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about this fact seems to be , that their recognition of the King ' s supremacy would have been taken as a title to clemency that would hate saved them . ' ( Vol . II . p . 375 . ) With regard to the execution of More , Mr . Turner tells us , that " although we have not the detail of the arraignment or of the proofs , the preceding facts are sufficierit to shew that it was not for merely declining to acknowledge Henry ' s supremacy that he was convicted" ( p . 381 ) .
In support of his assertion that the Carthusians could not have suffered for denying the supremacy , Mr . Turner , in a note , refers to the 26 Henry VIII . cap . 1 , which , he tells us , enacts that the King is Supreme Head of the Church , but adds no penalties and mentions no treason ; and hence he infers , that no one could be convicted of high treason for denying the supremacy . The crown lawyers of that day were , however , rather more skilful than ' Mr . Turner in devising treasons , and it was certainly not difficu t ,
notwithstanding Mr . Turner ' s positive assertions to the contrary , to convert the denial of the supremacy into an act of treason . The 26 Hen . VIII . c . 1 , it is true , contains no penalties and mentions no treasons ; but it enacts , as Mr . Turner must have seen , " that the King shall have and enjoy all honours , dignities , pre-eminences , &c , to the dignity of Supreme Head of the Church belonging and appertaining . " By a later statute , passed in the same session of Parliament , ( 26 Hen . VIII . c . 13 , ) also cited by Mr . Turner ,
it was made treason " to maliciously wish or desire , by words or writing , or by craft imagine , invent , or attempt , any bodily harm to the King or Queen , or to deprive them of the dignity , title , or name , of their royal estates , " &c . Now , by 26 Hen . VIII . c . 1 , the King ' s supremacy was declared to be one of the royal dignities , and to deny it was surely % ** maliciously to wish or desire to deprive him of his dignity , " within the 26 Hen . VIII . c . 13 . That Sir Thomas More was charged m the indictment with this treason , amongst
others , most clearly appears from his own defence : " The second charge against me is , that I have violated the act made in the last Parliament ; that is , being a prisoner and twice examined , I would not , out of a malignant , perfidious , obstinate , and traitorous mind , tell them my opinion whether the King was supreme head of the Church or not . " HcweWs State Trials , Vol . I . p . 388 . That this was in truth the charge upon which More was con- * victed , appears from the following circumstance : When the Jury , after a
deliberation of only a quarter of an hour , had brought in the verdict of guilty , the Court , eager to condemn their venerable prisoner , were about to pass sentence upon him without observing the ordinary form of inquiring what he had to say why judgment should not pass upon him , when More interposed . On being desired to state his objection , he did so , in these words : ' * For as much , my Lords , as this indictment is grounded upon an Act of Parliament directly repugnant to the laws of God and his holy Church , " &c , clearly referring to the Supremacy Act . The opinion of Sir
John Fitzjames was then asked by the Court . " My Lords all , " replied Sir John , " by Saint Gellian I must needs confess , that if the Act of Parliament be not unlawful , then the indictment is not , in my conscience , invalid . "—» ( Ibid , ) Unless the charge against More had been that of denying the King ' s supremacy , for what purpose , we would ask , was Rich examined at the trial to prove the conversations which had taken place between the prisoner and himself , in the Tower , upon that subject ? Such are the proofs that More suffered for denying the supremacy . Let us now examine Mr . Turner's authorities for stating , that it was for the commission of other treasons that he was convicted . We have first a letter from Cromwell to the English
ambassadors in France , in which the writer says , " Touching Mr . More and the Bishop of Rochester , with such others as were executed nere , their trea-
Untitled Article
Review . ^ -English Reformation , 435
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 435, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/43/
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