The diametrically opposed outcomes of the Reformation in England and France have led historians to presume that there were significant differences in their religious situations before the Reformation that help account for that ultimate divergence. This chapter argues that any such presumption is wide of the mark. Not only were the supposed ‘preconditions’ for the success of the Reformation in England (such as Renaissance humanism, anticlericalism and church-state tension) more evident in France, but the early diffusion of Reformation teachings was swifter and more widespread there as well. Although in the second quarter of the sixteenth century the Reformation received increasing royal support in England but not in France, that early progress was insecure and was briefly reversed. Decisive divergence between the two realms in this regard began only around 1560, and in each of them the outcome might still have been different under other circumstances. The ultimate outcomes reflected the interplay of political contingency with pre-existing differences not in religious experience but in political structures and political culture, which put the English monarchy in a position to impose its will upon the English nation, but left the French monarchy less able not only to impose change but also to suppress it.

Despite being inundated with publications on the subject historians today feel less confident than ever that they truly understand the Reformation. The prevalence of national paradigms, such as ‘confessionalisation’ in German Reformation studies and ‘revisionism’ in English Reformation studies, encourages scholars to focus their attention on local circumstances and on specific individuals in those localities without due attention to the bigger picture. The sheer volume of case-studies being generated risks the loss of an overall perspective, and threatens to obscure the magnitude and significance of the Reformation as a European phenomenon of the first order. It is critically important to appreciate the continental scale of the Reformation because it reflected the scale and severity of the crisis of authority that beset the Catholic Church during the half-century or so following Fr Martin Luther’s announcement of the sola scriptura principle. That crisis cannot be explained by reference to local circumstances only. It went to the very heart of the institution, and it posed an existential threat to the Catholic Church. Reformation historians have yet to explain convincingly why Luther’s challenge resonated with such devastating effects across the continent. This collection of essays reflects the impact of the Reformation across Europe and offers explanations of its impact.

Editorial conventions

The base text is Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, MS 175. Formal or familiar scribal contractions and abbreviations have been expanded without special indication; and the letters u, v, i, and j have been regularised in accordance with modern usage. The manuscript routinely uses ‘e’ to represent ‘ae’ (or occasionally ‘oe’). Here, for ease of reading, ‘e’ is, where relevant, treated as a contraction and expanded to ‘ae’ or ‘oe’. Capitalisation and punctuation are lightly regularised. The MS has no marginal notes, but the first printed edition (no. 1) has Latin marginal notes which are presented here as footnotes, distinguished from editorial notes by being printed in italic type. They were probably added in the printshop. The second edition produced by Quentell at Cologne (no. 9) added fresh marginal notes by Johannes Cochlaeus. These too are shown here in footnotes, also printed in italics, but distinguished by the code ‘JC’. The text begins on folio 1r, and page breaks are indicated in square brackets in the text, or in footnotes where they come in the midst of a word.

The text of the manuscript (F) has been thoroughly collated against the text of the first edition printed by Pynson (P), with additional reference made to the first edition printed abroad (D, based either on F or on its lost twin). Very many discrepancies are of a merely typographical and trivial nature. These have been ignored, and the text of F has been followed. In nearly 80 cases, discrepancies between F and P make some difference to the meaning, but P is clearly or probably wrong, and the text of F has been followed. There are 32 discrepancies where P is evidently correct and the scribe of F has made some minor slip. In these cases, the correction is made in the main text and explained in a footnote. There are 10 cases in which Pynson has probably corrected an error in the text from which he worked: 5 corrections of Latin spelling; 4 corrections of scriptural texts; and 1 attempt to correct sloppy grammar.

Renowned King,

If I did not know Your Majesty, I should think no time less suitable than this to broach any literary matters with you or to send some book to you, a prince preoccupied with matters of great moment, whose concerns embrace the state and condition of all Europe. But because I know that your soul is of such loftiness that no burden of business could ever overwhelm you, nor so far preoccupy you as to leave you no free time to devote to your studies, as much so that thus revived and refreshed by them you may return to business a new man, as so that you may always draw out something from the commandments of wisdom that would be of use to you in the task and responsibility committed and entrusted to you by God; therefore I am sending Your Majesty the Epitome of the Adages of Erasmus, which I told you I had not found for sale in London, and which I have bought here, in particular because this work, overflowing as it is with little flowers gathered as though from the entire garden of literature, could give great pleasure to your mind, wearied by reading of more serious matters. And indeed I send you this for a book in the spirit of those ancient peasants, who, because they had no incense, performed the sacrifice with a grain of salt. The little work in which I respond to the Epistle of Luther, I have ready, so that it can be issued together with Your Majesty's little notes, as soon as you have sent them here to me, unless you would rather that everything was printed together in London. Whatever you decide about this, I shall follow Your Majesty's advice, as is only fair, and obey your instructions. We hear over here that the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal has set off for France. Would that he may so settle the affairs of the Christian world as to be worthy both of himself and of you: of you, the most humane, most erudite and above all pious of princes;

