EDWARD VII., 'DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 3

EDWARD VII., 'DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.'

STORY OF THE • POPERY' ON OUR COINAQE.

In our leading columns last week appeared the following words 'To this hour, from the bronze farthing to the £5 gold piece, every minted ooin that circulates among ua recalls the days when the English people were joined in faith with the centre of Catholic unity.' Pick at random out of purse or pocket or till the first few ooins that come to hand. You will notice in the circling inscription the letters ' Fid. Def.' or ' F.D. These, the Latin words ' Fidei D«fensor,' whioh, being interpreted, mean ' Defender of the Faith.' The title was conferred by a Pope upon an English king for his written defence of the Catholic Faith against the assaults of Luther just when the great religious revolution of the sixteenth century was making headway in Germany — which, once the cradle of the reformed creed, has now become its grave. The title is still retained. It was blazoned forth amidst the splendid pageantry of the Coronation, British royalty no longer believes in the Faith for the defence of which the title was bestowed. Yet so cherished is this verbal appanage, that — as stated by us elsewhere — the florin of 1849 had to be recalled, melted down, and recoined, simply because the magic letters ' F.D. had been inadvertently omitted. Our readers will, no doubt, welcome a more detailed narrative of the title than it was possible for us to give in the course of a leading article,

In 1517 Luther started at Wittenberg the religious upheaval known as the Reformation. He began by theses attacking particular doctrines, but, as is usual in such movements, he progressed rapidly on the downward grade, and in October, 1520, published his book ' On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church,' which, like his conversation and like the remainder of his controversial writings, was marked with great coarseness and studded with clamorous invective. On May 20 of the following year (1521) King Henry VIII. — then eleven years npon the throne of England — wrote to the Pope (.Leo X.) that he was engaged in the work against Luther, and desired to dedicate the book to his Holiness. The volume was oompleted in August, 1521, was written in Latin, and was entitled 1 Assertio Septem Sacramentorum,' or ' A Defence of the Seven Sacraments ' — Luther having attacked the whole Sacramental system in his olamorous treatise. The authorship of the book has been variously attributed, but without adequate reason, to Bishop Fisher of Rochester, to Erasmus, to Cardinal Wolsey, to Archbishop Lee of York, and to Sir Thomas More. But both Fisher and Henry VIII. distinctly Btate that it is the work of the royal hand. According to Lingard the contemporary opinion was this : that the book, though written by Henry, was revised and improved by the superior judgment of Cardinal Wolsey and Bishop Fisher of Rochester. As to More, he states that, 'by his Grace's [Henry's] appointment, and consent of the makers of the same, he ("More] was only a sorter-out and placer of the principal matters therein contained.' We may therefore conolude that the work waß Henry's own, but that others may have given him theological and literary aid. In view of Henry's subsequent rupture with the Holy See and the national repudiation of the supremacy of the Pope, it is interesting to note how explicit he is in this famous volume on the prerogatives of the successor of St. Peter. In the very firßt chapter he calls the Pope ' the chief bishop ' ; in the second he refers to him as • the supreme judge on earth ' ; in the fifth he terms the Pope ' the successor of St. Peter, Christ's Vicar, to whom as to the Prince of the Apostles it is believed that Christ gave the keys of the Church ' ; and again in the twelfth chapter the ' Defender of the Faith ' styles him ' Christ's Vicar in that Church over which Christ is the Head.' And on the question of divorce he wrote as follows — he had not then met Anne Boleyn nor seen the light of the new gospel in the light of her eyes :—: — » The heathen were wont by human laws to take wives and cast them off. But in the people of God it was formerly not lawful to separate those who were joined in matrimony. And if God, by Moseß, allowed the Hebrews to give a bill of divorce, Christ teaohei that the permission was given on account of the hardness of heart of the people, for otherwise they would have killed the wivet that did not pleate them. But from the beginning it was not bo. And Christ recalled Christians to the original sanctity of marriage.'

Henry soon became an adept in the art of ' killing the wives that did not please aim.'

