d,
and to repress and extirp all errours, heresies, and other enormities
and abuses heretofore used in the same: Be it enacted, by authority of
this present parliament, that the King our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and
successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed
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, as well the title and style thereof as
all the honours, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, authorities,
immunities, profits, and commodities, to the said dignity belonging and
appertaining; and that our said Sovereign Lord, his heirs and
successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority to
visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all
such errours, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever
they be, which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction
ought or may lawfully be reformed--most to the pleasure of Almighty God,
the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of
the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm--any usage, custom,
foreign lawes, foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or
things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding."[402]

[Sidenote: The meaning and value of the title.]

[Sidenote: It becomes the gage of the battle.]

Considerable sarcasm has been levelled at the assumption by Henry of
this title; and on the accession of Elizabeth, the crown, while
reclaiming the authority, thought it prudent to retire from the
designation. Yet it answered a purpose in marking the nature of the
revolution, and the emphasis of the name carried home the change into
the mind of the country. It was the epitome of all the measures which
had been passed against the encroachments of the spiritual powers within
and without the realm; it was at once the symbol of the independence of
England, and the declaration that thenceforth the civil magistrate was
supreme within the English dominions over church as well as state.[403]

Whether the king was or was not head of the church, became now therefore
the rallying point of the struggle; and the denial or acceptance of his
title the test of allegiance or disloyalty. To accept it was to go along
with the movement heartily and completely; to deny it was to admit the
rival sovereignty of the pope, and with his sovereignty th