"And it's making me question Pope Clement's mind.

Excerpt from Alison Weir's- Henry VIII:
"Campeggio soon made it clear that Clement was prepared to offer Henry anything except the annulment he so desired, even a dispensation for a marriage between the Princess Mary and her half-brother Henry Fitzroy."

Now to me that is beyond creepy. The Pope was prepared to legalise a marriage between a brother and sister, but he was so against a man wanting to have his marriage annulled. It makes no sense. Now if a marriage between said brother and sister, even if they are "half" is not considered a sin in God's eyes, then I don't see how the Pope could not grant an annulment, the pope thinking that that annulment is a sin in God's eyes.

So what do you think about this? Wrong that the pope would want to legalise a incestuous marriage, and still deny a annulment?"

"I don't think Mary would have even agreed to this, would she?"

"So Henry wanted a divorce based on his apparent incest and the Pope thinks its ok to sanction incest between blood related siblings just so Henry won't marry Anne? No wonder people thought the church was corrupt. I must say it is better for Mary to be unhappy in her marriage to Philip than to marry her brother. "

"True, this really does say a lot about Cromwell and Cranmer's beliefs of the Catholic Church, corrupt and superstitious, they certainly weren't wrong!"

"I thought the Egyptians just married their siblings no matter what whether they were a girl or not. Can't say I agree with it but those were ancient times, and atleast it kept the Greek in the family. Not condoning the practice though"

"I'm a Catholic and will definitely say that the system here in Ireland was a complete disgrace, they have way too much control, they manipulated the education system to such an extent that they beat, raped and psychologically tortured both girls and boys, and for what, one example that haunts was that of a girl who had been raped by her cousin, and was blamed for being permiscuos and was confined to a convent for most of her life, the girl was not permiscous, and her cousin was in fact mentally challenged!

The papal authority in England existed 500 years ago, the case some of the girls mentioned up above in Egypt occured about 3,000 years ago!!! The Catholic Church seemed only prepared to change their laws to suit the King of England in the case of marrying his daughter to her half-brother, yet they wouldn't even grant him an annulment, am i the only one completely baffled by this?"

"I wasn't comparing, i was more excusing the Egyptians, i don't think incest was illegal back then, or even viewed as a sin!

But that case that you mentioned about the young girl (nine years old?), is Catholicism pretty strong over there, or is it a different religion altogether?"