Exhibit 509

Act restoring ancient jurisdiction (Elizabethan Act of Supremacy), 1 Elizabeth c. 1

Exhibit 509 · Statute

Act restoring ancient jurisdiction (Elizabethan Act of Supremacy), 1 Elizabeth c. 1

the queen's highness is the only supreme governor of this realm

Annexes ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the Crown; the queen may appoint commissioners by letters patent to exercise it; all archbishops, bishops, ecclesiastical persons, judges, mayors and everyone in royal pay must swear the queen is 'only supreme governor' in spiritual and temporal causes, on pain of losing their offices; limits what commissioners may adjudge to be heresy to what Scripture, the first four general councils, or Parliament with Convocation determine.

Source: Parliament of England (Elizabeth I)
Date: 1559
Quoted from: Gee and Hardy no. LXXIX, p. 449 (oath); pp. 447-48 (commissions); p. 455 (limit on heresy)
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://archive.org/details/documentsillustr00geehuoft
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding REL-2.5: Primary record In 1534 Parliament required cathedral chapters to elect the person the king named in his letter missive, declared the king supreme head of the Church of England and granted the Crown first fruits and an annual tenth of church income; in 1559 Parliament required clergy and royal officers to swear that the queen is "only supreme governor" and every minister to use the Book of Common Prayer.
Finding REL-2.9: Reported Innocent III in 1199 called the desire to understand the divine Scriptures "commendable" while condemning secret lay assemblies and usurped preaching; Thomas More wrote in 1529 that the clergy kept from the laity only translations not yet approved or already condemned; the 1559 Act of Supremacy limited what commissioners could adjudge heresy; and Anne Hudson reports about 250 surviving manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible, including a copy owned by Henry VI.