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199 REIGN OF ELIZABETH (continued)

year 1562—in legal language, the fifth of Elizabeth, though when it began she had been little more than three years upon the throne—was remarkable for the assemblage of the second Parliament and the second Convocation of the reign. Again, the first measure passed by the Parliament was one relating to religion—viz., 5 Eliz. c. 1—'An Act for the assurance of the Queen's royal power over all estates and subjects within her dominions.' This Act made it penal in any person to maintain or defend the authority of the bishop or see of Rome within the Queen's dominions, subjecting offenders against it to the pains and penalties of the Statute of Præmunire. One of its clauses (14) incidentally explains that the Oath of Supremacy enacted by 1 Eliz. c. 1, acknowledges in her Majesty 'none other authority than that was challenged and lately used by the noble King Henry VIII. and King Edward VI., as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queen's Majesty's Injunctions published in the first year of Her Majesty's reign.' What that authority was we have already seen in considering Henry VIII.'s Act of Supremacy. This was the only ecclesiastical Act of this Parliament of primary importance, those for the due execution of