Act of Supremacy
Royal ecclesiastical takeover
The Act of Supremacy was English legislation establishing the monarch as head of the Church of England, breaking with papal authority.
Henry VIII's 1534 act declared him Supreme Head of the church; Elizabeth I's 1559 act modified this to Supreme Governor.
The term appears in discussions of the English Reformation and church-state relations: The Act of Supremacy formalized the split with Rome.
- Church of EnglandBritain's state religion
- six wivesRoyal marital succession
- schismFormal organizational fracture
- Elizabeth IFinal Tudor sovereign
- excommunicationFormal barring from sacraments
Henry VIII · divine right · sovereignty · treason · constitutional law · Protestant Reformation · Thomas More · Tower of London · English Reformation · oath · state religion · dissolution · Thomas Cromwell · Protestantism · Tudor · throne · monasteries · papal
- ReformationMartin Luther, John Calvin, 95 Theses, Protestant Reformation, Luther
- 1500sElizabeth I, Shakespeare, Spanish Armada, Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther
- church-statechurch-state, separation, church-state separation, establishment clause, religious accommodation
- English ChurchEnglish Reformation, Church of England, Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, Book of Common Prayer
- Anglican ChurchAnglicanism, bishop, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England, parish
- Anglican historyChurch of England, Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, English Reformation, Book of Common Prayer
Act of Supremacypapal supremacy
Pope's highest ecclesiastical authority
papal authority · papal infallibility · Holy See · Pope · College of Cardinals
Act of SupremacyCounter-Reformation
Church's internal reform movement
Mary I · Roman Catholicism · Edict of Nantes · Gunpowder Plot