The 1558 Act declared Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church, a title that the British monarch still holds.

"[3] The wording of the act made clear that Parliament was not granting the king the title (thereby suggesting that they had the right to withdraw it later); rather, it was acknowledging an established fact.

In the Act of Supremacy, Henry VIII withdrew support for the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church and asserted the independence of the Ecclesia Anglicana.

Earlier, Henry VIII had been declared "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei defensor) in 1521 by Pope Leo X for his pamphlet accusing Martin Luther of heresy.

When Catherine of Aragon did not bear a son, the king tried for years to annul his marriage to her, having convinced himself that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's widow.

[10] Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy was repealed in 1554 during the reign of his staunchly Roman Catholic daughter, Queen Mary I.

Elizabeth, who was a politique,[citation needed][14] did not prosecute nonconformist laymen, or those who did not follow the established rules of the Church of England unless their actions directly undermined the authority of the English monarch, as was the case in the vestments controversy.

[16][17]In 1560, the Parliament of Ireland passed "An Act restoring to the Crown, the auncient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall, and abolishing all forreine Power repugnant to the same.".