Godly Kingship in Restoration England

In the records of parliament, the revolutionary is intermingled with the mundane. In 1533, parliament found time, between making a statute to pave the streets of London and passing an act to prevent ‘excess in apparel’, to redefine the relationship between the king and the church in England. The Act in Restraint of Appeals was not the first assertion of royal independence from clerical jurisdiction, for such claims had been made by medieval kings against popes. But 1533 marked something qualitatively new. It began a process of reconstituting the English church and crown which would fuel debate for the next 150 years.