<P> The 1534 Act marks the beginning of the English Reformation . There were a number of reasons for this Act, primarily the need for a male heir to the throne . Henry tried for years to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and had convinced himself that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's widow . But Pope Clement VII was under the control of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and Catherine's nephew; he refused to grant the annulment because, according to Roman Catholic teaching, a validly contracted marriage is indivisible until death, and thus the pope cannot annul a marriage simply because of a canonical impediment previously dispensed . The Treasons Act was later passed: it provided that to disavow the Act of Supremacy and to deprive the King of his "dignity, title, or name" was to be considered treason . The most famous public figure to resist the Treason Act was Sir Thomas More . </P> <P> In 1537, the Irish Supremacy Act was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of Ireland, as had earlier been done in England . </P> <P> Henry's Act of Supremacy was repealed in 1554 in the reign of his staunchly Roman Catholic daughter, Queen Mary I. It was reinstated by Mary's Protestant half - sister, Queen Elizabeth I, when she ascended the throne . Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state . Anyone refusing to take the oath could be charged with treason . The use of the term Supreme Governor as opposed to Supreme Head pacified some Roman Catholics and those Protestants concerned about a female leader of the Church of England . Elizabeth, who was a politique, did not prosecute layman nonconformists, 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 . Thus, it was through the Second Act of Supremacy that Elizabeth I officially established the now reformed Church of England . </P> <P> Historian G.R. Elton argues that, "in law and political theory the Elizabethan supremacy was essentially parliamentary, while Henry VIII's had been essentially personal ." Supremacy was extinguished under Cromwell, but restored in 1660 . The Stuart kings used it as a justification for controlling the appointment of bishops . Richard Hooker put it in a nutshell: </P>

What events precipitated the act of supremacy in 1534