Acts of Supremacy

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Act of Supremacy 1534

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of England

| long_title = An Act concerning the King's Highness to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, and to have Authority to reform and redress all Errors, Heresies and Abuses in the same.

| year = 1534

| citation = 26 Hen. 8. c. 1

| territorial_extent = England and Wales

| royal_assent = 18 December 1534

| commencement = 3 November 1534{{efn|Start of session.}}

| repeal_date = 12 November 1554

| amends =

| replaces =

| amendments =

| repealing_legislation = See of Rome Act 1554

| related_legislation =

| status = Repealed

| original_text = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915533&view=1up&seq=548

}}

The first Act of Supremacy, passed on 3 November 1534 (26 Hen. 8. c. 1) by the Parliament of England{{cite book|last1=Kinney|first1=Arthur F|last2=Swain|first2=David W|last3=Hill|first3=Eugene D.|last4=Long|first4=William A.|title=Tudor England: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHasAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA132|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136745300|page=132}} was one of the first major events in the English Reformation. It granted King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs royal supremacy and stated that the reigning monarch was the supreme head of the Church of England.

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.""[http://www.britainexpress.com/History/tudor/supremacy-henry-text.htm Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy (1534) – original text]" English History. David Ross and Britain Express 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 VIII withdrew support for the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church and asserted the independence of the Ecclesia Anglicana. He appointed himself and his successors as the supreme rulers of the English church. Earlier, Henry VIII had been declared "Defender of the Faith" ({{lang|la|Fidei defensor}}) in 1521 by Pope Leo X for his pamphlet accusing Martin Luther of heresy.{{Cite CE1913 | wstitle=Henry VIII |last=Thurston |first=Herbert }} Parliament later conferred this title upon the king in 1544.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Defender of the Faith |volume=7 |pages=925–926}}

Henry VIII was motivated to issue the act for multiple reasons. He desperately wanted a male heir to continue his line, and after wars and succession crises, aimed to ensure that his dynastic lineage would continue without challenge. When Catherine of Aragon did not bear a son, the king tried for years to annul his marriage to her, having convinced himself that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's widow.David Loades, Henry VIII and His Queens (1994) p. 179

Despite his close alignment with the Catholic Church and other papal annulments,{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} Pope Clement VII refused to grant Henry VIII an annulment. Roman Catholic doctrine viewed a marriage contract as indissoluble until death, and the papacy argued that a marriage could not simply be annulled because of a canonical impediment previously dispensed.To marry Catherine in the first place, Henry had requested and received a special dispensation from Pope Julius II to allow the wedding. Additionally, the emperor of the Habsburg empire at this time, Charles V, was the nephew of Catherine of Aragon, and for the Pope to declare that marriage invalid would be to separate the Church from the good favour of the emperor.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Henry VIII subsequently passed the Treasons Act, which stated that to disavow the Act of Supremacy and to deprive the king of his "dignity, title, or name" was to be considered treason."[http://members.shaw.ca/reformation/1534treasons.htm Treason Act, 1534] {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20070509092623/http://members.shaw.ca/reformation/1534treasons.htm |date=9 May 2007 }}" English Reformation Sources. Julie P. McFerran, 2003–2004 Thus, the king's control over the English religion was absolute and those who held to Catholic beliefs were swiftly punished. The most famous public figure to resist the Treasons Act was Sir Thomas More, who was convicted of treason and executed by beheading.{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=The National |date=2023-03-07 |title=The National Archives – The treason of Sir Thomas More |url=https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-treason-of-sir-thomas-more/ |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=The National Archives blog |language=en-GB}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1537

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of Ireland

| long_title = An Act authorizing the King, His Heirs, and Successors, to be supreme Head of the Church of Ireland.

| year = 1534

| citation = 26 Hen. 8. c. 5 (I)

| introduced_commons =

| introduced_lords =

| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent =

| commencement =

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date =

| amends =

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| repealing_legislation = Statute Law Revision Act 1950

| related_legislation =

| status = Repealed

| original_text =

| collapsed =

}}

In 1537, the {{visible anchor|Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1537}} (28 Hen. 8. c. 5 (I), 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.{{Cite web|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101073364943;view=1up;seq=45|title=Statutes passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland ... from the third year of Edward the second, A.D. 1310 [to the fortieth year of George III, A.D. 1800, inclusive] ... v. 1.|website=HathiTrust}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Act of Supremacy 1558

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of England

| long_title = An Acte restoring to the Crowne thauncyent Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall, and abolyshing all Forreine Power repugnaunt to the same.

