Supreme Governor of the Church of England | |
---|---|
Church of England | |
Style | His Majesty |
Residence | Buckingham Palace |
Constituting instrument | Act of Supremacy 1558 |
Precursor | Supreme Head of the Church of England |
Formation | 1558 |
First holder | Elizabeth I |
The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is the titular head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch. [1] Although the monarch's authority over the Church of England is largely ceremonial and is mostly observed in a symbolic capacity, the position is still relevant to the established church. As the supreme governor, the monarch formally appoints high-ranking members of the church on the advice of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, who in turn acts on the advice of the Crown Nominations Commission. [1] Since the Act of Settlement of 1701, all Supreme Governors have been members of the Church of England.
By 1536, King Henry VIII had broken with the Holy See, seized assets of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and declared the Church of England as the established church with himself as its supreme head. The Act of Supremacy 1534 confirmed the king's status as having supremacy over the church and required the peers to swear an oath recognising Henry's supremacy. [2] Henry's daughter Mary I attempted to restore the English Church's allegiance to the Pope and repealed the Act of Supremacy in 1555. [3] Elizabeth I ascended to the throne in 1558, and the Parliament restored the original Act by passing the Act of Supremacy 1558. [4] To placate critics, the Oath of Supremacy, which peers were required to swear, set the monarch's title as supreme governor rather than supreme head of the restored Church of England. This wording avoided the charge that the monarchy was claiming divinity or subordinating Jesus of Nazareth (whom the Christian Bible explicitly identified as the head of the Church in the Epistle to the Ephesians). [5]
"Defender of the Faith" (Fidei Defensor) has been part of the English—and since the union of Scotland and England, the British—monarch's title since Henry VIII was granted it by Pope Leo X in 1521 in recognition of Henry's role in opposing the Protestant Reformation. [2] The pope withdrew the title, but it was later reconferred by Parliament in the reign of Edward VI.
The monarch's role is acknowledged in the preface to the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1562. It states that:
Being by God's Ordinance, according to Our just Title, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church, within these Our Dominions, We hold it most agreeable to this Our Kingly Office, and Our own religious zeal, to conserve and maintain the Church committed to Our Charge, in Unity of true Religion, and in the Bond of Peace ... We have therefore, upon mature Deliberation, and with the Advice of so many of Our Bishops as might conveniently be called together, thought fit to make this Declaration following ... That We are Supreme Governor of the Church of England ...
Article 37 makes this claim to royal supremacy more explicit:
The Queen's Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England, and other her Dominions, unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign Jurisdiction. ... [We] give not to our Princes the ministering either of God's Word, or of the Sacraments ... but only that prerogative, which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself; that is, that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal, and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evildoers. The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England. [6]
The British monarch vows to uphold the constitution of the Church of Scotland (a Presbyterian national church), but does not hold a leadership position in it. Nevertheless, the monarch appoints the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland as their personal representative, with a ceremonial role. Queen Elizabeth II on occasion filled the role personally, as when she opened the General Assembly in 1977 and 2002 (her Silver and Golden Jubilee years). [7]
Name | Years | Notes |
---|---|---|
Henry VIII | 1531–1547 | As supreme head. |
Edward VI | 1547–1553 | As supreme head. With Thomas Cranmer, authorised the Book of Common Prayer. |
Mary I and Philip | 1553–1555 | As supreme head (from 1554 the couple omitted the title, without statutory authority until authorised by Parliament in 1555). Promoted the Catholic Reformation in England and Wales. |
Elizabeth I | 1558–1603 | See Elizabethan Religious Settlement. |
James I | 1603–1625 | See James VI and I and religious issues. Authorized the King James Version of the Bible. |
Charles I | 1625–1649 | Canonised martyr of the Church of England. |
Interregnum | 1649–1660 | |
Charles II | 1660–1685 | Converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. |
James II | 1685–1688 | Last Catholic to hold the position; he only held it as statutory authority. |
Mary II | 1689–1694 | Reigned jointly with her husband (and cousin) William III. |
William III | 1689–1702 | At first reigned jointly with Mary II, 1689–1694. Calvinist. |
Name | Years | Notes |
---|---|---|
Anne | 1702–1714 | Raised an Anglican. [8] During her reign, the Acts of Union 1707 merged England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. Since then, monarchs also swear to preserve the Church of Scotland. [9] Married to the Lutheran Prince George of Denmark. |
George I | 1714–1727 | Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. First Protestant in the line set forth by the Succession to the Crown Act 1707. Lutheran. |
George II | 1727–1760 | Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheran. |
George III | 1760–1820 | Head of the Lutheran Church in Hanover. Creation of the United Church of England and Ireland in 1800. |
George IV | 1820–1830 | Catholic emancipation enacted by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. |
William IV | 1830–1837 | |
Victoria | 1837–1901 | The Church of Ireland was disestablished by the Irish Church Act 1869. |
Edward VII | 1901–1910 | |
George V | 1910–1936 | The Church in Wales was disestablished by the Welsh Church Act 1914. |
Edward VIII | 1936 | Pressured to abdicate, formalised by the His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. |
George VI | 1936–1952 | |
Elizabeth II | 1952–2022 | Longest-serving, at 70 years. |
Charles III | 2022–present |
Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope.
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British Constitution. The term may also refer to the role of the royal family within the UK's broader political structure. The monarch since 8 September 2022 is King Charles III, who ascended the throne on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, his mother.
In English history, the penal laws were a series of laws that sought to enforce the State-decreed religious monopoly of the Church of England and, following the 1688 revolution, of Presbyterianism in Scotland, against the continued existence of illegal and underground communities of Catholics, nonjuring Anglicans, and Protestant nonconformists. The Penal laws also imposed various forfeitures, civil penalties, and civil disabilities upon recusants from mandatory attendance at weekly Sunday services of the Established Church. The penal laws in general were repealed in the early 19th-century due to the successful activism of Daniel O'Connell for Catholic Emancipation. Penal actions are civil in nature and were not English common law.
