The Bible Translator Who Shook Henry VIII

DONALD SMEETON Dr. Donald Dean Smeeton is associate dean of the college division at the International Correspondence Institute, a Christian correspondence university based in Brussels, Belgium. He is author of a historically ground-breaking work, Lollard Themes in the Reformation Theology of William Tyndale, published by the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, and is serving as a consulting theological editor for the Catholic University of America's forthcoming Tyndale series | posted 10/01/1987 12:00AM

Henry VIII, obviously the eighth king of England to bear the name of Henry, was a robust 33-year-old in 1524.

He had already excelled in many areas, had acquired a number of accolades, and could easily have felt that the world was at his feet. In fact, much of his surrounding world seemed to act as if it were lying at his feet.

With his impressive size, his impressive clothes, his impressive pomp and ceremony, his Renaissance education and his unflagging self-confidence, he appeared larger than life to most of his subjects, and was seen as a major force to be reckoned with in the European balance of power. He was at least what our age would call “an achiever,” probably even “an over-achiever.” He could play multiple musical instruments, dance, hunt game, lead an army, win at a joust, control his nobles and spend money like it grew on trees. Whatever constituted the stage, Henry VIII dominated it.

Even theology was not beyond the exertions of this highly confident King. When Martin Luther questioned the reigning theology of the period, with its minimal piety and its idolatry of popes, priests, saints and symbols, Henry considered himself quite capable of rebutting the troublesome Saxon monk, and soon produced his Defense of the Seven Sacraments. This appeared in 1520, about one year after Luther’s writings began to achieve really-wide circulation, and was almost entirely Henry’s work. For a while at least, it was the predominant theological apologetic in England for the traditional Catholic faith.

Although today, post-Reformation, we might question the Defenses’s effectiveness in combatting “the Lutheran heresy,” the pope at the time was apparently impressed with it. At least he was quite effusive in his praise of it (but of course nurturing good relations with kings was always a good political move for the pope). The pope named Henry “Defender of the Faith,” another plaudit to add to his various other titles of accomplishment.

So at age 33, in his prime, Henry VIII had established himself as a powerful, “go-getter” king, and his kingdom was enjoying a period of relative economic and political stability that had been unknown in recent English history. With his gifts, personality and training, he was leading England out of the Middle Ages and into more-modern, less-tumultous times.

One might think his personal life would have reflected this less-tumultous ideal, and in many ways it promised to. He had an adoring wife, Catherine of Aragon, who was a daughter of the most powerful dynasty Spain had ever seen. Their marriage had secured an important diplomatic ally, establishing close family ties between Henry and Emperor Charles V, and had produced one child for the couple, a daughter they named Mary. However, this facade of domestic and political bliss was actually quite shallow, as a closer look at Henry will demonstrate.

In many ways, as history records him, Henry was more a picture of the “red-necked” blue-collar worker who curses at his wife, talks with his mouth full, and stands on the street corner boasting of his sexual exploits. Numerous records exist to show us that he was ostentatious, authoritarian, unpredictable, a bully, a braggart, and certainly not deserving of much trust. He forsook alliances and broke political promises without notice. At various moments he used his royal favors to tease court factions, foreign governments and even religious leaders, then disdained or even attacked these same people the next moment, depending on his royal whim. Unfortunately, it was this darker side that eventually came to dominate Henry’s life, not only destroying his first marriage and wife, but also the several that came after her.