Obituary: The Right Rev John Trillo

NICHOLAS CRANFIELD (10 August) writes that, when Bishop John Trillo was privately at Windsor Castle, 'The Supreme Head of the Church of England' reminded him that he was not expected to attend church, writes John Andrews (further to the obituary by Vernon Sproxton, 6 August).

The bishop must have stayed with Christ himself. The Supreme Head Act, which gave Henry VIII the title that he had always sought, was superseded by the Act of Supremacy (1559). This made the sovereign Supreme Governor of the Church of England. See, eg, JRH Moorman's History of the Church in England (1958), pp168, 200-01. The sovereign's Declaration, prefixed to the Thirty-Nine Articles, begins: 'Being by God's Ordinance . . . Supreme Governor . . .'

I forget which Victorian clergyman insisted on calling the Queen 'The Supreme Governess'.