204

Terrible Treason Laws

Meanwhile, the old Statute of Treasons (25 Edw. III.) was thought utterly insufficient to protect the person and power of the king, during the critical times from the beginning of the Reformation (1533), till the end of the century. The nation was very busy during all this period, creating new crimes new treasons-safeguarding its new life. Especially is this noticeable during the reign of Henry VIII., when there were no less than nine acts creating such offences; and history shows how ruthlessly these laws were enforced for the suppression and execution of the king's enemies, whom the nation, in the main, regarded as its enemies also. Four of these acts proclaimed and defended the position of the king in his struggle for supremacy with the pope of Rome.1 They were terrible laws, making the speaking of treasonable words treason; the obstinate refusal to take the abjuration oath against the pope, high treason; and even concealment or flight beyond seas to escape the penalties of royal proclamations concerning religion, high treason. Stephen believes these laws necessary. The Tudors had to strike terrible blows against their adversary and his adherents, and victory was hard won even then.3 Without the support of a very large body of the people it could never have resulted. But "catholicism, without the pope was," writes Traill, "the latent wish of most Englishmen," and this was what Henry VIII. practically gave. "He struck the true average, and that average backed him" and won his cause.* erdotalism as a form of government perished out of England. The Reformation was "the social victory of the great lay classes over the clerical estate."s The question, "Who is to

Sac

1 (26 Hen. VIII., c. 13), 1534; (28 Hen. VIII., c. 10), 1536; (31 Hen. VIII., c. 8), 1539; (35 Hen. VIII., c. 3), 1543.

2 Parliament gave to royal proclamations in this reign the same force "for the time in them lymitted" (1539), as it gave to its own acts. Benefit of sanctuary was taken from all traitors in 1534.

Stephen ii, 258.

'Traill, iii, 49.

Ibid., 51.

rule?" was answered forever. The nation had chosen the line of its religious development. Those who refused to follow were regarded as enemies of Church and State, and were to a large extent punished as criminals. We cannot enter here into a discussion of the necessity or usefulness of the Reformation. Let it suffice that England has prospered since. But as to the fact that the cutting loose from Rome led to the enactment of many new criminal laws protecting the new religious development, and a rapid increase of criminals in the land, there can be no doubt. Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More were beheaded on a charge of high treason for denying the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Crown (Act of 1534); and a considerable number of abbots and less distinguished men shared their fate. By the attainder of these abbots some of the larger monasteries were held forfeited to the king, contrary to all law.3 In Edward VI.'s reign many people were sent to prison for hearing mass, and other similar offences; but the persecutions fell mainly upon high ecclesiastics and noble victims, as later in the reign of Mary.5 Under Elizabeth we learn from a Jesuit source, that "persecution in England was 'monstrous great.' Five priests have been executed; four hanged, drawn and quartered; the fifth stoned." Even the most secret exercise of the Romish ritual was severely punished. The penalty for saying mass was 200 marks; for hearing it, 100 marks, together with one year's imprisonment for all con

'Bishop Burnet, History of the Reformation, i, 351, and State Trials, i, 469, for many scores of men and women beheaded as traitors for their religious belief. 2 State Trials, i, 385 and 395.

' The abbots of Reading and Glastonbury, and others, suffered death upon the scaffold. Hallam, i, 72.

(2 and 3 Edw. VI., c. 1), 1548; Strype's Cranmer, pp. 333-4, for Papists, and P. 335 for Anabaptists (1550).

5 Strype's Cranmer, pp. 308, 322, 324, 329.

6 Strype's Annals (Elizabeth, 1587 and 1593), and Lingard, viii, 164–183.

206

I

Criminals for Conscience Sake

cerned; and after the Spanish Armada the "execution of priests and other Catholics became more and more frequent, and fines for recusancy were exacted as rigorously as before." Between 1588 and 1603, 110 Romanists, "61 clergymen, 47 laymen and 2 gentlewomen suffered capital punishment for some or other of the spiritual felonies and treasons which had been lately created." Dissenting Protestants, as well as Roman Catholics, were punished as criminals. The first instance of this was in June, 1567, when a religious meeting at Plumbers' Hall was broken up and 14 or 15 dissenters sent to prison.3 An act of 1593 (35 Eliz., c. 1), bore very heavily upon both Romanists and Independents. Many of these last fled to Holland to escape imprisonment, and two of their number, Barrow and Greenwood, were executed for spreading seditious writings. During the Roman Catholic reaction under Mary, 277 "heretics" were burned to death. Mere possession of books "filled with heresy and treason," made the possessor a rebel and liable to execution under martial law. This was probably more tyrannous than any act of Henry VIII.

