Elizabethan Religious Settlement in the context of "Book of Common Prayer (1552)"

The Act of Supremacy 1558 (1 Eliz. 1. c. 1), also known as the Act of Supremacy 1559, is an act of the Parliament of England, which replaced the original Act of Supremacy 1534 (26 Hen. 8. c. 1), and becoming law during the reign of Elizabeth I. The 1534 act was issued by Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, arrogating ecclesiastical authority to the monarch, but this law had been repealed by Mary I. Along with the Act of Uniformity 1558, the Supremacy Act made up what is generally referred to as the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.

The act remained in place until the 19th century, when some sections began to be repealed. By 1969, all provisions, except section 8 (which still remains in force), had been repealed by various acts, with the whole act repealed in Northern Ireland between 1950 and 1953.

The Act of Uniformity 1558 (1 Eliz. 1. c. 2) was an act of the Parliament of England, passed in 1559, to regularise prayer, divine worship and the administration of the sacraments in the Church of England. In so doing, it mandated worship according to the attached 1559 Book of Common Prayer. The act was part of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in England instituted by Elizabeth I, who wanted to unify the church and abolish the influence of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Other acts concerned with this settlement were the Act of Supremacy 1558 (1 Eliz. 1. c. 1) and the Thirty-Nine Articles.

The 1559 Book of Common Prayer, also called the Elizabethan prayer book, is the third edition of the Book of Common Prayer and the text that served as an official liturgical book of the Church of England throughout the Elizabethan era.

Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558 following the death of her Catholic half-sister Mary I. After a brief period of uncertainty regarding how much the new queen would embrace the English Reformation, the 1559 prayer book was approved as part of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The 1559 prayer book was largely derived from the 1552 Book of Common Prayer approved under Edward VI. Retaining much of Thomas Cranmer's work from the prior edition, it was used in Anglican liturgy until a minor revision in 1604 under Elizabeth's successor, James I. The 1559 pattern was again retained by the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which remains in use by the Church of England.

The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history, with an effective government, resulting from the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and a prospering economy boosted by trans-Atlantic trade and privateering. During this time, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, and it was the last period in before the royal union with Scotland. England began to engage in international exploration and expansion. Culturally, this period represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw a flowering of poetry, music, literature, and especially theatre, with playwrights such as William Shakespeare breaking new ground.

The Elizabethan age contrasts sharply with the previous and following reigns. It was a brief period of internal peace between the previous century's Wars of the Roses, the English Reformation, and religious battles between Protestants and Catholics, and the later conflict of the English Civil War and the political battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the remainder of the seventeenth century. Under Elizabeth, the religious conflict was settled for a time by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and Parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism.