I, A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience, that the
Kings Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm, and of
all other His Highness Dominions and Countries, as well in all
Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things (or causes) as Temporal: And
that no Forraign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath,
or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, preheminence
or authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm: and
therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forreign
jurisdiction, powers, superioritie, and authorities, and do promise
that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the
Kings Highness, His Heirs and lawful Successors, and (to my power)
shall assist and defend all jurisdiction, priviledge, preheminence,
& authority granted or belonging to the Kings Highness, His Heirs
and Successors, and united and annexed to the imperial Crown of the
Realm. So help me God, _&c._
The Act of Supremacy which broke the power of the Roman Catholic Church
in England, under Henry the Eighth, and his successor, Edward the Sixth,
was repealed under Mary Tudor, and revived under Elizabeth, in 1558.
Following the Gunpowder Plot, James the First, in 1605, had enacted an
Oath of Allegiance, also, which all British subjects were required to
take. This Oath of “submission and obedience to the King as a temporal
Sovereign, independent of any other power upon earth” contained no
acknowledgment of the King as the head of the Church, and, by this
omission, Roman Catholics could take it without denying the supremacy of
the Pope in spiritual affairs:
TENOR OF THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE, &C. TO BE TAKEN AND SUBSCRIBED BY
RECUSANTS
I. A.B. doe truely and sincerely acknowledge pfesse testifie and
declare in my Conscience before God and the Worlde, That our
Soveraigne Lorde Kinge James is lawfull and rightfull King of this
Realme and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries; And
that the Pope, neither of himselfe nor by any Authority of the
Churche or Sea of Rome, or by any other meanes with any other, hath
any Power or Authoritye to depose the King or to dispose any of his
Majesties Kingdomes or Dominions, or to authorize any Forraigne
Prince to invade or annoy hym or his Countries, or to discharge any
of his Subjects of their Allegiaunce and Obedience to his Majestie,
or to give Licence or Leave to any of them to beare Armes raise
Tumult or to offer any violence or hurte to his Majestie Royall Pson
State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his
Majesties Dominions. Also I doe sweare from my heart, that
notwithstanding any Declarac̄on or Sentence of Excommunicac̄on or
Deprivac̄on made or graunted or to be made or graunted by the Pope
or his Successors, or by any Authoritie derived or p̄tended to be
derived from hym or his Sea against the saide King his Heires or
Successors, or any Absolution of the saide Subjects from theire
Obedience; I will beare Faithe and true Allegiaunce to his Majestie
his Heires and Successors, and hym or them will defend to the
uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts
whatsoever which shalbe made against his or theire persons theire
Crowne and Dignitie by reason or colour of any such Sentence or
Declarac̄on or otherwise, and will doe my best endevour to disclose
and make knowen unto his Majestie his Heires and Successors all
Treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which I shall knowe or heare of
to be against hym or any of them. And I doe further sweare, That I
doe from my heart abhor, detest and abjure as impious and hereticall
this damnable Doctrine and Position, that Princes which be
excōmunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered
by theire Subjects or any other whosoever. And I doe beleeve and in
my Conscience am resolved, that neither the Pope nor any pson
whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any parte
therof, which I acknowledge by good and full Authoritye to be
lawfully ministered unto mee, and doe renounce all Pardons and
Dispensac̄ons to the contrarie; And all these things I do plainly
and sincerely acknowledge and sweare, according to these expresse
wordes by me spoken, and according to the playne and cōmon sense
and understanding of the same wordes, without any equivocac̄on or
mentall evasion or secret reservac̄on whatsoever; And I doe make
this recognic̄on and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly
upon the true Faithe of a Christian: So help me God. Unto which Oath
so taken, the saide pson shall subscribe his or her Name or Marke.
[1605.]
Both of these Oaths were commanded during the reign of Charles the
First, 1625–1649.
By the third Charter of the Virginia Company, their Treasurer, or any
two of the Council, were empowered to administer the Oaths of Supremacy,
and of Allegiance, to all persons going to their Colony. And the
Pilgrims, through their chief men, agreed with the Virginia Company:
“The Oath of Supremacy we shall willingly take, if it be required of us,
if that convenient satisfaction be not given by our taking the Oath of
Allegiance. John Robinson. William Brewster.”
The Charter of the Massachusetts-Bay Company gave them broader powers in
that it did not exact this provision from them but gave the Company
liberty to admit new members, called “Freemen” of the Company, and no
method, conditions, or qualifications were presented for conferring this
privilege. Their leaders, as we shall see, were quick to take advantage
of the opportunity given them to frame their own Oaths of citizenship.
Too late the government in England, or rather that part which was
representative of the Church of England, realized the powers of
colonization this gave the dissenting churchmen; and, in 1637, a
Proclamation was issued, aimed principally to prevent the emigration of
Puritan Ministers, which commanded that none should be suffered to go to
New England “without a certificate that they had taken the Oaths of
Supremacy and Allegiance, and had conformed to the discipline of the
Church of England.” In 1638, another Proclamation “commanded owners and
masters of vessels that they do not fit out any with passengers and
provisions to New-England, without license from the Commissioners of
Plantations.”
Another Oath, drawn up in England, also claims a place here because it
was sometimes voluntarily taken by settlers in the New England Colonies.
In the year 1655, during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, an Oath,
probably similar to that prescribed by the Rump Parliament to the
Council of State, was enacted which was known as: