Editing Caesaropapism (section)

===Anglican Communion===
[[File:1491 Henry VIII.jpg|thumb|upright|Henry VIII ({{circa|1531}})]]
During the dispute between King [[Henry VIII of England]] and [[Pope Clement VII]] over Henry's wish to have his marriage to [[Catherine of Aragon]] [[Declaration of nullity|annulled]], the [[English Parliament]] passed the [[Act in Restraint of Appeals]] (1533). It stated:

{{quote|Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the [[imperial crown]] of the same.<ref>[http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123week9.htm  The opening words of the Act in restraint of Appeals, 1533]</ref>}}

The next year Parliament passed the  [[Act of Supremacy|First Act of Supremacy]] (1534) that explicitly tied the head of church to the imperial crown of England:

{{quote|The only supreme head in earth of the [[Church of England]] called Anglicana Ecclesia, and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm.<ref>[http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123week9.htm Excerpt from The Act of Supremacy (1534)]</ref>}}

The [[Crown of Ireland Act 1542|Crown of Ireland Act]], passed by the Irish Parliament in 1541 (effective 1542), changed the traditional title used by the Monarchs of England for the reign over Ireland, from [[Lord of Ireland]] to [[King of Ireland]] and named Henry head of the [[Church of Ireland]], for similar reasons.

During the rule of Queen [[Mary I of England]] ({{reign | 1553 | 1558}}), the First Act of Supremacy was annulled, but during the reign of Queen [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] the [[Second Act of Supremacy]], with similar wording to the First Act, was passed in 1559. During the [[English Interregnum]] of 1649 to 1660 the [[Acts of Supremacy | laws]] were annulled, but the acts which caused the laws to be in abeyance were themselves deemed null and void by the Parliaments of the [[English Restoration]] from 1660 onwards.

When Elizabeth I restored royal supremacy, she replaced the title [[Supreme Head of the Church of England| "Supreme Head"]] with that of [[Supreme Governor of the Church of England| "Supreme Governor"]], a conciliatory change designed to mollify English Catholics and the more radical of the English Protestants. 

According to [[Nicholas Sanders]] ({{circa | 1530}} - 1581), however: <blockquote> "The Queen lays down for her clergy a rule of life, outside of which they dare not move, not only in those things which Protestants call indifferent, but in all matters of Faith, discipline, and doctrine, in virtue of that supreme spiritual power with which she is invested: she suspends her bishops when she pleases, she grants a license to preach, either to those who are ordained according to her rite or to simple laymen, in the same way at her pleasure reduces those whom she will to silence. To show her authority in these things, she occasionally, from her closet, addresses her preacher, and interrupts him in the presence of a large congregation, in some such way as this: 'Mr. Doctor, you are wandering from the text, and talking nonsense. Return to your subject.{{'"}}<ref> Philip Caraman (1960), ''The Other Face: Catholic Life under Elizabeth I'', [[Longman, Green, and Co]]. Page 65.</ref></blockquote>

Since 1559, the royal monarchs of England, of Great Britain, and of the United Kingdom have claimed the "Supreme Governor" status as well as the title of [[fidei defensor| "Defender of the Faith"]] (which was originally bestowed on Henry VIII by [[Pope Leo X]] but later revoked by [[Pope Paul III]], as that was originally an award for Henry VIII's 1521 anti-Lutheran treatise ''[[Defence of the Seven Sacraments]]'').

Despite his continued persecution of both Catholic [[Recusants]] and [[English Dissenters]], [[James I of England|King James I]] ({{reign | 1603 | 1625}}) preferred not to do anything else that might otherwise encourage factional strife within the [[Anglican Communion]]. His son and heir, [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] ({{reign | 1625 | 1649}}), through his insistence upon promoting the [[Laudianism|High-Church reforms]] advocated by the [[Caroline Divines]] and by Archbishop [[William Laud]], alienated opponents of [[Anglo-Catholicism]] and lost his throne in the course of the [[English Civil War]] of 1642-1651.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

The [[Glorious Revolution|1688 overthrow]] of the [[House of Stuart]] was caused by the efforts of [[James II of England|King James II]] ({{reign | 1685 | 1688}}) to partially annul the Act of Supremacy by granting [[Catholic Emancipation]] more than two hundred years before [[Daniel O'Connell]]. As many Anglicans saw James's attempts as in violation of the King's [[Coronation oath of the British monarch | Coronation Oath]], Parliament blocked every bill, which caused the King to simply order Catholic Emancipation into effect using his [[Royal Prerogative]]. In response, Parliament successfully invited the King's son-in-law, [[William III of England|William of Orange]] to invade England and to take the throne.

Even though King James II and his exiled heirs remained Catholics, their overthrow divided the [[Anglican Communion]] in what is now known as the [[Non-juring schism]]. Anglican [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]], or Non-Jurors, embraced the [[Anglo-Catholicism]] advanced by the Stuart monarchs between 1603 and 1688. During each of the [[Jacobite risings]], Non-Juring Anglican chaplains accompanied the Jacobite armies. The schism faded following{{cn|date=December 2024}} the 1788 death of Prince [[Charles Edward Stuart]] and the inheritance of his claim to the throne by his younger brother, Prince [[Henry Benedict Stuart]], a [[Catholic priest]] and Cardinal.