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That same year, the queen miscarried a boy. The king decided that Anne had to be removed. A fictional case against her was created involving charges of adultery and other offenses. Cranmer, who still would have been an unknown priest at Cambridge if not for Anne, saw that she was doomed and claimed that he had been mislead by her. He refused to come to her defense. Cranmer declared Henry's marriage to Anne to be void, like Catherine's before her, and she was executed 19 May 1536.
Later that year, the popular revolt known as the Pilgrimage of Grace in Northern England in October came as a shock to the king's court. For the first time, Roman Catholicism was seen not simply from a religious point of view, but rather as treason against the state. The fear of another revolt was strongly felt by King Henry and Cranmer. This fear caused them to target as "superstitious" any religious practices that brought together large numbers of people. For this reason, pilgrimages, saints' days, and the display of relics were banned. The shrines of Walsingham, St Thomas Becket, and others were looted to raise money for the defense of the kingdom. It was felt certain that an army loyal to Rome would soon invade. More money was needed and the monasteries were the next target. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which he himself had little to do with, Cranmer was given various former church properties, such as the former Cluniac nunnery at Arthington.
The following year three German divines, Francis Burkhardt, vice-chancellor of Saxony, George von Boyneburg, doctor of law, and Friedrich Myconius, superintendent of the church of Gotha were sent to London. For some months they held conferences with the Anglican bishops and clergy. The Germans presented as a basis of agreement a number of Articles based on the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg. Bishops Tunstall, Stokesley, and others were not won over by these Protestant arguments. The discussions took place in the archbishop’s palace at Lambeth and the bishops did everything they could to avoid agreement. They were willing, indeed, to separate from Rome, but their plan was to unite with the Greek church, not with the evangelical Protestants on the continent. On the "Abuses" (viz., private Masses, celibacy of the clergy, invocation of Saints) the bishops would not give way. These customs were thought by Stokesley and others to be essential, because they were also practiced in what was at that time called the Greek Church. Opposite this view, Cranmer himself favored a union with the Germans. It was a confused issue for some of the bishops:
: The bishop of Chichester, driven in one direction by the bishop of London and in the opposite by the archbishop of Canterbury, was much embarrassed, and did not know which way to turn. His decision was for (the bishop of London). The...Doctors at this period...felt it incumbent upon them to cross all Europe for the purpose of finding in the Turkish empire the Greek rite, which was for them the Gospel
The German doctors had nothing more to propose and finally King Henry, unwilling to break with Catholic practices, dissolved the conference.
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