Papal dispensation

Pope Julius II had issued a papal dispensation in 1503, giving permission for Catherine to marry Henry despite her earlier marriage to Arthur. Henry argued that the Pope could not set aside God’s law, so this permission could not make the marriage valid. Obtaining an annulment therefore meant challenging a decision already made by the papacy, not simply asking permission to remarry.

Henry used a passage in Leviticus prohibiting marriage to a brother’s widow to argue that his marriage was unlawful. He challenged the validity of the papal dispensation that had allowed it.