"The Tudors"

The Tudors, which is a drama on Showtime, has become quite exciting.

As King Henry VIII parades his new wife, Anne Boelyn, to his court and the people of England, his first wife, Princess Dowager Catherine, is under house arrest for her refusal to accept the king's divorce and his subsequent marriage to her former lady-in-waiting. Many of his subjects are demoralized by their king's defiance of papal authority.

Not to be undeterred, Pope Paul III (played by the great acting veteran Peter O'Toole) is working to undermine Henry's power throughout his realm and among his royal colleagues throughout Christendom. Paul III reveals a startling plan to demoralize Henry's defiance of papal authority in England further, by declaring Bishop John Fisher, a staunch Papist, who has been imprisoned in the Tower of London for his public unwillingness to accept Henry as the supreme head of the English Church, a cardinal. He declares to Cardinal Campeggio, who is to send Fisher his cardinal's hat, "Let's see if the King is still prepared to prosecute and torture a prince of the Church!"