What is act of supremacy?

The Act of Supremacy is the name of two different acts passed by the English Parliament, both of which establish the English monarch as the head of the Church of England and removed the powers of the Pope as the head of the church.

The original act passed in 1534 at the request of Henry VIII, while the second act passed during the reign of Elizabeth I. The second act was necessary to reestablish the English monarch as head of the church, as Parliament had nullified the original one when she assumed the throne upon the death of Edward VI.

The original act essentially created the Church of England and severed church ties with Rome. With the passing of the Act of Supremacy, the Pope was no longer considered the leader of Christians in England. This act, however, was more of a political move than a religious one, even though it established Henry as “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England.”

What was at stake was the succession of the monarchy. Although many of the common people and members of the English aristocracy were interested in the teachings of Martin Luther, Henry strongly opposed Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses” and wrote a book in 1521 denouncing Luther’s views that prompted Pope Clement VII to name Henry “The Defender of the Faith.”

Despite his lustful reputation, Henry VIII was a deeply religious man and believed that the wrath of God had descended upon him because of his inability to produce a living male heir with his wife, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had been betrothed to Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, who died before the two lived together as husband and wife. Henry pointed to Old Testament passage (Leviticus 20:21) that prohibited men from marrying their brother’s widow, indicating God was punishing him for an illegal marriage.

Henry went through the religious procedures of his time by seeking an annulment from Pope Clement VII. The Pope kept stalling the proceedings, partially because Catherine, who was already in her early forties, was the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whom the Pope did not want to offend. He had also fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, who was young enough to bear children.

In 1527, Henry asked for annulment for the first time and with each refusal, increased pressure on Rome. By 1529, he was thoroughly frustrated and cited the Bible verse from Leviticus and other Old Testament sources to support his cause. He also cited historical sources, including Anglo-Saxon documents that gave spiritual supremacy to the English monarch over the church.

The English church first recognized Henry as its head in 1531, but the king continued to try to reach a compromise with the Pope, all to no avail. In 1532, the English church agreed to surrender its independence as well as authority regarding canon law to the monarch.

This paved the way for the Statute in Restraint of Appeals in early 1533, which removed the ability of the English to appeal to Rome on matters of matrimony, tithes and oblations. By this time, Anne Boleyn was already pregnant with Henry’s child, so Thomas Cranmer, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, declared the marriage to Catherine invalid, allowing Henry to marry Anne.

The original Act of Supremacy not only confirmed that Henry was the head of the Church of England, it also gave him access to considerable wealth that the church had amassed in England. Public sentiment, at this time, was generally opposed to ecclesiastical hierarchy as some felt that the church was mismanaged.

The act gave Henry access to the Church’s considerable wealth and allowed an investigation into the Church property in 1535. This move eventually led to the dissolution of the monasteries beginning in 1536, which gave Henry money for his treasuries to fight wars against the French for land in Normandy that had previously belonged to England.

Perhaps more importantly, the Act of 1534 made supporting the Pope over the Church of England an act of treason. This made supporting Catholicism not only a statement of religious conviction but a crime against the monarch, which was punishable by death.

This provision because particularly important in the second version of the Act of Supremacy When Jesuit priests infiltrated England during the reign of Elizabeth I in an attempt to enlist support for Roman Catholic causes in Europe.

Henry’s staunchly Roman Catholic daughter, Mary, had the original act repealed in 1554 after she became queen. Thus, when her half-sister Elizabeth I became queen, she had a similar act passed. The 1559 Act of Supremacy declared Elizabeth the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

It also included an Oath of Supremacy, which required anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state. Individuals who refused to take the oath could be charged with treason and be put to death.

The severity of the penalties for refusing to take the oath had three different levels. For the first refusal, the offender suffered the loss of all moveable goods. A second offense could mean life in prison and the loss of all real estate. A third offense carried a charge of high treason and death.

The oath was eventually extended to include all members of Parliament and anyone earning a university degree.

What these acts essentially did was make permanent the divide between the Roman Catholic and Anglican, or English churches. The English people adhered to the acts somewhat out of fear, but also because they identified more with being English, or having national pride, than they did with being Roman Catholic.

The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the English monarchs as the head of the Church of Ireland. The 1534 Act declared King Henry VIII and his successors as the Supreme Head of the Church, replacing the pope. This first Act was repealed during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I. The 1558 Act declared Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church, a title that the British monarch still holds.

