Henry VIII’s International Best Seller On Its 500th Anniversary

As Forum Auctions opens its 5th Anniversary year, it offers for sale later this month, a particularly remarkable edition of a work that celebrates its own 500th Anniversary.

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In the summer of 1521 King Henry VIII of England published a book that was celebrated throughout Europe. A copy bound in cloth of gold was presented to Pope Leo X in Rome, who rejoicing, bestowed upon Henry the title, Defender of the Faith. Just over a decade later, Henry was disowning his famed publication, claiming its composition had been the result of trickery and conspiracy. The book in question was, Assertio Septem Sacramentorum Adversus Martinum Lutherum.

The events that brought about this historically famous U-turn – the determined younger woman, the divorce case scandalous Europe-wide, the quest for a male heir – are well known. So too, are the centuries long turbulence and conflict into which they plunged the British Isles, otherwise known as, The English Reformation. Few other stories in history have been so often retold, mythologised and appropriated from all angles. Today, although historians strive for a nuanced and impartial position, most ordinary people still feel an unavoidable, instinctive sense of allegiance to one side or another when thinking about Reformation characters and events.

A grain of objectivity can be hard to find in this messy historical mêlée of interpretation. Yet, remarkably, that is just what Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, offers. Its tale, from celebrity to obscurity, offers a unique perspective on the Reformation. In 2021, entering its 500th anniversary year, its story merits review.

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As the 1520s dawned, the Church was under attack. Martin Luther had been building up steam since late 1517, and in 1520 published his three most major works to date. The second of these, De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae [On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church], directly attacked two foundational pillars of Christendom – the seven sacraments and Papal authority. The papacy, Luther argued, kept the faithful enslaved through the sacramental system, much as the Israelites had once been enslaved by the heathen and debauched Babylonians. In the Bull Exsurge Domine of the same year, Leo excommunicated Luther.

Back in England, Henry Tudor - champion athlete, handsome, wealthy and ambitious – was eager to land himself a major role on the European stage. Henry had originally been intended for the Church, and his formative education in Scripture and theology, had endowed him with a worldview comprehensive of the respective places of secular and religious authority in the universal hierarchy. The second son of such a newly minted royal dynasty desired to be marked out not merely as royal, but as blessed with Papal approval, anointed with, what he believed to be, the ancient authority of the Church.

Luther’s most recent theological assault presented Henry with an opportunity, to reach the pinnacles of papal favour, win international recognition, and not least, take a swipe at the outspoken German Augustinian himself who affronted and insulted his worldview. From extant documentation of spring 1521, a picture of Henry emerges, readying himself to come to the Church’s defence: at Court, earnestly reading De Captivitiate; convening scholars for consultation, from Oxford, Cambridge, Abbeys and Cathedrals and receiving first-hand reports from the unfolding Diet of Worms, where Luther definitively broke with Rome. Henry was, in other words, preparing to wield his pen, rather than sword. The resultant script was a staunch assertion of the theological validity of each of the seven sacraments, and of the ancient authority of the Holy See. Henry also personally defended Leo, with whom he had always enjoyed a friendly correspondence. In July 1521, Richard Pynson of London published the first printed book ever attributed to an English sovereign, Henry VIII’s Assertio Septem Sacramentorum.

The fact the King of England had chosen to defend the Papacy on Luther’s own territory of theological debate was surprising. That he had written the refutation himself, was completely unexpected. And that the resultant book was a coherent, sustained and compelling argument, was quite astounding. The Assertio became, unsurprisingly, an international best seller.

Leo X was personally delighted, praising God that he had raised such a prince, and the Vatican dispatched copies of the Assertio across Europe. Soon edition followed edition, from Antwerp, Augsburg, Cologne, Dresden, Erfurt, Leipzig, Mainz, Paris, Rome, Speyer, Strasbourg and Wittenburg. By 1522 there were two different German versions. By 1526, there were five German, and at least, eight Latin editions. Henry’s Assertio became the most widely read denunciation of Luther to date, and scholars subsequently have recognised it as the most successful of the first generation of anti-protestant polemics.

