hat any excommunication was unlawful and to be ignored. The Convocations agreed with Henry's statement and even though they had fought the king on issues since 1531 they were now capitulating to his wishes and a large part of it was due to fear.21 Intimidation had become Henry's weapon of choice, other than the law of course, and now his targets were Nykke, a bishop, who was fined 10,00 marks for praemunire and Fisher, who was imprisoned for concealment of treason. This tactic of intimidation was working and in early 1534 the next legal step was taken, the Succession Act. The Succession Act of 1534 stated that the Aragon marriage was invalid and the Boleyn marriage was legal and binding. Not only that but the heirs of Henry and Anne would succeed to the throne, not Mary, Henry's daughter with Catherine. On March 30, 1534, the monarch began requiring his subjects to swear to this act and thus make a public statement in support of the king's policy. The first people to swear the oath was parliament and all members took it without a single person dissenting. There was little resistance to this act as it would be treason to not take the oath and few wanted to challenge Henry as the punishment was life imprisonment and the confiscation of all property. On March 23rd the divorce was final and by April 13th all the clergy in London had been summoned to take the oath. Only three people refused to swear the oath, Thomas More, John Fisher and Nicholas Wilson. All three men were sent to the Tower of London. Thomas More, the most famous dissenter told his daughter "... Though I would not deny to swear , without the jeopardizing of my soul to perpetual damnation"22 More did not have a problem with parliament fixing the succession but he still felt that the Aragon marriage was still valid and this sealed his fate. More would remain in the Tower until he was tried and executed on July 6, 1535. More joined Fisher and three Carthusian prio...
