Assertio Septem Sacramentorum Aduersus Martin. Lutheru: Aedita ab Invictissimo Angliae et Franciae Rege, et do. Hyberniae Henrico Eius Nominis Octavo.

London: Richard Pynson, 1521. Full Description:

[HENRY VIII, King of England]. Assertio Septem Sacramentorum Aduersus Martin. Lutheru. Aedita ab Invictissimo Angliae et Franciae Rege, et do. Hyberniae Henrico Eius Nominis Octavo. [London: Richard Pynson, 1521].

First edition. Small quarto (8 1/4 x 6 1/8 inches; 210 x 155 mm). 80 leaves. With the final two blank leaves. Final leaf of text is errata and colophon. Large woodcut initials. Title-page within a allegorical woodcut boarder, signed HH for Hans Holbein. "The woodcut border on the title-page, which depicts the story of C. Mucius Scaevola and King Porsenna (McKerrow & Ferguson 8), was adapted from a design by Hans Holbein for the De immortalitate animae by Aeneas Gazaeus, printed by Froben in Basel in 1516." (Sotheby's).

Probably remboitage binding of 17th-century vellum, rebacked. The arms of Pope Urban VIII in gilt as central devices on front and back board. Boards double ruled in gilt and with gilt bees as corner devices. All edges gilt. Leaves very clean. Binding with staining and repairs to corners. Old ink manuscript on front board. Final blank leaf professionally repaired. Overall a very good copy.

It was perhaps as early as 1516 that Cardinal Wolsey, anxious to distract him from more worldly preoccupations, first encouraged Henry VIlI to embark on a serious rejoinder to Luther (49). In so doing Wolsey wrought his own downfall, and this was perhaps the least of the consequences of 'The Assertion of the Seven Sacraments', one of the most fateful books in the history of western civilisation. Despite his unfeigned zeal to extirpate heresy, it was not until Henry began to take a serious interest in foreign affairs that he realised the practical value which such a work might have, if dedicated to the Pope. It is difficult to estimate the spiritual influence of the papacy at a time when the vast majority of Christendom saw It as a not specially powerful temporal state; but it was none the less felt. How much Henry's anxiety to complete the book (between May and July 1521) was activated real if romantic desire to become the champion of the papacy, it is hard to say. This point of view may be supported by Henry's statement to a startled and incredulous Thomas More (47) that 'from that See we received our crown imperial. More could see the dangers of so firm commitment to the temporal, if not to the spiritual, power of the papacy, and his misgivings were soon to be justified a hundredfold. Henry gained the recognition he sought from Leo X, the title of Fidei Defensor. But had he not made so absolute an admission of papal authority, it is unlikely that he would have felt so personally slighted by the Pope's refusal to give him his way in his 'great matter' the divorce from Catherine of Aragon; unlikely that he would have turned with such vehemence on almost all the advisers. More among them, who had made his reign so successful hitherto; unlikely that he would have claimed the royal supremacy in the Church; unlikely- but there speculation must stop. Suffice it to say that the publication of the Assertio must be considered to mark a critical moment in the history of the English Reformation." (PMM 50).

ESTC S123359. PMM 50. STC 13078.

HBS 68857.

$27,500.