HENRY VIII AND THE REFORMATION (480 pp.)H. Maynard SmifhMacm///an ($8.50).
Although only the second and fifth of King Henry's wives* actually went from the bed to the block, English folklore (and the cinema) have stressed the Bluebearded side of his life. But history, with a surer stress on the important, credits Henry with a stroke more momentous than any ever struck by his executioners: he severed the Church in England from the Church of Rome.
H. Maynard Smith, the latest interpreter of this great event, is a canon emeritus of Gloucester Cathedral, but he...
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