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Why did Thomas More reject Henry VIII’s claim to be head of the Church of England?

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Portrait of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger, showing More in dark robes and a black hat, wearing a gold chain of office, seated against a green and yellow draped background. — Thomas More *Sir Thomas More*, oil on panel by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527; in the Frick Collection, New York City.

Thomas More rejected King Henry VIII’s claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England primarily due to his commitment to the unity of the church and his belief in papal supremacy.1

More’s opposition was rooted in his conviction that "no temporal man may be head of the spirituality". When he was summoned to swear an oath to the Act of Succession—which validated Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and effectively repudiated the authority of the pope—More refused to take it.12

While he was willing to acknowledge the political reality of the succession, he could not in good conscience deny the spiritual authority of the pope. This refusal to renounce papal supremacy led to his imprisonment in the Tower of London and his subsequent trial and execution in 1535 for treason. At his trial, More maintained that he was dying "in the faith and for the faith of the Catholic Church, the king’s good servant and God’s first".132