The 1521 Defence of the Seven Sacraments – or, in its original Latin title, Assertio Septem Sacramentorum – is an interesting and unusual book. It is important not so much for what it contains as for who wrote it, and what it tells us about the author’s aims and attitudes. It is one of very few works of theology ever written by a reigning European monarch, as well as a text that suggests how differently the history of England might have turned out.
Sacraments were, and are, the central rituals of the Catholic Church. A sacrament can be defined as a visible action, with accompanying words and gestures, conveying an invisible spiritual power. It is what Christians call ‘grace’: supernatural assistance from God to make people holy and worthy of salvation. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church decided that there were seven such sacraments:
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