And these punishments were afterwards more increased by another Act of the same Queen, in the fifth year of her reign, where it was ordained that all aiders, counsellers, [pg 320] and comforters[557] in this case should for the second time suffer the pains of death, and other forfeitures and losses of their goods, lands, honours, and nobility, as in cases of high treason. An° 5° cap. 1°.
It was ordained in like manner, for preventing of the Catholic education of all English youths, that no person shall take upon him to be a schoolmaster or teacher of children, either in public schools or private houses, except he first take the said oath against the Pope's spiritual authority, and that he believe the supreme authority of the Queen in all causes ecclesiastical. Ibid.
Moreover, it is enacted by authority of the said Parliament that all clergymen shall leave and abandon from this time forward the old Roman use of Latin service, Mass, and administration of other Sacraments, and shall betake themselves to say or sing the same in English in all churches and chapels, and to administer the Sacraments after the manner, rites, and fashion which is set down and prescribed in a new book of Common Prayer set forth for the purpose, and he that shall refuse to do so, or shall use any other rite or form of service or Sacraments than is therein appointed, shall for his first default be committed to prison for six months and lose the fruits of all his ecclesiastical living for a whole year, and for the second offence shall lose all his living for ever and lie in prison a year, and for the third time shall be condemned to perpetual prison all the time of his life. An° 1° Eliz. cap. 2°. Here you may see what it is they intend when they urge Catholics to come to their churches and service, and that it is no act of temporal duty or obedience in civil matters which they require (as they will sometimes pretend, to make us thought disobedient and stubborn), but a renunciation of our old and the only true religion and a conformity to their new doctrine. This is the thing which we refuse, and for which they call us recusants, and for [pg 321] which they punish us by many and severe penalties, as shall appear by those that follow.
And conform to this it was also decreed that if any layman that hath no ecclesiastical livings shall be present at any other sort of service than the aforesaid appointed in the common book of prayer, as, for example, at Mass or Roman service, or shall receive any other sacraments, or after other manner, form, or ceremony than is there prescribed, he shall, for the first time of his so offending, forfeit an hundred marks of lawful English money unto the Queen, for the second four hundred marks, and for the third shall lie in prison all days of his life. And if he refuse to come to the church he shall pay xiid. for every Sunday and holiday wherein he faileth. Anno 1° et 5° Eliz. cap. 2°.
These laws made Queen Elizabeth in the first five years of her reign. But afterwards, growing more angry with Catholics and Catholic religion, but especially with the See of Rome for the sentence of Pius Vtus against her, she added many bloody laws more, in the thirteenth year of her reign. As, for example, that if any man shall bring into England or into any of the dominions thereunto belonging, from the Pope of Rome or from any man that hath authority from him, any Bull, writing, instrument, or authority to absolve or reconcile any person, or to promise any such absolution or reconciliation by speech, preaching, teaching, writing, or any other open deed, that then all and every such act or acts, offence or offences, shall be deemed and adjudged by the authority of this Act to be high treason. And as well the offenders as the procurers, abettors, and counsellors, shall suffer death and other losses as traitors. Anno 13° Eliz. cap. 1°.
Moreover, that if any person within the realm of England or dominions thereof, after the first day of July, Anno Domini 1571, shall willingly receive or take any such absolution or reconciliation from the said Bishop [pg 322] of Rome or any of his successors, or by any that have authority from him; yea, if he shall receive or admit any manner of Bull, writing, or instrument from the said See of Rome, written or printed, containing any such thing, matter, or cause whatsoever, or if any offer thereof, motion, or persuasion being made unto him, shall not disclose or reveal the same to some of the Privy Council, all shall be high treason in him, and he shall suffer death and other losses for the same, as in cases of that crime is accustomed. Ibidem.
And yet further, that whosoever shall bring into any dominions of England after the time before named any token or tokens, thing or things, called by the name of Agnus Dei, or any crosses, pictures, beads, or any such like, from the Bishop or See of Rome, or from any person or persons authorized from the said Bishop or See to consecrate or hallow the same; or shall deliver or offer, or cause to be delivered, any part thereof to any subject of this realm, or of any the dominions thereof, to be worn or used in any wise, that then, as well the same person or persons that shall receive the same to the intent to use and wear, being thereof lawfully convicted by the order of the common laws of this realm, shall incur the penalties, pains, and forfeitures provided by the statute of præmunire, which are the loss of all his lands and goods and perpetual imprisonment. Anno 13º Eliz. cap. 2°.
Now when, by the acerbity and peril of so many cruel laws and statutes, divers Catholics, being terrified, desired and sought means to go into voluntary banishment beyond the seas, and to leave the realm either with or without licence, the Queen, understanding thereof, prevented them with another new law the very next year after, enacting that all and every person and persons, of what state, degree, or condition soever they be, under the obeisance of the said Queen, who sithence the first day of her reign have passed or hereafter shall pass into any dominions [pg 323] of foreign Princes without her special licence by writing, under the great seal of England, privy seal, or privy signet, and shall not return within the space of six months next after proclamation made for them to return and yield their bodies to the custody and ward of the sheriff of the county, &c.; all such persons shall forfeit and lose to the said Queen the whole profits of their manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments during their lives, and all their goods and chattels for ever. Anno 14° cap. 6°.
Moreover, that if any person, born under the obedience of Her Majesty, have or shall pass into foreign countries with leave and licence, as before is prescribed, and shall not presently, within six months after the expiring of the said licence, return home and yield their bodies in custody, as is before prescribed, shall suffer the same loss of goods and chattels and the rents of their lands as the other that went forth without licence.
And whatsoever conveyances, estates, grants, leases, gifts, or devises, they or any of them shall be found to have made of their lands and goods for their own relief to defraud the Queen, shall be utterly void, and of no validity at all in law. Anno 14º Eliz. cap. 6°.