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THE SECOND ACT OF SUPREMACY 1559, UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH 1 IN 1559.

TO TRANSLATE THIS PAGE ON THE ACT OF SUPREMACY 1559 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN IN THE BOX BELOW AND CLICK ON THE LANGUAGE YOU WANT:

Act of Supremacy 1559

King Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy, was repealed in 1554, when his daughter Queen Mary I of England ascended the throne. This was not surprising in the least, as Mary was a very staunch Catholic.

Neither was it surprising, when Mary's half sister, the equally staunch Protestant, Queen Elizabeth 1 had the Act reinstated, upon her ascending the throne, when Mary died in 1558.

In this Second Act however, Queen Elizabeth 1 declared herself to be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, as opposed to the Supreme Head.

This terminology was as much to try and pacify her Protestant subjects, who were not too favourable about having a female leader of the Church of England, as it was to pacify her Catholic subjects.

The Second Act of Supremacy, also made it a crime to assert the authority of any foreign prince, prelate, or other authority. This of course was aimed at abolishing the authority of the Pope in England.

She also instituted an Oath of Supremacy, which required anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of both the Church and State. Anyone refusing to take this Oath could be charged with treason. A third offence was high treason, punishable with death.

THE OATH OF SUPREMACY.

By taking this Oath, the person was swearing allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Any person taking public or Church Office in England had to take the Oath, failing to do so, was made a crime.

In 1562 it became a treasonable offence, when the Supremacy of the Crown Act 1562, made a second offence of refusing to take the oath treason.

THE TEXT OF THE OATH AS PUBLISHED IN 1559:

" I, A.B. do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Queen's Higfhness is the only Supreme Governor of this realm, and of all of Her Highness's Dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queen's Highness, her heirs and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privileges and authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness, her heirs or successors, or united or annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. So help me God, and by the contents of this Book."

This had a specific impact on English Roman and European Roman Catholic parish histories since it expressly indicates that they must forswear allegiance to Roman Catholicism, inasmuch as the Church of Rome was directly a foreign jurisdiction, power, superiority and authority.

However, during the early years of her reign Elizabeth practiced, in large measure, religious clemency and tolerance, which was an attempt to harmonise the state of affairs between the Roman Catholics and the Church of England.

This was necessary for Elizabeth to fully establish her power, hold off threats of invasion from France and Spain, and overcome the accusations of illegitimacy that plagued her early years.

In the last twenty years of her reign, as Roman Catholic power within England waned (because Roman Catholics were forbidden to take public office and were slowly deprived of their lands and fortunes) and anti-Spanish, anti-Jesuit sentiment increased, however, Elizabeth made numerous Catholic Martyrs. Perhaps the most famous of these was Fr Edmund Campion.

In spite of many Catholics throughout the land refusing to acknowledge the Act of Supremacy and suffering the extremely harsh penalties imposed upon them for doing so, they stood shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Protestant countrymen in the Anglo-Spanish Wars, against their common foe, which was Catholic Spain.

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