. For Luther, every man that wielded a Bible could become his own priest before God. Of course, the none-too-subtle implication of this idea was that man need not have an actual, ordained priest in order to be saved; nor did the common man need to play the game of the papal order, buying or bartering his salvation by way of "indulgences". Salvation lay in the breast and in the Bible, not in the pocketbook (Ostling 101).
As noted by Bruce Robinson, it is "one of history's great ironies that the man who publicly refuted" Martin Luther on behalf of the Catholic Church, "was none other than Henry VIII, rewarded with the title of Fidei DefensorùDefender of the Faithùin 1521". Luther's ideas, however, were too infectious to deny, and humanist grumblings swept across the continent an into England. Henry VIII enlisted the finest theologians to aid him in compiling arguments against the "Lutheran heresy", thus solidifying his theological conservatism and cementing his favor with the Pope (Pettegree). What could possibly reverse these dramatic trends and make a mockery of these lofty titles? The answer: a divorce.
Henry VIII had been King since 1509, and his
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