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HENRY VIII AND HIS RABBIS:
How the King Relied on Jewish Law to End

His First Marriage — and Why He Failed

 

The Story Behind The Birth of This Book

 

I'm a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. At the end of 1996, I retired from the practice of law, keeping my promise to myself that I would retire early (before age 60) in order to explore the rest of life and do something with my liberal arts undergraduate education. Since retirement, I've been able to read individually and to study in many adult education courses and individual lectures in areas of interest to me, including history and biography, science and medicine, and religion and philosophy. I've also pursued hobbies, including designing and making Jewish papercuts and using computer programs for digital photography.

 

It would be fair to say that my writing is a result of my being something of an impatient reader. Whenever I've been frustrated at being unable to find a satisfactory book on a topic that I'm curious about, I feel the urge to remedy that lack by researching and writing the book I'd like to be able to read. That certainly applies to all of my books that have been published so far: A Guide to Jewish Mourning and Condolence; Digital Photography Tutor (now sold out); 50 Jewish Messiahs; The Lost Matriarch: Finding Leah in the Bible and Midrash; and now my latest book, Henry VIII and his Rabbis: How the King Relied on Jewish Law to End His First Marriage – and Why He Failed, published by Amberley Publishing, released in the UK on March 15, 2025, and to be released in the US on July 29, 2025.

 

While my friends in the US are waiting for Henry VIII and his Rabbis to be released here, several of them have asked me how I came to choose such an unusual topic. I have tried to explain to them that I did not choose the topic—the topic chose me. I have told them how it was Pope Clement VII who made me write Henry VIII and His Rabbis.

 

Most books have some sort of a birth story behind them. But I doubt that many other authors were pursued for decades by a dead but relentless pope who insisted that the full story finally be told of how, almost five hundred years ago, Pope Clement VII fiercely argued for six years with King Henry VIII over the king’s demand for a Roman Catholic annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

 

In death, as in life, Clement proved to be a master negotiator, implacably stubborn and infinitely patient. He finally wore me down by promising a history harboring an irresistibly bizarre feature—The Catholic dispute between Clement and Henry had eventually come down to their arguments over Jewish law and practice. Here is the birth story of my latest book, Henry VIII and His Rabbis:

 

One of the first gifts I gave to myself upon my retirement was the luxury of taking time to read during the day. From my towering “To Read” stack, I selected a popular comprehensive history of the Jewish people, Jews, God and History, by Max Dimont. One morning, I was sitting in the big, comfortable recliner in our brightly lit family room, reading that book. In the middle of it, I came to two brief pages describing a unique time in the early sixteenth century when a pope, Clement VII, became a believer in, and sponsor of, not just one but two Jewish messiahs.

 

Until that time, I had barely heard of the existence of Jewish messianic movements, and I certainly had never heard any references to a pope supporting two concurrent, competing Jewish messiahs. Surely, someone must have written a fascinating book about Pope Clement’s messiahs and the entire series of Jewish messianic movements referred to by Dimont. When I could not find such a book, I decided that it deserved to be written by someone, and perhaps that should be me.

 

The result was 50 Jewish Messiahs. I devoted the central chapter of that book to the stories of the intertwined lives of the messiahs David Reuveni and Shlomo Molcho, and their remarkable support and recognition by Clement VII. However, I could not avoid adding a brief appendix to those stories to note that Clement was better known for his six-year dispute with Henry VIII over Henry’s demand for a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

 

Later, after I wrote my other books and writings, I was somehow drawn back to that appendix page. When I decided that I had to learn more about Clement and Henry’s argument, I was struck by the surprising number of significant Jewish aspects of that very Catholic conflict. The dispute was ultimately waged over the correct interpretation and application of provisions of Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible. Because Henry’s first marriage occurred in an England that had essentially not seen any Jews for almost a quarter of a millennium, the extensive theological training and knowledge of Henry and the leaders of the English clergy lacked any substantial awareness of Judaism, its distinctions from Catholicism, and its interpretations of the Bible.

 

Further, but unknown to Henry, the greatest rabbinic authorities in Italy, who supported opposing views of the annulment dispute, were major antagonists, not because of the annulment issues, but because of their opposing views of Clement’s Jewish messiahs. Henry finally imported from Italy his own “rabbi” (a convert to Catholicism) to join the English royal court in a final but unsuccessful attempt to convince Clement to grant the annulment. Henry VIII and His Rabbis is my exploration of these and other unique and unexpected Jewish aspects of the Roman Catholic dispute between Pope Clement and King Henry.

 

And that is how my most recent book was birthed almost three decades ago, in that comfortable recliner where I was first introduced to Clement VII.