Defender of the Faith is a phrase used as part of the full style of many English, Scottish and later British monarchs since the early 16th century, as well as by other monarchs and heads of state.
The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the English monarchs as the head of the Church of Ireland. The 1534 Act declared King Henry VIII and his successors as the Supreme Head of the Church, replacing the Pope. This first Act was repealed during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I. The 1558 Act declared Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church, a title that the British monarch still holds.
The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in the Kingdom of England, or in its subordinate Kingdom of Ireland, to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. Failure to do so was to be treated as treasonable. The Oath of Supremacy was originally imposed by King Henry VIII of England through the Act of Supremacy 1534, but repealed by his elder daughter, Queen Mary I of England, and reinstated under Henry's other daughter and Mary's half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I of England, under the Act of Supremacy 1558. The Oath was later extended to include Members of Parliament (MPs) and people studying at universities. In 1537, the Irish Supremacy Act was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of Ireland. As in England, a commensurate Oath of Supremacy was required for admission to offices.
The Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532, also called the Statute in Restraint of Appeals, the Act of Appeals and the Act of Restraints in Appeals, was an Act of the Parliament of England.
Caesaropapism is the idea of combining the social and political power of secular government with religious power, or of making secular authority superior to the spiritual authority of the Church, especially concerning the connection of the Church with government. Although Justus Henning Böhmer (1674–1749) may have originally coined the term caesaropapism (Cäseropapismus), it was Max Weber (1864–1920) who wrote that "a secular, caesaropapist ruler ... exercises supreme authority in ecclesiastic matters by virtue of his autonomous legitimacy." According to Weber, caesaropapism entails "the complete subordination of priests to secular power."
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement is the name given to the religious and political arrangements made for England during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The settlement, implemented from 1559 to 1563, marked the end of the English Reformation. It permanently shaped the Church of England's doctrine and liturgy, laying the foundation for the unique identity of Anglicanism.
The Great Seal of the Realm is a seal that is used in the United Kingdom to symbolise the sovereign's approval of state documents. It is also known as the Great Seal of the United Kingdom. To make it, sealing wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the monarch wishes to seal officially. The formal keeper of the seal is the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
The precise style of the British sovereign is chosen and proclaimed by the sovereign, in accordance with the Royal Titles Act 1953. The current sovereign, King Charles III, was proclaimed by the Privy Council in 2022 to have acceded to the throne with the style:
Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith
The Act of Supremacy 1558, sometimes referred to as the Act of Supremacy 1559, is an act of the Parliament of England, which replaced the original Act of Supremacy 1534, and passed under the auspices of Elizabeth I. The 1534 act was issued by Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, which arrogated ecclesiastical authority to the monarchy, but which had been repealed by Mary I. Along with the Act of Uniformity 1558, the act made up what is generally referred to as the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.
The right to freedom of religion in the United Kingdom is provided for in all three constituent legal systems, by devolved, national, European, and international law and treaty. Four constituent nations compose the United Kingdom, resulting in an inconsistent religious character, and there is no state church for the whole kingdom.
The Oath of Allegiance is a promise to be loyal to the British monarch, and their heirs and successors, sworn by certain public servants in the United Kingdom, and also by newly naturalised subjects in citizenship ceremonies. The current standard wording of the oath of allegiance is set out in the Promissory Oaths Act 1868.
The term "emperor" has sometimes informally been retroactively applied to a few mythical and historical rulers of Great Britain, Ireland or the United Kingdom. It was sometimes used informally to designate either Plantagenet or Tudor caesaropapism. The reliable sources of British history do not use the term "British Emperor," nor did the government. The term "British Empire" is an unofficial designation and does not imply there was a person called "emperor."
The title of Supreme Head of the Church of England was created in 1531 for King Henry VIII when he first began to separate the Church of England from the authority of the Holy See and allegiance to the papacy, then represented by Pope Clement VII. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 confirmed the King's status as having supremacy over the church and required the nobility to swear an oath recognising Henry's supremacy. By 1536, Henry had broken with Rome, seized assets of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and declared the Church of England as the established church with himself as its head. Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry in 1538 over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
The English Protestant Reformation was imposed by the English Crown, and submission to its essential points was exacted by the State with post-Reformation oaths. With some solemnity, by oath, test, or formal declaration, English churchmen and others were required to assent to the religious changes, starting in the sixteenth century and continuing for more than 250 years.
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the Pope and bishops over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Reformation: various religious and political movements that affected both the practice of Christianity in Western and Central Europe and relations between church and state.
The Obedience of a Christen man, and how Christen rulers ought to govern, wherein also thou shalt find eyes to perceive the crafty convience of all iugglers. is a 1528 book by the English Protestant author William Tyndale. The spelling of this title is now commonly modernized and abbreviated to The Obedience of a Christian Man. It was first published by Merten de Keyser in Antwerp, and is best known for advocating Caesaropapism: the ideology that the King of a country was the head of that country's church, rather than the Holy See, and to be the first instance, in the English language at any rate, of advocating the divine right of kings, a concept mistakenly attributed to the Catholic Church.
The 1st Parliament of Queen Elizabeth I was ruled over by Queen Elizabeth I of England on 5 December 1558 and assembled on 23 January 1559. This Parliament would restore many of the laws created by Henry VIII and the English Reformation Parliament. Queen Elizabeth's 1st Parliament passed some 24 public statutes and 17 private measures by the time it was dissolved on 8 May 1559.