Note 14 — Chapter IV · THE ARREST.

This was actually the case. Henry would not allow his subjects the privilege of concealing their thoughts. It is scarcely possible now, to believe the fact that the treason statute touched the life and enacted the fearful penalties of high treason against all who would not admit and assent in words to the royal supremacy; it made it treason not only to speak against the king’s prerogatives, but even to “imagine” anything against them. “Malicious silence,” which was assumed to imply such evil imaginations, was to be interpreted as treason and punished by death. See Perry’s History of English Church, p. 112-3.