¶ The answere of the most mighty and noble prince kyng Henry the .viii. kyng of Englande and of Fraunce defensor of the fayth and lorde of Irelande unto the letters of Martyn Luther.

Your letters wrytten the fyrst day of Septembre we have receyved the xx day of Marche. In whiche ye write your selfe to be sorie and ashamed that ye folyly and hastely nat of your owne mynde, but by the instygation of other suche as lytell favoured me dyd put out your boke against me, with whiche ye knowe your selfe that ye have sore offended me and therfore have cause to be in drede and shame to write unto me. Natwithstandyng ye saye that ye be the more bolde nowe to write unto me nat only bycause ye parceyve my benignite suche that consydring my selfe a man mortall I wyll nat beare immortall enmyte; but also for as moche as ye by credible enformation understande that the boke put forthe in my name for the assertyon of the sacramentes was nat myn own but fraudulently devised by false Sophisters to myn ignominy and rebuke, and specially by the Cardynall of Yorke, whom ye call a monster odious to god and man and the pestylence of my realme. And therfore ye say that ye be nowe ashamed to lyfte up your eyen to me that have of lightnes so suffred your self to be moved agaynst suche a kynge, whiche natwithstandynge ye write that ye be forced and compelled ernestly to write unto me bycause that I have nowe begon to beare favoure to the gospell, whiche is (as ye saye) joyfull tidynges to your herte, wherin ye beseche god to encrese me that I may with hole hert obey and favour the gospell, and that he suffre nat myn eares to be occupyed with the pestylent voyces of those Serenis which can nothyng els do but crye out that Luther is an heretyke.

¶ Ye write also that ye wolde I shulde consyder that there can be no harme in your doctryne syth ye teche (as ye say) nothing els but onely that man must nedes be saved in the faythe of Jesu Christ; and that upon this foundation ye bylde charite to your neyghbours and obeydience to your governours with the crucifyeng of the body of synne.

Most serene lord King and honoured cousin, wishing you health and perpetual increase in all things good, and paying our due respects.

After Your Royal Highness recently sent us your Response to Martin Luther, to be forwarded to Luther himself, we decided that it would be a benefit to Christendom for it to be translated into our vernacular tongue. So we saw to it that this was carefully done. But Martin himself, impatient as he is of everything which is not on his side, because he felt that the common people might be persuaded by that translation that he had offered to recant, took from that – or rather concocted for himself – a reason for writing an answer, directed, however, not so much against your Response as against the title given to it in German, as though it had not been properly translated. Which, however, no one cognisant of the German language would ever say or establish, although we are not quite sure whether he actually took occasion for writing from the Latin title instead, which he might well have done with no less temerity and cavilling. But whatever the case, because we considered that his insolent rejoinder somewhat touched on Your Royal Highness's honour, we saw to it that this imposture of Luther should be not only now translated into Latin (for nothing is issued by him except in his mother tongue) but also set before the eyes of all the world by the translator of your Response. All of this we send to Your Royal Highness, and we pray that it will be received by you in the same spirit in which it has been sent by us. For even in much greater matters we would willingly oblige Your Royal Highness, and you may be absolutely sure of that and of us. Farewell, and may you ever flourish. From our palace at Dresden, on the eve of Reminiscere Sunday, 16 March, in the year of divine reconciliation 1527.

Signed: George, by the grace of God Duke of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen, etc.

Addressed: To the most Serene and Mighty Prince, Lord Henry, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, and Lord of Ireland, his Lord and honoured Cousin.

To the most Excellent Father, Lord Christopher, Bishop of Augsburg, his best and most solicitous patron, Johannes Eck sends greetings.