Returning from this discussion of increased criminality due to religious development, let us consider the other five treasons, created by act of Parliament during the reign of

1 Strype's Annals, iii, 187; Hallam, i, 163; and (23 Eliz., c. 183).

2

* Lingard, viii, 355-6. Elizabeth's ministers always claimed that no one was executed for his religion-that every punishment had in view the safety of the state. But see case of Mayne, 1577. Hallam, i, 148 and 164.

Strype's Life of Parker, i, 481-2.

* Punished under (23 Eliz., c. 2), 1580. See also hanging of Thacker and Copping, Anabaptists, in 1583, for denying the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy. Strype's Annals, iii, 186, and Lingard, viii, 183–185.

5 Strype, iii, 473; Hallam, i, 105; Lingard, vii, 285, states the number as "almost 200.❞

6 See royal proclamation in last year of Mary's reign. Hallam, i, 42–3, and Strype, iii, 459.

Henry VIII., and those who suffered under them. These laws aimed to secure the succession to the throne, and made it high treason to attempt to alter the settlement of the succession, to assert the validity of certain marriages of Henry VIII., or to deny the validity of certain other marriages. Test oaths were provided by these laws and it was high treason obstinately to refuse to take them. The act of 1536 even made it treason to refuse to "declare their thought and conscience," in answer to questions on the oath. Such laws were of terrible severity, yet the Wars of the Roses and the evils of a disputed succession were fresh in all minds, and the nation had no wish to renew the experience. Both houses of Parliament united in sending to the scaffold many innocent and some guilty victims of Henry's jealousy, or hatred, and "new political offences were created in every Parliament against which the severest penalties were denounced." The insurgent lords and their followers, implicated in the great northern rebellion (1536), were proceeded against by martial law, after the king's promise of a general pardon. Thirty-five of the leaders, high in Church and State, were condemned, and hanged, beheaded, or burned.3

2

Henry VIII. overawed the whole nation by his strength of will and greed of blood, but he exasperated his people also, and when Edward VI. ascended the throne the new treason laws were all repealed. Nothing remained treason

1 The statutes are: (25 Hen. VIII., c. 22) 1534; (28 Hen. VIII., c. 7) 1536; (32 Hen. VIII., c. 25) 1540; (33 Hen. VIII., c. 21) 1542; (35 Hen. VIII., c. 1) 1543.

* Hallam, i, 33. Victims of" constructive" and other treasons: De la Pole, beheaded 1513; Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, 1521; Henry Courtney, Marquis of Exeter; Thomas Cromwell, 1540; Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, 1541; the Earl of Surrey, Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catharine Howard, and others who suffered with her. See State Trials, i.

State Trials, i, 477, and Bishop Burnet, i, 351 et seq.

♦ (1 Edw. VI., c. 12), 1547.

208

Enforcement of Penalties

except a denial of the king's ecclesiastical supremacy and offences under 25 Edward III. But the new administration scrupled not to bend the laws to secure attainder of treason by Parliament, as in the conviction of Lord Seymour, when the accused was not even permitted to be heard in his own defence. In 1549 treason was extended by act of Parliament to cover mere rioting." Queen Mary at first brought treason back to the limits assigned by 25 Edw. III., but after the Spanish marriage new treason laws were enacted, much like laws of Henry VIII. and Edw. VI. It was also made treason to pray God to shorten the life of the queen.3 During Elizabeth's reign, and especially after the pope's Bull of Deposition and Mary Stuart's captivity in England had exposed the queen to serious dangers, many acts creating or renewing old treasons were passed by Parliament for her protection and the safety of the realm. A statute of the year 1584 made it high treason for any Jesuit, or seminary priest, born within her majesty's dominions, "to come into, be, or remain in any part of this realm," and for any subject educated in any foreign college or seminary, not to return to England and take the oath of supremacy within six months after proclamation made in London. These laws undoubtedly put many men in constant danger of their lives as traitors to the state, and the one hundred and ten Roman Catholics put to death during the last fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign prove that the penalties were enforced.5

1 State Trials, i, 483. This most iniquitous precedent of Henry VIII.'s reign was negatived by law a few years later-the same act also creating some new treasons. See 5 and 6 Edw. VI., c. 11, § 9 (1551-2).

2 How many offenders under treason laws then: how few to-day! This old crime has been largely done away with by the most successful and civilized nations. 31 and 2 Phil. and Mary, c. 9 (1554-5).

*Such are (1 Eliz., c. 5) 1558, (13 Eliz., c. 1) 1571, (23 Eliz., c. 1) 1580, and (27 Eliz., C. 2) 1584.

5 Some of those who suffered under the treason laws of Elizabeth were: Thomas