However, over the next few years, everything started to change. Few authors can have come to distance themselves so far ideologically from a more youthful publication than Henry VIII, who by 1533 had completely turned his back on the Petrine throne he had once so adamantly defended. For no longer did he need papal blessing, nor believe in its special authority; within his dominions, Henry had united all power, secular and sacred, into one single entity – himself. All memory of the King’s earlier, by now deeply embarrassing, ‘popish’ treaty, was submerged. And so it remained – through Edward and Elizabeth, through James and Charles and the Civil War - and perhaps even, over time, it was simply forgotten. For over 150 years, the Assertio dropped off the face of the English published earth.

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Fast forward to the 1680s. Much had happened, but some things remained not much changed. Catholic books and pamphlets were still being published in England at the printers’ peril, produced if at all, anonymously. Most did not feel safe with their names in black-and-white type, but with the accession of James II – the final Catholic monarch – by 1687, three bold London presses had emerged under their own imprints as the foremost providers of Catholic material: H. Hills, M. Turner and N. Thompson. James encouraged all Catholics to defend and explain their faith, believing converts would return, and print was an important medium in this campaign. Nathaniel Thompson therefore, produced not only devotional literature and sermons, but also controversial works of Catholic apology. Thus it was, that finally, 166 years after the original Pynson edition, Henry VIII’s Assertio was resurrected. This time, ground-breakingly, Thompson produced it in English, creating the first edition of Assertion of the Seven Sacraments, Against Martin Luther.

Although Thompson did not live to see the deposition of James in favour of his Protestant son-in-law, William of Orange, Thompson’s wife, Mary, continued the press. In 1688 she produced the second edition of the Assertion, a testament to the renewed success and interest in the text. However, later that year she was struck from the Stationers Company and in 1689 was arrested for printing ‘seditious libels’ against the government. Despite these impediments, Mary Thompson persevered printing Catholic material well into the 1690s, when her son-in-law took-over, himself to suffer similar hostilities in the 1700s. The context into which the Assertion re-emerged, and the treatment of the family press which published it, serve to highlight how almost 200 years after the Reformation ‘began’, engaging with England’s Catholic past was still a perilous enterprise.

The tale of the Assertio is extraordinary, because it is no exaggeration to say that its story – how it came to be written, its reception and success, its disappearance and re-emergence – is quite simply, the story of the Reformation condensed into a tiny, octavo-sized nutshell. From being the ‘golden book’ (as Cardinals nicknamed it in 1521), to spending most of the next two centuries either discredited or suppressed, to re-emerging hand-in-hand with controversy, the publications of this one book map the seismic religious and socio-cultural evolutions of the age. It is for this reason we might say it offers a grain of objectivity in the Reformation interpretational mêlée, since publication dates, edition numbers and localities, do not lie. At the very least, they are hard to appropriate for one agenda or another. If we could find one book to evoke the whole of the Reformation none more evocative could be found than the Thompson editions of the Assertion of the Seven Sacraments - not because they are about the Reformation, but because they are from its very core.

A copy of the Thompson 1688 English edition of Henry VIII’s Assertion of the Seven Sacraments, is being offered in Forum Auctions’ Online Sale later this month. What a fantastic way to begin Forum’s 5th Anniversary year - a unique opportunity to encounter such a fascinating historical relic. The 1688 edition is rare in commerce; may its success in the upcoming Sale bear testament to its historical significance and continued relevance.

To view the lot in Thursday's Sale, follow this link: https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/index.php?option=com_timed_auction&keyword=&name=&excl_keyword=&auction_no=2186&low_estimate=0&high_estimate=0&sort_by=date_desc&ipp=0&page_no=1&bidded_lots=0&view=lot_detail&lot_id=75642

*** All images in this post were taken and reproduced with permission of Forum Auctions Ltd.