By this law, which is pretended to be still in force, many honest people have suffered, and been kept very long in prison; for they refusing to find surety for the payment of tithes, which for conscience-sake they could not give to such ministers who lived from a forced maintenance, and did not, as they judged, profit the people; it was in the power of the priests to detain them prisoners, till the pretended debt was paid; which the persecuted judged so unreasonable, that some have therefore continued in prison for many years, choosing rather to die in jail, than to uphold such preachers, by paying tithes to them. And the Quakers, so called, have never offered resistance, but suffering and forbearance have always been their arms, though they were almost continually vexed with laws that were never made against them; and more especially were they molested with the oath of supremacy, which was made in the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, though, it may be, projected in the time of Henry the eighth, which runs thus:
‘I A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my conscience, that the [king’s] highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other (his) highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal. And that no foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm: and therefore I do utterly renounce, and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities, and authorities, and do promise, that from henceforth I shall bear faith, and true allegiance to the [king’s] highness [his] heirs and lawful successors; and to my power, shall assist and defend all jurisdiction, privileges, pre-eminences, and authorities, granted, or belonging to the [king’s] highness [his] heirs and successors, or united and annexed to the imperial crown of his realm. So help me God, and the contents of this book.’
In the first year of queen Elizabeth, an act was made for uniformity of common-prayer, and church-service, having this clause:
‘Every person shall resort to their parish church, or upon let thereof, to some other, every Sunday and holiday, upon pain to be punished by censures of the church, and also to forfeit twelve-pence, to be levied by the church-wardens, there, for the use of the poor, upon the offender’s goods, by way of distress.’
Here is to be noted, that some have prosecuted the pretended offenders on this clause, to obviate greater severities; although this law was made because of the Papists, thereby to force them to come to church; for about that time there were not so many Protestant Dissenters in England, as afterwards; but these appearing in time, were as well under the lash of this law as the Papists; for their religious assemblies were not reckoned to be churches as the steeple-houses by a metonymy generally have been called; at the same rate as the Jews’ meeting-houses have been called synagogues, though the word itself properly signifies the assembly of the people.
Now, since the aforesaid law was not strictly obeyed, not only by Papists, but also by others, who aiming at a further reformation, could not longer comply with the rites of the church of England, in the 23d year of Elizabeth, a more severe law was made, with this clause:
‘Every person not repairing to church, according to the statute of 1 Eliz. 2, shall forfeit twenty pounds for every month they so make default; and if they so forbear by the space of twelve months, after certificate thereof, made by the ordinary unto the King’s Bench, a justice of assize, jail-delivery, or peace of the county where they dwell, shall bind them with two sufficient sureties in 200l. at least, to their good behaviour, from which they shall not be released until they shall repair to church according to the said statute.’
This law it seems was not thought severe enough; therefore in the 29th year of the said queen, another law was made with this clause:
‘The queen may seize all the goods, and two-third parts of the lands and leases of every offender not repairing to church as aforesaid, in such of the terms of Easter and Michaelmas, as shall happen next after such conviction, for the sum then due for the forfeiture of twenty pounds a month, and yearly after that, (in the same terms,) according to the rate of twenty pounds a month for so long time as they shall forbear to come to church according to the said statute of 23 Eliz. 1.’