APPENDIX E
Penal Laws in Force against Roman Catholics, 1678
1. 1 Eliz. cap. 1 (Act of Supremacy), 1559.
No foreign potentate shall exercise ecclesiastical power in the Queen’s dominions.
All the Queen’s servants, all temporal and eccles. officers, all with degrees in the universities shall take the oath of supremacy.
None shall maintain the jurisdiction of any foreign potentate in the Queen’s dominions under penalty of fine and imprisonment for the first offence, for the second of Præmunire (i.e. to be put out of the King’s protection and forfeit all goods and chattels to the crown), for the third of high treason.
2. 5 Eliz. cap. 1, 1562.
None shall maintain the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome within the Queen’s dominions under penalty of Præmunire.
Two judges of assize or justices of the peace in sessions have power to hear and determine this offence.
All members of Parliament, schoolmasters, attorneys, officers of the courts, etc., shall take the oath of supremacy on penalty of Præmunire for the first and high treason for the second offence of refusal.
3. 13 Eliz. cap. 1, 1571.
All obtaining or putting in use any Bull of absolution or reconciliation from the church of Rome shall be guilty of high treason, their concealers of misprision of treason, their comforters of Præmunire. All bringing into the Queen’s dominions crosses, beads, etc., shall be guilty of Præmunire.
4. 23 Eliz. cap. 1, 1581.
All persons pretending to have power to absolve the Queen’s subjects from their natural obedience and converting them to the church of Rome shall be guilty of high treason, and their aiders and maintainers of misprision of treason. None shall say mass under penalty of two hundred marks’ fine and a year’s imprisonment, or hear mass under penalty of one hundred marks’ fine and a year’s imprisonment.
Every person above sixteen years of age who forbears to attend church regularly (according to the Act of Uniformity 1 Eliz. c. 2 § 3) shall forfeit to the Queen the sum of £20 monthly.
5. 27 Eliz. cap. 2, 1584.
All Jesuits, seminary priests, or priests in orders from the see of Rome, being born within the Queen’s dominions and returning into or remaining in them, shall be guilty of high treason.
All others educated in Roman Catholic seminaries and not yet having received orders shall be guilty of high treason, unless they return within six months after proclamation made in London and take the oath of supremacy. Penalty for concealing a priest or Jesuit for more than twelve days, fine and imprisonment during pleasure.
6. 29 Eliz. cap. 9, 1587.
All Popish recusants shall, on conviction, pay into the exchequer twenty pounds a month: in default, two-thirds of their goods and two-thirds of their lands shall be forfeited to the Queen.
7. 35 Eliz. cap. 2, 1592.
All Popish recusants above sixteen years of age shall, on conviction, repair to their usual dwellings and not remove thence more than five miles, on pain of forfeiting all goods, lands, and annuities.
A Popish recusant, not having land worth twenty marks and goods worth forty pounds yearly, and not complying with this, shall abjure the kingdom, or not abjuring the kingdom, shall be adjudged a felon.
A Jesuit or priest refusing to answer shall be committed to prison until he do answer.
All married women shall be bound by this act, save only in the case of abjuration.
8. 1 Jac. I, cap. 4, 1603.
All statutes of Queen Elizabeth confirmed and appointed to be put in execution. The heir of a Popish ancestor, not conforming before the age of sixteen years, shall suffer the penalties of the above statutes and forfeit two-thirds of his land to the King to answer the arrears of twenty pounds a month, according to the act of 23 Eliz. cap. 1.
None shall send a child beyond seas to be instructed in the Roman Catholic religion, on pain of the fine of one hundred pounds.
9. 3 Jac. I, cap. 4, 1606.
The recusant that conforms shall receive the sacrament within one year of his conforming and once in every year, on pain to forfeit for the first offence twenty pounds, for the second forty, and so on. In forementioned cases the King may at will refuse the twenty pounds a month from a Popish recusant and take the two-thirds of his lands, saving only the recusant’s mansion-house.
The Bishop of the diocese or the justices of the peace may tender the oath of allegiance to any persons (except noblemen), being eighteen years of age and being convicted or indicted for recusancy.
