Acts of Supremacy - First Act of Supremacy 1534

First Act of Supremacy 1534

The Act of Supremacy of November 1534 (26 Hen. VIII c. 1) was an Act of the Parliament of England under King Henry VIII declaring that he was "the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England" and that the English crown shall enjoy "all honours, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity.". 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), but that it was a recognized 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 and French church. Henry had been declared "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei Defensor) in 1521 by Pope Leo X for his pamphlet accusing Martin Luther of heresy. Parliament later conferred this title upon Henry in 1544.

The 1534 Act is often taken to mark the beginning of the English Reformation, although other sources suggest that it brewing for more than a century. There were a number of reasons for this Act, primarily the need for Henry to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, because Catherine had not produced a son and heir (and because of Henry's alleged misgivings about the legitimacy of his marriage to his late brother's wife). Pope Clement VII still refused to grant the annulment, due to the familial connections Catherine had with the Holy Roman Emperor at the time (and fear caused by Charles V's sacking of Rome in 1527). 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. The most famous public figure to resist the Treason Act was Sir Thomas More.

This Act was repealed in 1554 by King Henry's elder daughter, Queen Mary I.