1534 Act of Supremacy

A law passed in 1534 with the support of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell that acknowledged the principle of Royal Supremacy, making Henry VIII the supreme head of the Church of England and granting him the authority to nominate all bishops and control all Church property within the boundaries of the Church of England. In effect, this declared the Ecclesia Anglicana, or English Church, to be a national church separate from the primacy of Rome. This Act is commonly dated as the beginning of the English Reformation.