They therefore agreed to pass the acts of repeal only on condition that nothing was said about the royal supremacy.

To Mary's insistence they returned a blank refusal to act and she was compelled to wait "while Parliament debated articles that might well puzzle a general council," as a contemporary wrote.
Lords and Commons were quite willing to pass acts to strengthen the crown and then to leave the responsibility {321} for further action to it.

Thus the divorce of Henry and Catharine of Aragon was repealed and the Revival of treason laws were revived.

[Sidenote: Revival of treason laws] Going even beyond the limit of Henry VIII it was made treason to "pray or desire" that God would shorten the queen's days.
Worse than that, Parliament revived the heresy laws.

It is a strange comment on the nature of legislatures that they have so often, as in this case, protected property better than life, and made money more sacred than conscience.