfill, and all their scurvy
crew. If the enemies of Burleson triumph at the coming
state convention, then the Baptist sect ought to perish
from the earth. Shake, Doctor; Baylor has treated you
a damned sight worse than it has treated me.
