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"We thought that the clergy of our realm had been our subjects wholly, but now we have well perceived that they be but half our subjects."

— Henry VIII

We Thought That The Clergy Of

We thought that the clergy of our realm had been our subjects wholly, but now we have well perceived that they be but half our subjects.

— Henry VIII
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About this quote

Henry VIII delivered this speech to Parliament in 1532 as part of his sustained pressure campaign against the English clergy, who had been charged with praemunire (illegal submission to papal authority) and were being forced to submit to the royal supremacy. The remark is significant as an early public articulation of the principle that would become the Act of Supremacy (1534), making Henry the Supreme Head of the Church of England and completing England's break with Rome. The English Reformation was driven in large part by Henry's need to secure a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which Pope Clement VII — under pressure from Catherine's nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V — refused to grant.

Source

Speech to Parliament, 1532

Of all losses, time is the most irrecuperable for it can never be redeemed.
— Henry VIII
I care not a fig for all his excommunications.
— Henry VIII
I see and hear daily that you of the Clergy preach one against another, teach one contrary to another, inveigh one against another without charity or discretion.
— Henry VIII
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