ment that upon it were grounded the great changes in rehgion made during the minority of Edward VI. It appears a more rational supposition that these changes, so far as they were made without the concurrence of Parliament, rested rather upon the Act of Supremacy which was interpreted to place the government of the Church in the hands of the sovereign personally rather than in those of Parliament, However, the changes made by this extensive repealing Act were in any case very considerable, and were all, especially the last-mentioned, in the direction of mitigating the system of absolute personal government which Cromwell had established, but were all at the same time calculated to re-awaken the religious strife which Henry's iron hand had so long forcibly restrained. But while so much was done in the direction of relaxation of the laws existing against the new opinions, there was one point in which this Act tightened the grasp of the law to the detriment of the old: section 6 made it high treason to impugn the supremacy of the King. The one remaining ecclesiastical Act of the year was a renewal of 37 Hen. VIII. c. 4, the Act giving colleges and chantries to the King. Another Act, though only affecting ecclesiastical in common with all other legislation, was 1 Ed. VI. c. 11, which altered a provision made in the last reign to the effect that the young King, on attaining the age of twenty-four years, should be at liberty, by his letters patent, to annul any laws enacted during his minority as if they had never been. The new Act limited this power to annulling such enactments for the future only, but not so as to render void the acts done under them in the interval between the time of their passing and the King's majority.[1]
- ↑ Burnet, vol. ii. p. 94 (41).
