In English history, the penal laws were a series of laws that sought to enforce the State-decreed religious monopoly of the Church of England and, following the 1688 revolution, of Presbyterianism in Scotland, against the continued existence of illegal and underground communities of Catholics, nonjuring Anglicans, and Protestant nonconformists. The Penal laws also imposed various forfeitures, civil penalties, and civil disabilities upon recusants from mandatory attendance at weekly Sunday services of the Established Church. The penal laws in general were repealed in the early 19th-century due to the successful activism of Daniel O'Connell for Catholic Emancipation. Penal actions are civil in nature and were not English common law.
The words Popery and Papism are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians to label their Roman Catholic opponents, who differed from them in accepting the authority of the Pope over the Christian Church. The words were popularised during the English Reformation (1532–1559), when the Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and divisions emerged between those who rejected papal authority and those who continued to follow Rome. The words are recognised as pejorative; they have been in widespread use in Protestant writings until the mid-nineteenth century, including use in some laws that remain in force in the United Kingdom.
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws. Requirements to abjure (renounce) the temporal and spiritual authority of the pope and transubstantiation placed major burdens on Roman Catholics.
The Education Act 1695, was an act of the Parliament of Ireland, one of a series of Penal Laws, prohibiting Catholics from sending their children to be educated abroad. Its long title is "An Act to restrain Foreign Education".
An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery was an Act of the Parliament of Ireland that was passed in 1704 designed to suppress Roman Catholicism in Ireland ("Popery"). William Edward Hartpole Lecky called it the most notorious of the Irish Penal Laws.
The Popery Act 1698 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England enacted in 1700. The long title of the Act was "An Act for the further preventing the Growth of Popery".
The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. It admitted Catholics to the practice of law, permitted the exercise of their religion, and the existence of their schools. On the other hand, chapels, schools, officiating priests and teachers were to be registered, assemblies with locked doors, as well as steeples and bells to chapels, were forbidden; priests were not to wear vestments or celebrate liturgies in the open air; children of Protestants were not to be admitted to the schools; monastic orders and endowments of schools and colleges were prohibited.
The Papists Act 1778 or the Catholic Relief Act 1778 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain and was the first Act for Roman Catholic relief. Later in 1778 it was also enacted by the Parliament of Ireland as the Leases for Lives Act 1777.
The Accession Declaration Act 1910 is an Act which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to alter the declaration that the Sovereign is required to make at their accession to the throne as first required by the Bill of Rights 1689. In it, they solemnly declare themself to be faithful to the Protestant faith. The altered declaration is as follows:
"I [here insert the name of the Sovereign] do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify, and declare that I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of the enactments which secure the Protestant succession to the Throne of my Realm, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of my powers according to law."
The Taxation Act 1722 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in response to the Jacobite risings and the Atterbury Plot. The Taxation Act, with the Oaths Act, is known collectively as the Papists Act 1722.
The Papists Act 1722 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, enacted after the discovery of the Jacobite Atterbury Plot. The Act required landowners to take the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, by 25 December 1723; those who declined were to register their estates by 25 March 1724 (N.S)/1723 (O.S).
Papists Act may refer to any of the following Acts of Parliament:
The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the laws of succession to the British throne in accordance with the 2011 Perth Agreement. The Act replaced male-preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture for those in the line of succession born after 28 October 2011, which means the eldest child, regardless of gender, precedes any siblings. The Act also repealed the Royal Marriages Act 1772, ended disqualification of a person who married a Roman Catholic from succession, and removed the requirement for those outside the first six persons in line to the throne to seek the Sovereign's approval to marry. It came into force on 26 March 2015, at the same time as the other Commonwealth realms implemented the Perth Agreement in their own laws.
The 5th Parliament of Great Britain was summoned by George I of Great Britain on 17 January 1715 and assembled on the 17 March 1715. When it was dissolved on 10 March 1722 it had been the first Parliament to be held under the Septennial Act of 1716.
The Papists Act 1688 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of England during the Glorious Revolution. Its full title was "An Act for the Amoving Papists and reputed Papists from the Cityes of London and Westminster and Ten Miles distance from the same".
The Papists Act 1734 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the reign of George II. Its long title was "An act to indemnify protestant purchasers of estates of papists, against the penalties or forfeitures papists are liable to for not having enrolled their estates, in pursuance of an act of the third year of king George the first for that purpose".
The Papists Act 1738 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the reign of George II. Its long title was "An Act for allowing further time for Inrolment of Deeds and Wills made by Papists, and for Relief of Protestant Purchasers, Devisees and Lessees".
The Papists Act 1740 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the reign of George II. Its long title was "An Act to indemnify protestant purchasers of estates of papists, against the penalties or forfeitures papists are liable to, for not having inrolled their estates, in pursuance of an act of the third year of the reign of his late majesty King George the First, for that purpose".
The Papists Act 1742 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the reign of George II. Its long title was "An Act for allowing further time for inrolment of deeds and wills made by papists; and for relief of protestant purchasers, devisees, and lessees".