| year = 1558

| citation = 1 Eliz. 1. c. 1

| territorial_extent = England and Wales

| royal_assent = 8 May 1559

| commencement = 23 January 1559{{efn|Start of session.}}

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date =

| amends =

| replaces = Suppression of Heresy Act 1400

| amendments = {{ubli|Religious Disabilities Act 1846|Statute Law Revision Act 1948|Statute Law Revision Act 1950|Statute Law Revision Act 1953|Criminal Law Act 1967|Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1969}}

| repealing_legislation =

| related_legislation =

| status = Amended

| original_text = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915519&seq=438

| revised_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Eliz1/1/1

}}

{{Main|Act of Supremacy 1558}}

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{{refn|group=nb|The Act of Supremacy was passed in April 1559, so many sources refer to it by the year 1559.{{cite web |title=Elizabeth's Supremacy Act, Restoring Ancient Jurisdiction (1559), 1 Elizabeth, Cap. 1 |url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/engref/er79.html |website=Hanover Historical Texts Project |access-date=23 December 2018 |date=March 2001}} However, all but three acts of Parliament prior to 1793 were ex post facto laws that came into effect on the first day of the session. The first Parliament of Elizabeth I met three months earlier in January, which was still in 1558 because the next year began on 25 March 1559. Therefore, the Act of Supremacy is officially dated 1558.{{cite web |title=Act of Supremacy 1558 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Eliz1/1/1 |website=Legislation |publisher=The National Archives}}}} that declared Elizabeth the 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.{{citation |url=http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/act_of_supremacy2.htm |title=The Act of Supremacy (1559).}}

The use of the term Supreme Governor as opposed to Supreme Head pacified some Catholics and those Protestants concerned about a female leader of the Church of England. Elizabeth, who was a politique,{{cn|date=November 2021}}{{Cite journal |last=Collinson |first=Patrick |date=January 2012 |title=Elizabeth I |journal=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}} 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.

Historian G. R. Elton has argued that, "in law and political theory the Elizabethan supremacy was essentially parliamentary, while Henry VIII's had been essentially personal."{{cite book|last=G.R. Elton|title=The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJZZzoBJOfwC&pg=PA344|date=1982 |publisher=Cambridge UP 2nd ed.|page=344|isbn=9780521287579}} 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.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

The conflation in the Crown of supreme lay 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:

{{Quote|There is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is a member of the Commonwealth, nor a member of the Commonwealth which is not also a member of the Church of England.{{cite book|editor=David M. Loades|title=Reader's Guide to British History|year=2003|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|pages=2:1147}}John Spurr, The Restoration Church of England, 1646–1689 (1991)}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1560

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of Ireland

| long_title = An Act restoring to the Crown, the auncient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall, and abolishing all forreine Power repugnant to the same.

| year = 1560

| citation = 2 Eliz. 1. c. 1 (I)

| introduced_commons =

| introduced_lords =

| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent =

| commencement =

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date =

| amends =

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| repealing_legislation =

| related_legislation =

| status = Amended

| original_text =

| UK-LEG_title = Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1560

| collapsed =

}}

In 1560, the Parliament of Ireland passed "{{lang|en-emodeng|An Act restoring to the Crown, the auncient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall, and abolishing all forreine Power repugnant to the same.}}".{{Cite web|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Eliz1/2/1|title=Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1560}}{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/30008135|title=The Irish Parliament of 1560: The Anglican Reforms Authorised|author=Jefferies, Henry A.|year=1988|journal=Irish Historical Studies|volume=26|issue=102|pages=128–141|doi=10.1017/S0021121400009627 |jstor=30008135 |url-access=subscription}}

{{Portal|Christianity}}

• Supreme Governor of the Church of England
• State religion
• Dissolution of the Monasteries

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.britainexpress.com/History/tudor/supremacy-henry-text.htm Original text of the 1534 Act of Supremacy].
• {{UK-LEG|path=aep/Eliz1/1/1|the Act of Supremacy 1558}}
• [https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1534_26H8n1 Image of the original 1534 Act of Supremacy]

{{English legislation}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acts of Supremacy}}

Category:Acts of the Parliament of England 1534

Category:Acts of the Parliament of England 1558

Category:Acts of the Parliament of England 1560

Category:Acts of the Parliament of England concerning religion

Category:Repealed English legislation

Category:Constitutional laws of England

Category:Parliamentary Acts of the English Reformation

Category:1535 in Christianity