The first Act of Supremacy was passed on 3 November 1534 (26 Hen. 8. c. 1) by the Parliament of England.[1] It granted King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs Royal Supremacy, such that he was declared the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Royal Supremacy is specifically used to describe the legal sovereignty of the civil laws over the laws of the Church in England.[citation needed][2]

The act declared that the king was "the only supreme head on Earth of the Church of England" and that the Crown shall enjoy "all honours, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity."[3] The wording of the act made clear that Parliament was not granting the king the title (thereby suggesting that they had the right to withdraw it later); rather, it was acknowledging an established fact. In the Act of Supremacy, Henry abandoned Rome completely. He thereby asserted the independence of the Ecclesia Anglicana. He appointed himself and his successors as the supreme rulers of the English church. Earlier, Henry had been declared "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei defensor) in 1521 by Pope Leo X for his pamphlet accusing Martin Luther of heresy.[4] Parliament later conferred this title upon Henry in 1544.[5]

The 1534 Act marks the beginning of the English Reformation. There were a number of reasons for this Act, primarily the need for a male heir to the throne. Henry tried for years to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and had convinced himself that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's widow.[6] Pope Clement VII refused to grant the annulment because, according to Roman Catholic teaching, a validly contracted marriage is indissoluble until death, and thus the pope cannot annul a marriage simply because of a canonical impediment previously dispensed.[7] The Treasons Act was later passed: it provided that to disavow the Act of Supremacy and to deprive the king of his "dignity, title, or name" was to be considered treason.[8] The most famous public figure to resist the Treasons Act was Sir Thomas More.

In 1537, the Irish Supremacy Act (28 Hen. 8. c. 5, An Act authorising the King, His Heirs and Successors, to be supreme Head of the Church of Ireland) was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of Ireland, as had earlier been done in England.[9]

Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy was repealed in 1554 during the reign of his staunchly Roman Catholic daughter, Queen Mary I. Upon her death in November 1558, her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne. The first Elizabethan Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy 1558,[nb 1] which declared Elizabeth the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or church clergymen to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state. Anyone refusing to take the oath could be charged with treason.[12]

The use of the term Supreme Governor as opposed to Supreme Head pacified some Roman Catholics and those Protestants concerned about a female leader of the Church of England. Elizabeth, who was a politique,[citation needed][13] did not prosecute nonconformist laymen, or those who did not follow the established rules of the Church of England unless their actions directly undermined the authority of the English monarch, as was the case in the vestments controversy. Thus, it was through the Second Act of Supremacy that Elizabeth I officially established the now reformed Church of England. This was a part of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.[13]

Historian G. R. Elton argues that, "in law and political theory the Elizabethan supremacy was essentially parliamentary, while Henry VIII's had been essentially personal."[14] The royal supremacy was extinguished during the British Interregnum from 1649, but was restored in 1660. The Stuart kings used it as a justification for controlling the appointment of bishops.[citation needed]

The conflation in the Crown of supreme slay authority over church and state made every secular subject of the Crown a spiritual subject of the Church as well; the Church was co-extensive with the State. Contemporary English theologian Richard Hooker described the situation thus:

In 1560, the Parliament of Ireland passed "An Act restoring to the Crown, the auncient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall, and abolishing all forreine Power repugnant to the same".[17][18]

Henry's actions in assuming for himself the mantle of ecclesiastical authority were tinged with self-interest. He had sought in vain for papal approval for his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, and when it became clear that approval would not be forthcoming, Henry took matters into his own hands.

The Act of Supremacy must be seen as part of a broader policy, though, one aimed at increasing the power of the English monarch and decreasing the influence of Rome. To give him his due, Henry was probably sincere in his belief that the Church of England was riddled with poor administration and had long since lost the right to act as an independent body. (See our article on the Dissolution of the Monasteries).

At the same time, however, Henry had his eye on the wealth of the church, particularly the property of the monasteries. His lifestyle, and his desire for military glory had left Henry in a precarious financial position; he needed money, the church had lots of it, so the solution was obvious - take control of the church and its assets. This he did by asserting his legal right to act as head of the Church of England.

One important point to note is that the Act effectively made it treasonable to support the authority of the Pope over the Church of England. By tying the church and monarch so closely together, support for Catholicism became not simply a statement of personal religious conviction, but a repudiation of the authority of the monarch, and as such, an act of treason punishable by death.

Original text of Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy

Not surprisingly, Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy was repealed (1554) in the reign of his staunchly Catholic daughter, Mary I. Equally unsurprisingly, it was reinstated by Mary's Protestant sister, Elizabeth I, when she ascended the throne. Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state. Anyone refusing to take the Oath could be charged with treason.

Description The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the English monarchs as the head of the Church of Ireland. Wikipedia