Reformation Parliament

English parliament of November 1529-April 1536 which passed Thomas Cromwell's antipapal legislation. It acknowledged the sovereign as head of the Church in place of the pope, and empowered Henry VIII to abolish payments to Rome of the first year's income of all newly installed bishops, as had hitherto been the practice. It sanctioned the installation of Thomas Cranmer as primate of the English church., and enabled Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragón in 1533 and have Anne Boleyn executed in 1536, so that he at last had a male heir (Edward) in 1537 by Jane Seymour. The dissolution of the monasteries followed 1636-40. The Parliament lasted an unprecedented seven years and altogether enacted 137 statues, 32 of which were of vital importance.

In Ireland, the Dublin parliament largely shadowed the measures passed in Westminster, although it acknowledged Henry as king (not just lord) of Ireland and Supreme Head of the Irish Church in 1541. In Scotland, a pro-English parliament met in 1560, while Queen Mary was still in France, and abolished papal supremacy and adopted a mild form of Calvinism, including predestination, for the Kirk.