Henry's move to reform the Church in England began with his desire to divorce Queen Catherine, who had not borne him any surviving male children. Henry wished to remarry with the young Anne Boleyn, but to do that he needed a dispensation from the Pope to declare the marriage with Catherine null and void. Since Henry had received a dispensation to marry Catherine in the first place–she had been his brother Arthur's widow, and therefore needed special permission to marry Henry–Pope Clement VII was not eager to grant the new dispensation, which would have implied that his predecessor had erred in granting the first dispensation. Henry employed his chief minister of the time, Thomas Wolsey, to put pressure on Pope Clement, but the Pope would not
