The Defender of the Faith
The navy aside, Henry’s military achievements may have been somewhat lackluster. However, he was a staunch champion of the Catholic church- until it disappointed him over the matter of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
The early sixteenth century was a time of growing religious dissent with an ever-increasing number of religious dissidents questioning the ideals of the Catholic Church. Between 1519-20, the former Augustan friar Martin Luther had written a series of pamphlets attacking the central tenets of the Catholic Church. In 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther, who had become increasingly disillusioned with the church due to its habit of selling indulgences to mitigate sin. However, the rise of the printing press, Luther’s writings spread throughout Europe at an alarming rate.
Henry, outraged by Luther’s heretical arguments was quick to jump to the Churchs’ defense. In 1519, he began to write “Assertio Septem Sacramentorum” or the “Defense of the Seven Sacraments” His earliest draft of the manuscript principally concentrated on destroying Luther’s arguments about indulgences, but as the reforming ex-monk continued to release more writing, the scope of Henry’s work increased. By the time the king published in 1521, the book not only defended the validity of the Catholic religion but also, (somewhat ironically given future events), affirmed the Supremacy of the pope. Henry dedicated the work to Pope Leo X who in turn conferred upon the King the title “Defender of the Faith.”
After his break with Rome, and a year after the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry sought to clarify and justify his position on religion in “Institutions of a Christian Man.” This work echoed the religious orthodoxy of his previous work- with one exception: the matter of the supremacy of the pope. However, the King, who was by this time himself excommunicated, remained a Catholic at heart until his death. He never renounced the title ‘Defender of the Faith” despite the fact it was bestowed upon him by a figure whose authority he now denied. It is a title that has been handed down to all subsequent English monarchs.