High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Regnans in Excelsis was a papal bull issued on 25 February 1570 by Pope Pius V declaring "Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime" to be a heretic and releasing all her subjects from any allegiance to her and excommunicating any that obeyed her orders.The bull, written in Latin, is named from its incipit, the first three words of its text, which mean "ruling from on high" (a reference to God).Among the queen's offences, "She has removed the royal Council, composed of the nobility of England, and has filled it with obscure men, being heretics." The Papacy had previously reconciled with Mary I, who returned the Church of England to Roman Catholicism.