When the book was out of the binder's hands, Henry sent John Clarke (afterwards Bishop of Bath) as a speoial envoy to bear it to Rome. Twenty-eight copies of the book, richly bound in oloth of gold, were entrusted to the envoy for presentation to the cardinals, or to be seat by the Pope to princes, and in one copy— whioh is still preserved in the Vatican Library— the kin* wrote with his own hand :—: —

1 Anglorum rex Henricus, Leo decime, mittit Hoc opus et fidei testem et amioitira.' Which, in English phrase, meaneth : ' Leo X , Henry, King of England, sends this work as a testimony both of his faith and friendship.' The Cardinal-Archbishop of York— who was the Pope's legate in England— had already written to Leo X. (we may readily surmise at whose suggestion) stating that it would not be inopportune (inoonveniens) for his Holiness to give some title to the King; of England as a reward for his defence of the ancient faith against the innovations of Luther. A title of honor was eagerly Bought by Henry from the Pope, as from the only authority then competent to bestow it— something that would raise him to the level of the • Most Christian * King of France and the • Catholio ' monarch of Spain. Some of the Kings of England— such as Richard 11. and Henry IV.— called themselves in one form or another Defenders of the Faith, and proved themselves suoh before the days of Henry VIII. But this, be it noted, was used as an epithet or title used by way of aeal or duty or devotion : it was not conferred by way of honor and distinction, and could have been claimed in the Sfttne sense by the kings of France and Spain as well as by the king* of England. We have Btated elsewhere that the kingß of Franoe held the title of ' Eldest Son of the Church,' and ' Most Christian. During the Anglo-French wars several of the English kings affeoted the latter title, and when, in 1511, Louis Xll. (as Lingard points out) set up the sohismatioal synod of Pisa, Pope Julius 11. transferred the coveted distinction to Henry VIII., ' but with the understanding that the transfer should be kept secret till the services of the king might justify in the eyes of men the partiality of the Pontiff. After the victory of Guinegate, Henry demanded the publication of the grant ; but Julius was dead, and Leo declared himself ignorant of the transaction, and means were found to paoify the king, with the promise of some other but equivalent 'distinction.'

The title that found most favor in Henry's eyes was that of ' Defender of the Church,' or ' Defender of the Faith.' Negotiations were carried on by him in 1515 and 1516 with the Holy See. Leo X. moved slowly, and, as Brewer shows, Henry began to show signi of impatience. The publication of Henry's book, however, ooupled with the broad hint from the Cardinal of York, put a different complexion on matters. Various titles were suggested by the Cardinals. Some of these were submitted to the king through the Cardinal of York. Henry clung to his old favorite, ' Defender of the Faith.' Through his envoy, Clarke, he requested that it ihould be conferred in a public Consistory. This, however, Leo X. would not agree to, and in a private Consistory held on October 25, 1521, a copy of the Bull and Brief was read granting to King Henry VIII. the title, so long coveted by him, of ' Defender of the Faith.' The Bull was forwarded at once by special messenger to Cardinal Wolsey, and was by him presented, with an appropriate speech, to the king. Henry was greatly overjoyed. All England held high festival over the event. Gold medals were struck with the title in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, oopies of Henry's ' Defence of the Seven Sacraments,' printed on vellum and elaborately upholstered, were sent to royal personages on the Continent, and a downpour of congratulations fell upon the king.

There was no hint in the Bull of Pope Leo X. that the title ' Defender of the Faith ' should descend to the successor of Henry VIII. Father Bridgett, after quoting the words of the Ball, concludes therefrom that it was to be hereditable rather than hereditary, and that the granting of it to any of his successors would depend upon their proving themselves worthy of suoh a distinction. Three years later, in 1524, the grant was confirmed by Pope Clement VII. But neither did he beßtow the title on the successors of Henry. ' Approbamus,' said he, ' confirmamus, tibi perpetuum et proprium deputamus ' — it was to be for Henry VIII. alone. But Henry afterwards pat away his lawful wife for the sake of Anne Boleyn, out himself and the nation adrift from the centre of Catholio unity, and constituted himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. He was no longer the defender, but the assailant of the faith. Pope Paul 111. therefore deprived him of the title by a Bull issued in 1535, but suspended its actions for a time in the hopes that Henry might retrace his steps. The Bull of deprivation was finally put into effect in 1538. But Henry was not disposed to lightly forego a title which it cost him years of effort to secure. 'In spite of his breach with the Holy See,' says Father Bridgett, ' and his excommunication, Henrj would not relinquish his eagerly ooveted and hard-won honors, and his oomplaisant Parliament in 1543 united the title of Defender of the Faith with that of Supreme Head of the Church of England and of Ireland, annexing the titles for ever to the Imperial Crown of his Highness' realm of England." This Act was repealed in the first and second of Philip and Mary, and revived in the first Elizabeth. Since then some ohangeß have been made in the Royal Style, but the title of Defender of the Faith hai been continued.' And this is the story of how ' Popery 'is still to be seen in the ' Fid. Def.' that is to be seen on every coin that oiroulatea among us.