Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum

Antwerp: Michiel Hillen, 1522. AN EARLY EDITION, ONE OF FIVE PRINTED IN 1522 (The book was first printed in 1521, at London. A Rome edition also appeared in 1521.). Hardcover. Fine. A fine copy, bound in 17th c. calf (ca. 1680), either English or Dutch, with some surface wear and a stain and small sympathetic repair to the lower board, corners bumped, lacking label, gilding perished in places. Title and verso of final blank lightly soiled, first few leaves with light marginal finger-soiling, a few marginal blemishes. With an intricate historiated woodcut title border (dated 1520) featuring grotesques, urns, and a triumph with cherubs, putti, and an elephant. Two fine historiated woodcut initials and several other decorative initials. 18th c. English signature on front flyleaf. Printed by the Antwerp bookbinder-printer-bookseller-publisher Michiel Hillen (a. 1476-1558). During Henry VIII’s reign, Hillen printed a number of important books for the English market, both Catholic and Protestant, including William Tyndale’s “practyse of prelates (1530), which criticized Henry VIII’s divorce.

Written in 1521 in response to Martin Luther’s “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church” -the reformer’s radical exposition of the Protestant faith and attack on the papacy- Henry VIII’s “Defense of the Seven Sacraments” won for its author the coveted title of “Defensor Fidei” (Defender of the Faith) from Pope Leo X. Coming as it did from such a powerful Christian prince, Luther was forced to respond to Henry’s work, which he did with more than his usual severity, insulting the king and challenging his theological points. In turn, Henry’s most talented theologians, Thomas More and John Fisher, penned defenses of the king’s “Defense” and further challenges to Luther’s religious views, in what was to become one of the most important debates on the substance of Luther’s doctrine in this crucial, early period.

Henry VIII’s “Defense of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther” was published in the summer of 1521, by which time Luther had already been excommunicated and outlawed, but his creed was spreading fast and had begun to penetrate England:

“The body of Henry’s ‘Assertio’ is primarily concerned with a defense of the seven sacraments against Luther’s attack but there are occasional digressions to take up other controversial points in Luther’s theology. Henry began the main body of his work by castigating Luther for having once acknowledged the value of indulgences, which he openly condemned in his ‘95 Theses’. Similarly, he criticized the reformer because of his earlier acknowledgment of a papal authority that he now rejected in favor of a law of his own establishing.

“Henry VIII could not conceive of a serpent more venomous than the author of the ‘Babylonian Captivity’. Luther, he said, had put his own sense and meaning into the sacraments to the destruction of ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies. He had despised the holy and ancient interpreters of scripture; he had called Rome Babylon and the authority of the popes tyranny. For Henry, Luther was a detestable trumpeter of pride, calumny and schism….

“Henry was outraged by Luther’s view that marriage, instituted by God, could unite husband and wife without carrying with it a divinely infused grace. Henry countered that marriage must be regarded as something more holy than a mere care for propagating the flesh. The more holy thing, he said, is the grace that God, the Prelate of all sacraments, infuses into married people in a consecrated marriage. Gravely, and no doubt sincerely, this man of many future marriages said, ‘Carnal concupiscence, by the grace of God, is changed into wine of the best taste. Christ says, ‘What God has put together let no man put asunder.’ O admirable word, which none could have spoken but the Word made flesh.’

“The king was bitterest of all in attacking Luther’s views on the sacrament of holy orders. The special order and authority of the priesthood was the very essence of the order and authority so important to the king. In place of the order of this sacrament, Luther is substituting anarchy and gathering into it all the treasuries of his malice. For what else, Henry asked, does Luther aim at by taking away the sacrament of the priestly orders than to render the ministers of the church contemptible, to procure that the sacraments of the church may also be despised and undervalued as being administered by vile and illegitimate ministers, which is the only drift of Luther’s work? To the king of England, Luther represented a menace to stability and authority, a threat to the existing social and political order.”(H. Maynard Smith, “Henry VIII and the Reformation”)

From a historical perspective, it is a great irony that the king who would himself be excommunicated and establish himself as the head of a Protestant English church should defend the legitimacy of the papacy and –a greater irony still- the sacramental nature and sanctity of marriage. However, the true power and “historical value” of Henry’s “Defense” is its demonstration of the seriousness of the threat posed by Luther and his ideas to the institutions of power, both temporal (i.e. the kings and potentates of Europe) and spiritual (i.e. the pope and the priesthood who held a tight grip the keys to salvation.)

Coming as it did from such a powerful Christian prince, Luther was forced to respond to Henry’s "Assertio", which he did with more than his usual severity, insulting the king and challenging his theological points. In turn, Henry’s most talented theologians, Thomas More and John Fisher, penned defenses of the king’s book and further challenges to Luther’s religious views, in what was to become one of the most important debates on the substance of Luther’s doctrine in this crucial, early period. (Inventory #: 5088)