Catherine Pepinster
Hodder and Stoughton, £25, 352 pages
On October 11, 1521 Leo X con-
ferred the title Fidei Defensor on Henry VIII for his pious refutation – in his book Asserto septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum – of the troublesome German’s radical “95 Theses”. When Henry’s marital requirements occasioned his own break with Rome, he was deprived of the title by Paul III but it was restored to him by Parliament in 1544 when he was defending something different. Catherine Pepinster’s book has, inevitably, been overtaken by events. Its ample discussion of the then-Prince Charles’s suggestion that on his accession he might prefer to be a “Defender of Faith” rather than “Defender of the Faith” was swiftly determined and decisively squashed at the Accession Council – televised for the first time – when he was proclaimed Defender of the Faith in the traditional manner.
