Thomas Murner (1475-1537) was a Franciscan friar, satirist, and poeta laureatus of the Holy Roman Empire. Throughout the 1520s, Murner became an increasingly outspoken critic of the Reformation, particularly of Martin Luther, who he derided as a ‘great fool’.

Ob der Künig usz Engelland ein lügner sey oder der Luther (‘Whether the King of England or Luther is a liar’) is a unusual example of anti-Reformation polemic staged as a three-way dialogue between Henry VIII, Luther, and Murner himself. This was Murner’s second intervention on Henry’s behalf. In July 1521, the king had published the Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum—a defence of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church against Luther’s criticisms—for which he was awarded the title Fidei Defensor (‘Defender of the Faith’) by Pope Leo X. Murner immediately produced a German translation, bringing the debate to a receptive audience of German Catholics (Bekennug der süben Sacramenten, Strasbourg, 1522). Both texts evidently made an impression, for in 1523 Murner was invited to England by Thomas More and presented with £100.

Returning to the continent, Murner continued to write energetically, leveraging the full potential of the printing revolution to his advantage. He established private presses at Strasbourg (1524–26) and Lucerne (1526–29), the latter producing some twenty pamphlets against the Reformation.