Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

were exempt from the deed of grace. A few days
thereafter, the queen issued a proclamation, saying
that she meant to live and die in the religion of her
youth, and willed that all her loving subjectors
should embrace the same.[6] All who were in favor
of the old religion deemed this a sufficient warrant
publicly to restore the mass, even before the law
had made it legal. Nor had they long to wait for a
formal authorization. This same month, a
Parliament was assembled, the elections being so
managed that only those should sit in it who would
subserviently do the work for which they had been
summoned. The first Act of this Parliament was to
declare Henry VIII's marriage with Queen
Catherine lawful, and to lay the blame of the
divorce at the door of Cranmer, oblivious of the
fact that Gardiner, the chief inspirer of these
measures, had been active in promoting the divorce
before Cranmer's name was even known to the
king.
This was followed in November by the
indictment at Guildhall of the archbishop for high
treason. He was found guilty, and condemned. The
276