Act of Supremecy

Basically:Act passed by Henry VIII saying that he becomes the head of the Church of England, this is how Anglicanism forms.

Why It was Passed

King Henry VIII (King in 1509) had the desire to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. His reason was that she had produced no male heir, which was an absolute essential if his Tudor dynasty were to flourish. At the same time, Henry had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine. Her unwillingness to be only the king's mistress, as well as the king's desire to have a legitimate male heir, made a new marriage imperative. However,due to the fact that England was mostly a catholic based country at the time, divorce was forbade. Henry relied upon Cardinal Wolsey, the highest ranking English church official and lord chancellor to the king, to obtain an annulment of his marriage from Pope Clement VII. Normally, the pope might have been willing to oblige, but the sack of Rome in 1527 had made the pope dependent upon the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who happened to be the nephew of Queen Catherine. Discretion dictated delay in granting the English king's request. Impatient with the process, Henry dismissed Wolsey in 1529.

Beginning of the Act

Henry then found two more advisor's, Thomas Cranmer who became archbishop of Canterbury in 1532, and Thomas Cromwell, the kings principal secretary after the fall of Wolsey. They advised the king to find a way of annulment through England's own ecclesiastical courts. Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn in January 1533 because she was already pregnant while Parliament passed an act cutting off all appeals from English church courts to Rome, a peace of legislation that essentially abolished papal authority in England. Thomas Cranmer ruled that the king's marriage to Catherine was then "null and void," and then validated Henry's marriage to Anne, at the beginning of June, Anne was crowned queen. Three months later a child was born. Much to the king's disappointment, the baby was a girl, the future Queen Elizabeth I.

Passing of the Act

In 1534 Parliament completed the break of the Church of England with Rome by passing the Act of Supremacy, which declared that the king was "taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of england." This meant that the English monarch now controlled the church in all matters of doctrine, clerical appointments, and discipline. In addition, Parliament passed a Treason Act making it punishable by death to deny that the king was the supreme head of the church. the Act of Supremacy and the Treason Act went beyond religious issues in their implications, for they asserted that there could be no higher authority over England than laws made by the king and Parliament. Thomas More, a humanist and former lord chancellor, had problem with the fact that loyalty to the pope in Rome was now treason in england.

Aftermath

Act in Restraint of Appeals passed which denies popes authority, also known as the Treason Act. Henry then convicts Anne Boleyn of adultery and she is beheaded. He then marries Jane Seymour who dies in childbirth but gives henry and heir to his throne, Edward VI. Thomas Cromwell becomes Chief Minister of England. Henry marries Anne of Cleves whom is said to have never annulled, afterwards he marries Catherine Howard whom is beheaded after eighteen months for adultery. Catherine Parr is his next wife whom outlives Henry.

References

Fourth Edition Western Civilization, Jackson J. Spielvogel, Copyright 2000 by Wadsworth, a division of Thompson Learning.

--Commsky 02:52, 19 September 2007 (UTC)