Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Article

Supreme Head, Supreme Governor

Learn More
Supreme Head, Supreme Governor

The settlement was not stable for a generation. Under Edward VI the church became doctrinally Protestant, with an English prayer book and reformed articles. Mary I repealed the supremacy in 1554 and restored the papal jurisdiction, and the executions ran in the opposite direction. Elizabeth I restored the supremacy in 1559 and with it a prayer book and articles, and the arrangement then held.

One detail of the Elizabethan act is more than cosmetic. The title was changed from supreme head to supreme governor, a formula that avoided claiming spiritual headship of Christ's church for a monarch, and which also avoided the objection that a woman could not be head of the church. It was deliberately capable of being accepted by people who understood it differently, which is characteristic of the whole settlement.

That capacity became the defining feature of Anglicanism: a church defined by common worship and a legal framework, holding together within it people of markedly different theological convictions, and preferring formulas that do not force a choice. Its critics have called that incoherence and its defenders comprehensiveness for four centuries. The royal supremacy itself remains the law in England, with the sovereign as supreme governor of the established church, though the appointment of bishops has passed in practice to the church.

Connections

Article On

Source Divinity Atlas Long-Form Articles, First Edition
Sources
Divinity Atlas Long-Form Articles, First Edition
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.