| ABSTRCT | In 1534, Henry VIII, with the aid of the Parliament, passed the Act of
Succession, which declared the new-born princess Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn the
only legitimate heir to the throne. According to the statute, all English subjects were
obliged to swear to the Act, which means to accept not only the content of it, but the
theological prerequisite－“Royal Supremacy”－as well. Soon after, Treasons Act
was promulgated; according to it, anyone rejecting to swear to the Act of Succession
was considered traitor, at a cost of his life. English subjects therefore faced a new
challenge in 1534: they were to decide whether to give up the Pope and to take King
Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. To secure the support of his
subjects, Henry VIII systematically asked the English to swear: his elites were forced
to declare their stands, as the King try to persuade, threaten, imprison, or even
execute them. Henry’s radical action was unprecedented; the entire elite class was
perturbed. We thus come across the following questions: why did the Tudor elites,
many of them noted humanists, fail to resist or to avert the “fanatic” move of the
King? What were their mentality, considerations, judgment, and choice? To answer
these questions, this paper is to divide the Henrician elites into three groups for
investigation: they are “the elites martyred”, “the elites exile”, and “the elites
surrendered”. |