The Act that first declared the English monarch, beginning with Henry VIII, the "Supreme Head of the Church of the Church of England," and made the break of the English church with Rome complete. Formally, it may be said, the Act marked the formal beginning of the English Reformation. His break with Rome had come about not because of any new understanding of the theology, but was a practical matter that permitted him to divorce his first wife, Catholic Catherine of Aragon, who had failed to bear him a son, and to marry his mistress, Protestant Anne Boleyn.
Under more ordinary circumstances, Henry would easily have secured a dispensation from the pope for the dissolution of his first marriage, and England would probably have remained a Catholic state. Continental politics at the time, however, made it impossible for the pope to do so without him suffering gravely. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis I, was the most powerful monarch on the Continent, and he happened also to be Catherine's nephew; there was no way he would have permitted his aunt to suffer such humiliation. Henry threw every diplomatic dirty tricks he could find. By 1534 he was desperate, believing himself to be cursed by God because he would not father a son for an heir. The Act was largely the idea of his advisor Thomas Cromwell.
Though Henry broke with Rome, the English Church (later to called the 'Anglican Church'), under his reign, remained essentially a Roman Catholic minus the pope. Having disposed of the pope, however, Henry happily retained the title "Defender of the Faith" that had been conferred on him by the pope earlier when he was still a favoured "son of the Church." While the title was meant to refer to Henry only, later English monarchs—just as happily—applied it to themselves: you see it clearly stamped "F D" on the "head" side of every English coin.
©ALBERITH
200921ch