Pontifez Maximus and english monarchy

biporalization and power struggle em the elizabethan era

Abstract

Based on the documentary framework of Queen Elizabeth's Proclamation to Forbidden Preaching (1558), the Elizabeth's Supremacy Act, Restoring Ancient Jurisdiction (1559) and Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity (1559), we become apt to problematize the state-ideological antagonism aroused by the English monarchy of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and the Pontifex Maximus. The monarchical-pontifical bipolarity had been undertaken in a conjuncture of ascending fortification of the State of England, whose consolidation implied in the notorious contestation of the papal temporal power secularly undertaken in the English islands. Elizabeth I would antagonize the previous political and religious acquiescence communed by the Pontifex Maximus, a phenomenon consonant with religious reformism of the sixteenth century. The papal ideological hegemony would remain largely refuted in the Elizabethan era through the ratification of Anglican doctrine, which had rejected the Holy See's power in English domains. Therefore, the present work is based on the analysis of such antagonism of powers undertaken during the Elizabethan era, using as a source the documentation previously mentioned.