Episode 2.01

Synopsis

Unanswered Questions

Best Moments

• Archbishop Warham gives King Henry a new title, but with a caveat: Supreme Head of the Church of England, As far as the law of Christ allows.
• Peter O'toole as the new Pope discusses with Compeggio how they should handle the King's "Great Matter".
• The poisoning scene and More's subsequent confrontation with Henry as the rumors abound, suspecting Anne and her father for the deed.
  

Best Quotes

• "You Can Not have Three People In a Marriage"
• " I cannot condone this new fangled vision of private belief and personal grace. For me, the church is the permanent and living sign of God's presence"
• "Clement was a terrible procrastinator. Although it was very wrong for some people to dig up his dead body and stab it in the street, I can well understand their feelings. He was never popular."
• "Some people will blame her for everything (Lady Anne). They'll blame her if it rains or if the rains fail. They blame her for the barrenness of the Queen or for the fact that I love her. They blame her for the winds that destroy our crops and the storms that sink our ships. It's all the fault of the Lady Anne!"
  

Trivia

• The episode takes place in 1533, the year Henry and Anne Boleyn were married, and the year of Anne's coronation. In the episode there is an aerial view of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome as it looks today. In fact, the design for the new St. Peter's Basilica with its characteristic dome had not been started by Michelangelo until 1547. The dome was not completed until 1590, and the entire redesigned basilica wasn't completed until 1626, nearly 100 years after the events the show portrays. It's an interesting anachronism because much of the Protestant Reformation, including the English Protestant Reformation, was a response (in part) to the abuse of the Roman Catholic Church selling indulgences (remissions for sin) in order to rebuild St. Peter's.