I.—Be it enacted by the King’s and Queen’s most excellent Majesties, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That neither the Statute made in the 23rd year of the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, entituled, 23 Eliz., cap. 1.An Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s Subjects in their due obedience; nor the Statute made in the 29th year of the said Queen, entituled, 29 Eliz., cap. 6.An Act for the more speedy and due execution of certain branches of the Statute made in the 23rd year of the Queen’s Majesty’s reign, viz., the aforesaid Act; nor that branch or clause of a Statute made in the 1st year of the reign of the said Queen, entituled, 29 Eliz., cap. 2, f 14.An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and service in the Church, and administration of the Sacraments; whereby all persons, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, are required to resort to their Parish Church or Chapel, or some usual place where the Common Prayer shall be used, upon pain of punishment by the censures of the Church; and also, upon pain, that every person so offending shall forfeit for every such offence twelve pence. Nor the Statute made in the 3rd year of the reign of the late King James the First, entituled, 3 Jac. I., cap. 4.An Act for the better discovering and repressing Popish recusants. Nor that other Statute, made in the same year, entituled, 3 Jac. I., cap. 5.An Act to prevent and avoid dangers which may grow by Popish Recusants. Nor any other Law or Statute of this realm made against Papists or Popish recusants, Exception.except the Statute made in the 25th year of King Charles II., entituled, 25 Car. II., cap. 2.An Act for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish recusants. And except also the Statute made in the 30th year of the said King Charles II., entituled, 30 Car. II., Stat. 2d, cap. 1.An Act for the more effectual preserving the King’s person and Government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament, shall be construed to extend to any person or persons dissenting from the Church of England, that shall take the oaths mentioned in a Statute made this present Parliament, entituled, _Supra_, cap. 1.An Act for removing and preventing all questions and disputes concerning the assembling and sitting of this present Parliament, and shall make and subscribe the Declaration mentioned in a Statute made in the 30th year of the reign of King Charles II., entituled, Car. II., Stat. 2d, cap. 1.An Act to prevent Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament. Which Oaths and Declaration the Justices of Peace, at the General Sessions of the Peace to be held for the County or Place where such person shall live, are hereby required to tender and administer to such persons as shall offer themselves to Taking Declaration to be Registered.take, make, and subscribe the same, and thereof to keep a Register. Fee for register and Certificate.And likewise, none of the persons aforesaid shall give or pay, as any fee or reward, to any officer or officers belonging to the Court aforesaid, above the sum of 6d, nor that more than once, for his or their entry of his taking the said oaths, and making and subscribing the said Declaration; nor above the further sum of 6d for any certificate of the same, to be made out and signed by the Officer or officers of the said Court.
Persons convicted, &c. taking the oaths, &c. shall be discharged.
II.—And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons already convicted, or prosecuted in order to conviction of Recusancy, by Indictment, Information, Action of Debt, or otherwise grounded upon the aforesaid Statute; or any of them that shall take the said Oaths mentioned in the said Statute, made this present Parliament, and make and subscribe the Declaration aforesaid in the Court of Exchequer, or Assizes, or General or Quarter Sessions, to be held for the county where such person lives, and to be thence respectively certified into the Exchequer, shall be thenceforth exempted and discharged from all the Penalties, Seizures, Forfeitures, Judgments, and Executions, incurred by force of any the aforesaid Statutes, without any composition, fee, or further charge whatsoever.
Ecclesiastical Court.
III.—And be it further enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons that shall, as aforesaid, take the said Oaths, and make and subscribe the Declaration aforesaid, shall not be liable to any pains, penalties, or forfeitures, mentioned in an Act made in the 35th year of the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, entituled, 35 Eliz., cap. 1.An Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s Subjects in their due obedience. Nor in an Act made in the 22nd year of the reign of the late King Charles II., entituled, 22 Car. II., cap. 1.An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles. Ecclesiastical Court.Nor shall any of the said persons be prosecuted in any Ecclesiastical Court, for, or by reason of, their Non-Conforming to the Church of England.
Private Meetings excluded.
IV.—Provided always, and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, Private Meetings excluded.That if any assembly of persons, dissenting from the Church of England, shall be had in any place for Religious worship, with the doors locked, barred, or bolted, during any time of such meeting together, all and every person or persons that shall come to, and be at such meeting, shall not receive any benefit from this Law, but be liable to all the pains and penalties of all the aforesaid Laws recited in this Act, for such their meeting, notwithstanding his taking the Oaths, and his making and subscribing the Declaration aforesaid.
Tithes saved.
V.—Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt any of the persons aforesaid from paying of Tithes, or other Parochial Duties, or any other duties to the Church or Minister, nor from any prosecution in any Ecclesiastical Court, or elsewhere, for the same.
Officers scrupling Oaths, &c. allowed to act by Deputy.