A more terrible feature of the reaction was the revival of persecution.

Burning was denounced as the penalty for a denial of transubstantiation; on a second offence it became the penalty for an infraction of the other five doctrines.

A refusal to confess or to attend Mass was made felony.

It was in vain that Cranmer, with the five bishops who partially sympathized with the Protestants, struggled against the bill in the Lords: the Commons were "all of one opinion," and Henry himself acted as spokesman on the side of the articles.

In London alone five hundred Protestants were indicted under the new act.