Chapter XXV: 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.

MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE POPISH PLOT

1. _Manuscripts._

Public Record Office.

State Papers Domestic, Charles II 407–416. The state papers
of the period have not been calendared and are preserved
in loose bundles, some of which are ill arranged. Thus in
referring to the S.P. Dom. Charles II 407, I have been
compelled to add _e.g._ i. 285, ii. 23, as there are two
sets of papers in the bundle bearing the same numbers.

State Papers, Ireland 339.

Transcripts from Paris: dispatches of the French ambassadors.

Transcripts from the Vatican archives in Rome.

British Museum.

Additional MSS.: 11,058, 17,018, 24,136, 28,042, 28,053,
28,054, 28,093, 34,195.

Harl. MSS.: 3790, 4888, 6284.

Land. MSS.: 1235.

Stowe MSS.: 144, 180, 186, 302.

Longleat.

MSS. belonging to the Marquis of Bath. Coventry Papers xi.
xx. lx. By the generous permission of the Marquis of Bath
and the courtesy of the authorities at the British Museum I
have been enabled to use these important papers (of which
an unsatisfactory account will be found in the appendix to
the 4th report of the Hist. MSS. Com.) in the Manuscript
department of the Museum. I am greatly indebted to Mr. S.
Arthur Strong, librarian of the House of Lords, for his kind
offices in obtaining access to the papers for me.

I have also to express my thanks to Mr. Warner and Mr.
Bickley of the British Museum, and to Mr. Hubert Hall and
Mr. Salisbury of the Record Office for much kind help and
courtesy shewn to me during my work in their departments.
The manuscripts in the Vatican archives of which I have made
use were copied for me by Mr. Bliss, who most generously
interrupted his other work to make the transcripts.

Cambridge University Library: “Persecutionis Anglicanae et
Conjurationis Presbiterianae Historia.” Autore P. Warner,
S.J., Regi Jacobo II^{do} a sacris. 181 pp. fol.
Letter-book of John Warner, S.J.

These manuscripts, of which the former is the more
important, have, I believe, never been used before. They
were seen by Henry Foley, compiler of the Records of the
English Province, S.J., but do not appear to have been
used by him. A notice of them is so deeply buried in his
laborious and unordered work (v. 289) that it has escaped
the notice of the author of Warner’s life in the _Dictionary
of National Biography_. Foley left inside the cover of
Warner’s _History_ a note, which I quote below. Few are
likely to agree with him that it is “probably the best, the
fullest, and the most truthful ever recorded.” The account
of the Jesuit father is naturally prejudiced in favour of
his society and partakes of the nature of a martyrology.
There are nevertheless points of considerable interest
contained in it. The euphuistic style of Warner’s writing
marks him as a man of learning and culture.

_Note by Henry Foley. 13 Nov. 1876._

“The original draft of this valuable MS. in the hand of the
Rev. Father John Warner, S.J., is in the British Museum,
Harlean MSS. 880.

“It is closely written, divided into 8 chapters—f.c. 4^{to}
[_sic_]. The writing is so bad that it is difficult to make
it out.

“Father Warner succeeded Father Thomas Whitbread, who
suffered at Tyburn 30 June 1679, as Provincial of the
English Province, S.J., and remained in that office for
three years.

“In 1686 he was appointed confessor to King James II. He
died at the court of St. Germains the 2nd of Nov. 1692,
aet. 64. He was a very learned man and wrote several
controversial works.

“HENRY FOLEY.

“The history of these terrible times is probably the best,
fullest, and most truthful ever recorded. The learned author
was upon the spot and had his own personal share in the
sufferings.

“The facts recorded are fully borne out by the _Litterae
Annuae, Prov. Angl. S.J._ of the time, and likewise by
contemporary writers. _Vide_ Echard, _Hist. Engl._, etc.

“One new fact is ascertained—that the meeting of the Fathers
in London (upon the affairs of their body) was not held,
as sworn by Oates and his associates, at the White Horse
Tavern, Strand, but at St. James’ Palace, the residence of
the Duke of York. The Fathers who were tried and suffered
death could have proved this upon the trial, but were
silent, preferring death to the danger of compromising the
Duke.”

2. _Printed Documents and Sources._

Historical Manuscripts Commission: appendices to 1st Report
(Lefroy MSS.); 4th Report (Bath MSS.); 7th Report, Part
II. (Verney MSS.); 11th Report, Part II. (House of
Lords MSS. 1678–1688); 11th Report, Part V. (Dartmouth
MSS.); 12th Report, Part VII. (Le Fleming MSS.); 12th
Report, Part IX. (Beaufort MSS.); 14th Report, Part VI.
(Fitzherbert MSS.); 14th Report, Part IX. (Lindsey MSS.);
15th Report, Part II. (Elliot Hodgkin MSS.); 15th Report,