ABSTRACT
The Act of Supremacy gave Elizabeth the new title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Although designed to placate the Catholics, the change also pleased some Protestants who believed that the headship of the Church ‘is due to Christ alone, and cannot belong to any human being soever’, and were particularly uneasy at the prospect of a woman assuming a quasi-priestly role in the Church (Cross 1969). The new title, however, made no difference in practice to the extent of royal authority over the Church, as Elizabeth exercised the same rights over religion as had her father, and was determined to keep religion firmly under the control of the Crown. Her attitude was symbolized by the placing of the royal arms within the parish churches in the place where the rood (the crucifix flanked by carved images of the Virgin Mary and St John) had once stood as an object of communal worship.
