The Act of Supremacy, 1534
| By the 1530s Henry VIII needed the broad agreement of the realm
for the massive changes created by the Reformation. Here, in the Act
of Supremacy, he is invoking the authority of Parliament to proclaim
the declared wishes of the convocations of clergy that had already
agreed to his becoming the head of the Church of England.
Henry VIII's reign witnessed many far-reaching changes to the structure
of a society that was still essentially medieval. Despite its bombastic
language, this proclamation gives an indication of how the monarch
could use the function of Parliament to define and modify the English
state that he or she upheld. |
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