nking appears to have been that if he could dispense with papal authority over the English church, he would be able to sanction or legitimate issues of church dogma, including the matter of the King's marriage. Although what was called the "King's matter" was personalized in regard to Thomas More, it was an institutional transformation of the status of the church in England from that of authority and influence nearly equal to that of the king, into a subordinate and highly specialized spiritual authority subject to the king.
The transformation was systematic. The Submission of the Clergy, enacted in 1532, was essentially an oath of ecclesiastical allegiance to the King that, significantly, cited previous ecclesiastical directives as "not only much prejudicial to your royal prerogative, but also overmuch onerous to your highness' subjects" (Bettenson, 1963, p. 306). This is a thinly veiled reference to the exercise of ecclesiastical authority in England by Rome. In 1533, the Restraint of Appeals eliminated papal jurisdiction over ecclesiastical courts i
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