I have here at my charge to the kinges honore V horse." A ROYAL EMBASSY On New Year's Day, 1536, all Wittenberg was agog with eyes as big as saucers. The famous King Henry's stately embassy of forty horsemen trotted into the old town, where Dr. Robert Barnes with five horse was awaiting them, Bishop Edward Fox of Hereford, later secretary of state, and Arch- deacon Nicholas Heath, later Archbishop of York and lord chancellor; Barnes was the King's chaplain and professor of s. theology. "Luther lovingly embraces them and is even delighted by their courtesy," we are told by Melanchthon, who took a liking to Heath. Luther highly respected his brother HENRY THE EIGHTH'S DIVORCE AND LUTHER 169 Augustinian Barnes, while Frederick Myconius waxed en- thusiastic and rated him "the dear, highly learned, and most efficient man all England had." Bishop Edward Fox was the representative of the King of England and had been his ambassador and argued with Pope Clement himself and seems to have been imbued with his importance, but Luther got along fairly well also with him. Why all this pomp and circumstance, such as the King displayed only in his embassies to King Francis, Kaiser Karl, and the Vicar of Christ? The King's main reason was to win Luther for his divorce, the man he had called a "wolf of hell," the man who had repeatedly said no to his request. What a dramatic tribute to the power of Luther! On Saturday, the 29th, there was a disputation "Against the Private Mass," in which Fox took part. Luther spoke of the right, Christian manner in which princes were to get "private mass" from their court chaplains, no doubt glancing at Barnes, who had just been made the King's chaplain. They wanted to form a union between their Church of England and the Lutheran churches, and so they discussed doctrines. Without great trouble they agreed on the Wittenberg Articles of 1536, based mainly on the Augsburg Confession. The thorny point was the King's divorce. Fox had argued that case with Pope Clement himself and had all the points at his fingers' ends. Luther joked: Mter eleven universities have already given their decision, it seems the whole world will be lost "unless we poor beggars, the Wittenberg theo- logians, be heard." "In other respects I will show myself not unfriendly towards them, in order that they may not think we Germans are stone or wood" - and his appeasing amazes us - but as to the divorce he would stand by the Queen against the King and once again say, "No!" In June 1540 Luther remarked: "The word would have brought me three hundred fl., but I didn't want to." Did they try bribery? Bishop Gilbert Burnet comments: "It cannot be denied that the Protestants proved their sincerity in this matter, such as became men of conscience, who were actuated by true principles, and not by maxims of policy. If these had governed them, they would have shown themselves more i 70 HENRY THE EIGHTH'S DIVORCE AND LUTHER compliant with so great a prince, who was then alienated from the Pope and on ill terms with the Emperor." The Rev. Canon T. C . Hammond, M. A. , principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia, broadcast a defense of Luther against Dean Inge, printed in The Watch- man of May, 1945. On the divorce he said: "Luther did not hold that any ruler was the author of religious experience. He held with a desperate tenacity that God had once for all revealed His will to man. When God spoke, we had no other course open to us in righteousness but to obey. He resisted the claim of Henry VIII to divorce Catherine of Aragon, even when it would have greatly assisted him to win the support of that very powerful pr ince. It does not matter for the moment as to who was right in a very difficult situation created by that liability of Julius II. It is sufficient to notice that when the English Roman Catholic Bishops were all in favor of supporting Henry, Luther stood out against him." Luther said no almost alone against almost the whole world. He said no though it helped the staunch Catholic Catherine, aunt of Kaiser Karl, who was eager to burn him. He said no though it harmed the Lutheran cause in England. What a chivalrous knight adventuring to help a lady in dis- tress! The Tempter dangled before the Reformer's eyes the kingdom of England and all the glory of it, but he said: "Get thee behind me, Satan!" (Luke 4: 8.) "Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not" (Ps. 15: 1, 4) . It was Luther who gave the red light to divorce; it was Pope Clement VII that gave the green light to divorce. Quod ERAT demonstrandum! Oak Park, Ill. . . )