These laws passed in the first fourteen years of the Queen's government. But afterwards, as she grew older, she did in most Parliaments aggravate the same. As, namely, in the twenty-third year of her reign, taking upon her to expound and explicate the former statute of bringing in Bulls, &c., from Rome, she determineth that by what means soever any man did pretend faculty or power to absolve any person or persons from their sins, or shall reconcile them to the Roman Church, or persuade to the acknowledgment of the Pope's ecclesiastical authority over England, it shall be high treason both to the absolver and the absolved, to the reconciler and to the reconciled, that shall willingly yield thereunto, yea, and to all the procurers, aiders, and counsellors. All which, being [pg 324] lawfully convicted thereof, shall suffer death, as in case of high treason. Anno 23° Eliz. cap. 2°.
And if any person or persons shall come to know of any man so absolved and reconciled, or of any such that doth absolve or reconcile, and shall not, within twenty days at the furthest, disclose the same to some justice of peace, or to some higher officer of the Prince, he shall be taken, tried, and judged, suffer and forfeit as offenders in misprision of treason, vdlt., he shall forfeit his lands and livings, but not suffer death for the same. Ibidem.
Month's Recusance.
In this Parliament also it was decreed, that for so much as many Catholics did upon conscience retire themselves from going to the Protestants' church and service more than before, that every such recusant, being above the age of sixteen years, instead of paying xiid. for every Sunday, which was by former statute appointed, should now forfeit and pay to the Queen 20l. of lawful English money for every month, and, besides this, should be bound to put in sufficient sureties in the [sum] of 200l. at the least for their good behaviour, and so to continue bound until such time as the person so bound do conform himself to come to church. Anno 29° Eliz. cap. 2°.
And, moreover, because it was presumed that every recusant would not be able to pay this 20l. a month for his recusancy, it was enacted that such as were not able to pay the said statute should pay two parts of three of all their lands and goods, so as he that should (for example) have three hundred should pay two hundred yearly to the Queen for his recusancy, and retain one hundred for maintenance of himself, his wife, children, and family.
In the same Parliament it was also enacted that if any person or persons, body politic or corporal, after the Feast of Pentecost then next ensuing, should keep any schoolmaster for their children which should not repair to the church, or not be allowed by the Bishop or Ordinary of the [pg 325] diocese (which allowance could not be had without abjuring the Pope's authority and the Catholic religion, as before hath been showed), then shall he or they forfeit and lose for every month[558] 10l., and the schoolmaster or teacher himself, besides his lying in prison for one whole year, shall be disabled for ever to be a teacher of youth or to exercise that office in any place afterwards.
And to the end that Catholic recusants might be able to pay these payments and pecuniary forfeitures to the Queen, and not be able to make away any part of their livings for their better relief, it was also enacted and declared in this Parliament that every grant or conveyance of goods or lands, every bond, judgment, or execution had or made from that time forward which should be judged to be done of purpose to defraud the Queen, or to save their lands or goods from being forfeited by virtue of[559] this statute, that all such conveyance made by any Catholic recusant since the beginning of the said Queen's reign, or after to be made for the use and relief of the said recusant, or any of his, should not be available in law, but all void, as if they had not been made. Anno 28° Eliz. cap. 6°.
But a little before this, to wit, in the precedent year, the said Queen, understanding that Priests and ecclesiastical men were multiplied in England by reason of the English Seminaries in Catholic Princes' dominions,[560] caused terrible thundering statutes to be made against them. And first, that all and every Jesuit, Seminary Priests, and other Priests whatsoever, made and ordained out of the realm of England by any authority, power, or jurisdiction derived, challenged, or pretended, from the See of Rome, since the Feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist in the first year of the said Queen's reign, 1559, [pg 326] shall within forty days depart out of the realm, and shall not return again without peculiar licence of Her Majesty, under pain of death and other losses and forfeitures accustomed in cases of high treason. Anno 27° Eliz. cap. 2°.
And then, secondly, if any subject of the realm whatsoever, after the said time of forty days expired, shall wittingly and willingly receive, relieve, comfort, or maintain any such Jesuit, Seminary Priest, or other Priest, Deacon, Religious, or ecclesiastical person as is aforesaid, knowing him to be such an one, such suffer the pain of death, and other losses, as in case of felony. Ibidem.
Moreover, it was enacted by authority aforesaid, that if any of Her Majesty's subjects or their children, now being or hereafter shall be brought up in any College of Jesuits or Seminary already erected or hereafter to be erected in the parts beyond the seas, shall not within six months next after proclamation in that behalf, to be made in the City of London under the great seal of England, return into this realm, and thereupon, within two days next after his return, before the Bishop of the diocese, or two justices of peace of the county where he shall arrive, submit himself to Her Majesty and the laws, and take the oath of supremacy against the Bishop of Rome his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, set forth in the first year of the Queen's reign; that then every such person otherwise returning or abiding without such submission and forswearing his religion, as is aforesaid, shall be adjudged a traitor, and suffer, lose, and forfeit, as in cases of high treason. Anno 21° Eliz. cap. 6°.