 Henry was an intellectual . The first English king with a modern humanist education , he read and wrote English , French and Latin , and was thoroughly at home in his well @-@ stocked library . He personally annotated many books and wrote and published one of his own . To promote the public support for the reformation of the church , Henry had numerous pamphlets and lectures prepared . For example , Richard Sampson 's Oratio ( 1534 ) was an argument for absolute obedience to the monarchy and claimed that the English church had always been independent from Rome . At the popular level , theatre and minstrel troupes funded by the crown travelled around the land to promote the new religious practices : the pope and Catholic priests and monks were mocked as foreign devils , while the glorious king was hailed as a brave and heroic defender of the true faith . Henry worked hard to present an image of unchallengeable authority and irresistible power . 
