Act of Supremacy

March 30, 1534

The English Parliament declared Henry VIII the supreme head of the Church of England, severing a thousand-year tie with Rome. Refusing to swear the oath became treason. Within a year Thomas More and John Fisher would lose their heads, and the English monasteries would begin to fall. The declaration that the king was supreme head of the Church severed England's ties to Rome and initiated a Reformation driven by royal authority.