Penalty for refusal to take the oath, Præmunire.
To withdraw the King’s subjects from their natural obedience, to reconcile them to the church of Rome, or to move them to promise it, is high treason.
None shall be punished for his wife’s offence.
10. 3 Jac. I, cap. 5, 1606.
Informers discovering any harbouring Popish priests or hearing mass shall have a third of the forfeiture due for the said offences, or if the whole exceeds £150, then £50.
No Popish recusant shall come to court on pain of the fine of a hundred pounds, or to London or within ten miles of it, unless a tradesman, on pain of the same fine, half to the King, half to the informer.
No Popish recusant shall practise law, medicine, or hold office in any court, ship, castle, or fort on pain of the same fine.
None whose wife is such shall hold any office in the commonwealth unless he educates his children as Protestants and takes them to church.
A married woman, being a Popish recusant, must conform a year before her husband’s death, or forfeit two-thirds of her jointure and be incapable of administering her husband’s estate.
Popish recusants must be married in open church by an Anglican minister, and must cause their children to be similarly baptised on pain of the fine of one hundred pounds, to be divided between the King, the prosecutor, and in the latter case the poor of the parish.
Popish recusants must be buried in the Anglican churchyard, on pain of a fine of twenty pounds from the executors.
Popish recusants are disabled from presenting to benefices, and from being executors, administrators, or guardians.
Two justices of the peace have power to search the houses of all Popish recusants, and of all whose wives are such, for Roman Catholic books and relics, to burn and deface them.
By warrant from four justices all arms, gunpowder, and ammunition belonging to Popish recusants may be seized.
11. 7 Jac. I, cap. 6, 1609.
Popish recusants may be required by justices of the peace (or if barons and baronesses by three privy councillors) to take the oath of allegiance. Penalty for refusing, Præmunire and imprisonment until the oath is taken. Those refusing shall be incapable of holding any office and of practising law, medicine, surgery, or any liberal science for gain.
A married woman, being a Popish recusant, and not conforming within three months after conviction, may be imprisoned by warrant of two justices of the peace (or if a baroness, of a privy councillor or bishop) until she conform, unless the husband pay £10 monthly, or forfeit a third of all his lands.
12. 3 Car. I, cap. 2, 1627.
None of the King’s subjects shall go, or send, or cause to be sent any one to be trained beyond seas in the Roman Catholic religion, or pay any money for the maintenance of others for that purpose, on pain of forfeiting all his goods, lands, and chattels, and being disabled from prosecuting any suit at law.
13. 16 Car. II, cap. 4, 1664. (The Conventicle Act, directed against all Nonconformists.)
All meetings, other than those of the family, of more than five persons declared to be unlawful and seditious conventicles.
Penalty for first offence, a fine of £5 or imprisonment for 3 months; for second, a fine of £10 or imprisonment for 6 months; for third, transportation for 7 years, or a fine of £100.
14. 17 Car. II, cap. 2, 1665. (The Five Mile Act, directed against all Nonconformists.)
No person preaching in an unlawful conventicle or meeting to approach within 5 miles of any corporation sending members to Parliament, without having taken an oath “that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the King.”
No such person shall teach in any public or private school.
Penalty for not complying, a fine of £40.
15. 25 Car. II, cap. 2, 1673.
All persons holding office, civil or military, or having command, or receiving pay in whatever capacity in the service or household of the King or the Duke of York, shall before a specified date appear in the court of Chancery or King’s Bench or of their respective counties openly to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy.
And the said officers shall receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the usage of the church of England on or before August 1, 1673 in some parish church upon some Lord’s Day.
Penalty for refusing to take the oaths, incapacity to hold any office or position of trust either civil or military, and for executing office after refusal, incapacity to prosecute any suit at law and fine of £500.
16. 30 Car. II, cap. 1, 1678.
No peer or member of the House of Commons shall sit or vote until he has taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and subscribed to a declaration that the worship of the church of Rome is idolatrous.
Penalty for peers and members offending, disability to hold office and a fine of £500.
Provided that this does not extend to the Duke of York.