Henry VIII used Jewish scholars to justify his divorce?

[Argent_Towers]

This website about Jews in England makes the statement “Henry VIII used Jewish scholars to justify his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his marriage to Anne Boleyn.” There is no further context or explanation.

Is this true? I’ve certainly never heard the claim. A Google search for “henry viii jewish scholars” doesn’t yield much, except for this article which says the same thing: “But why did Henry VIII import Jews for his court in the first place? It is well known that he had turned to rabbis abroad for advice when the pope refused his request for a divorce.”

It’s well known? Really? I sure as hell didn’t know about it.

[jjimm]

From the office of the Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi (of the Commonwealth):

Following the expulsion of the Jews in 1290, there was no organised Jewish life in Britain although the occasional visitor may have come to London; certainly Henry VIII received advice from a leading Rabbi when arranging his divorce from Katherine of Aragon. After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, there were small communities practising their faith in secret in London and Bristol.

And on this blog (though no primary cites)

He sent his men to Italy where a Venetian rabbi, Isaac Halfon, wrote an opinion saying that since the end of the Talmudic period, the Biblical law of Yibum, requiring a brother to marry the widow of a childless brother, had fallen into abeyance and only the divorce, Chalitza was used.

…

Henry wanted the sympathetic rabbis to come to his court to reassure him and his bishops of his case. But Jews, despite Oliver Cromwell’s support, weren’t allowed back into England officially (and not without heavy opposition) until the reign of Charles II. They couldn’t or wouldn’t come. Instead Henry had to use a Jewish convert to Christianity one Marco Raphael to come over on a generous expense account to persuade the local opponents that Jewishly speaking Henry was in his rights. Henry incidentally acquired a copy of the Talmud to do his own checking. Some years ago it was discovered in a British library and returned to Jewish ownership when the Valmadonna Trust swapped it for a copy of the Magna Carta.

I’d never heard that before either. Fascinating.

[Cunctator]

Another reference, from Garrett Mattingly’s work Catherine of Aragon (page 224):

More than a year of vacillation had brought Henry no nearer his divorce by October, 1530, than he had been when he first received Chapuys, no nearer indeed than when Campeggio announced that the legatine court would adjourn for the holidays, and Suffolk had snarled at Wolsey that it “was never merry in England whilst we had cardinals among us”. On Cranmer’s advice Henry had polled the universities, and sent his envoys all over Europe, “fishing needy rabbis out of their ghettos to opine against Deuteronomy at a minimum charge of twenty-four crowns”, only to find that of the diversities of expert opinion there is no end, and that anyone can hire experts.

[APB]

There is a whole chapter on the subject in David S. Katz’s The Jews in the history of England (Oxford University Press, 1994). Most of this (from the paperback edition) can be found on Google Books.

The Jews in the History of England, 1485-1850

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I’d never heard that before. Very interesting. Unfortunately, given the opposition to the King’s annulments from, remarriages to and executions of various wives, it’s possible his consultation with Jewish scholars might’ve reinforced anti-Semitism in England.