Diarmaid MacCulloch, Ph.D.: Thomas Cranmer"--Ch. 4: Queen Anne, 86ff.

Meanwhile, the Papal Nuncio, aware of the “conditional” character of the 1532 Parliamentary Act in Restraint of Annates (an Achilles’ heel if the Pope gets out of line), advising the Pope of the danger of schism, and acting sheepishly in Henry’s Court, is received well at Court while, conversely, the Spanish ambassador, the ever-astute Eustace Chapuys, annoyed at the spinelessness of the Nunio, reports in letters to the Emperor who “does not seem to have lifted a finger to stop them” (87). The Papal bulls, about eleven of them, arrive permitting Cranmer to proceed and benefit from papal bulls while essentially rejecting their authority. One almost needs a day-by-day accounting of each month of March, April and May 1533. Timing, precision, control, gossip, actions, legal briefs—jam-packed and the high-speed train is rolling. 

Cranmer is authorized by the King to proceed to the pre-agreed decision of the so-called Dunstable trial—the judge, jury and outcome is predictable and is jerry-rigged.