The act made it
treason, punishable by death, to disavow the
Act of Supremacy 1534 (
26 Hen. 8. c. 1).
Sir Thomas More was executed under this Act. It was introduced as a blanket law in order to deal with the minority of cases who would refuse to accept
Cromwell's and Henry's changes in policies, instead of using the more traditional method of
attainders. The act specified that all those were guilty of high treason who: The word 'maliciously' was added in several cases to require
evil intent, and the act meant that it was very dangerous to say anything against what the King had done. The act also made it treason to rebelliously keep or withhold from the King his castles, forts, ships, or artillery, and to fail to surrender any of them within six days of being commanded to do so. It also abolished
sanctuary for those accused of high treason. == Subsequent developments ==