King Henry VIII and the First Act of Supremacy (1534) It was also on this date, November 3, 1534, that England's Parliament passed the first Act of Supremacy, thus making King Henry VIII head of the English church. Under Henry's urging, and in 276 words, Parliament gave to the head of state the role until […]

Henry VIII (1521): Defender of the Faith It was on this date, October 11, 1521,* that Pope Leo X conferred the title Fidei Defensor, which is Latin for "Defender of the Faith," on England's King Henry VIII. That Medici pope, whose profligate spending and perverse pleasures were the outrage of Rome, was a staunch opponent […]

There is a curious collection of the impious residing eternally in and around Westminster: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, John Dryden – and the admittedly agnostic Charles Darwin!