Supreme Act
The Supremacy ( Engl. Act of Supremacy ) is an on 3 November 1534 by the English Parliament enacted law, which King Henry VIII. Made to the head of the Church in England.
With the law, the Anglican state church was created, which renounced the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church . The reasoning behind the law was based on De vera obedientia by the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner .
Edward VI. continued to lead the title. The Catholic Maria I had it suspended in 1553. Under Elizabeth I it was reintroduced in 1559 as part of the religious regulation. However, Elisabeth had the previous title "Supreme Head" reworded to "Supreme Governor". Leading theologians had criticized that a woman could not hold an office within the church. Since this change, the English monarch has held an office outside the church, but is still in a leading position.
Text of the Supreme Act (English)
“Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England, and so is recognized by the clergy of this realm in their convocations, yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same; be it enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia ; and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all honors, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits and commodities to the said dignity of the supreme head of the same Church belonging and appertaining; and that our said sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offenses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquility of this realm; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding. "
source
Documents of the Christian Church , Selected and Edited by Henry Bettenson, Second Edition, Oxford et al. 1963, p. 227
Web links
- Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy (1534) (English)
- Elizabeth I's Act of Supremacy (1559) (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Diarmaid MacCulloch : The second phase of the English Reformation (1547–1603) and the birth of the Anglican Via Media, Münster 1998, p. 39.