SharePoint: 404 error when trying to view a page layout

I created and provisioned a page layout in my elements.xml file. The problem was that the reference to the master page was incorrect. Instead of a friendly error, or a message indicating that the reference was incorrect, browsing to the page only returned a 404 error. After fixing the reference in SharePoint Designer, I was able to browse to the page layout aspx. I then made the change in the physical file in my VS solution.