To commemorate its eighteenth anniversary, I would like to provide the answer to the riddle posed by this story. Henry, as the reader can easily deduce from his depiction throughout the text, is the type of person who would ensure the ceilings of his home are a colour that no human being could under any circumstances ever express dissatisfaction with. When the Archbishop of York said he didn't like them, Henry realised that the Archbishop must be blind and not be personally aware of it. So making him believe he'd fed paupers to hungry lions was a simple matter of Henry making the appropriate noises.
I'd intended to include that explanation in the story, but then decided it would be funnier not to.