I readily acknowledge your prudence, most worthy prelate; and the more I fear for the Holy Church of God, the more I value your most circumspect judgement. But the judgements of God are immutable and, indeed, inexorable: the prophets foretold, Christ predicted, Peter forewarned, Paul prophesied, and Jude wanted us to beware how great a tribulation there would be in the last days and how great a secession from the faith, and how many false and lying prophets would rise up. How stupid we are and how foolish, or rather, what blockheads and what dunces we are, who now in the halls of princes, in the senate of the imperial cities, boast that the Gospel sun has now risen, that the radiance of the Word of God has now illuminated us mortals for the first time! Oh, God! Oh, the faith of men! We accept what Luther says, thrice apostate, perjured, inconstant, oathbreaking blasphemer that he is; oblivious meanwhile of Christ, the prophets, Peter, Paul and Jude. If the merest glimmer of faith or wisdom were still to be found among us Germans, we would not tolerate this scourge upon the Catholic Church. Yet one prompter should be quite enough for us, the most glorious King of England, Henry VIII, Defender of the Catholic Faith, who in his piety towards God and Church, and likewise in his erudition, has shown up Luther for us in his true colours. Herewith I send you his royal letter, which no doubt your Excellency, given your zeal towards the Christian religion, will receive graciously and read avidly. To make the letter more amusing, we have appended to it the Epithalamion of the Lutherans. Farewell, ornament of the priesthood and choicest of patrons. From Ingolstadt.

This new year just past a little book came out against me (wretched sinner that I am), beneath the name of the King of England, together with the letter I had written, humbly enough, to that same king – something to which I had been encouraged, not without reason, by people of no little importance. Now, it is certain, quite beyond doubt, that the king did not produce this little book himself. It ought to be a total secret who really did write it, except that the author's true identity is apparent from his very words, for he has heaped insults on the book I wrote against free will. And that is the book which Erasmus of Rotterdam, one of the king's very best friends, was forced to let go unharmed and has left still intact. Although he has more learning and talent in his little finger than the King of England with all his blockheads, it was beyond the king, or Erasmus, or their god, or all the devils, to get the better of me over that book in any way at all. I am not in the least surprised that the king, who distributes so many English crowns to friends of this kind every year, should in return avail himself so freely of their learning, knavery, and flattery. I would like him to realise what they want from him. English crowns are well able to make people learned and wise: as Persius says, even magpies eventually learn to talk well if a little money changes hands.

As for me, I would rather keep quiet about that pamphlet, from the great exaltation of my spirit, and show it the good and cheerful face that I usually turn towards poisonous pamphlets of this kind, if it were not for the fact that my Epistle is referred to throughout (I don't know who did this) as though I had sung some ‘palinode’ – that is, as though I had issued a recantation of my doctrine. There is no way I am going to put up with that. For this is not at all about me (a subject on which I am prepared to put up and shut up). It's about my doctrine – a subject on which I must shout out and come to blows. May God grant me no patience or forbearance about this.

An epigram to the same Magnificent Lord Palatine from Stanislaus Hosius, his humble and most devoted client.

Most Serene and Illustrious Prince, Lord, and dearest friend, please accept my warmest greetings and best wishes.

Your Royal Highness may most certainly assure yourself that nothing could have been more welcome to me, nor more desired by me, than Your Serene Highness's letters, which came into my hands (as they say) on the first of January, particularly because they bear witness in their very address to the special degree of love which Your Highness bears towards me. When the matter is duly weighed, it is easy to appreciate just how much ought to be made of this – and first of all because I in return have a long while loved Your Royal Highness on account of your outstanding virtues and illustrious achievements, and have not ceased in that love for you even to this day. And although Your Highness's letters, as far as the Lutheran business is concerned, seem in their royal modesty to have attributed perhaps more to myself than I may allow, this however I frankly and truly admit: as soon as the godless and profane dogmas of Luther sprang up, they so turned my stomach from the very outset that I devoted all the energy and attention at my command to withstanding this monstrous undertaking and halting its progress; and today, relenting in my purpose not one jot, I leave no stone unturned in combating such hateful impiety. For could anyone who has at heart the peace of the Christian Republic (for which even to die ought to seem but little) bear with equanimity to see our sacrosanct and pure faith defiled with such temerity? Who would not weep at the plight of our faith, now tottering and trampled down and almost trodden underfoot, and at the wretched overthrow of so many souls, or rather, who on account of this would not sob from the bottom of his heart? Who, finally, having taken up the arms of holy scripture would not plunge like a most fierce champion into the midst of the enemies of the faith and, engaging in hand to hand combat with the foe, undertake her pious defence? Which, O renowned King, Your Royal Excellency has never yet attempted without happily completing what you have begun.