Popish Recusants Act 1605

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Popish Recusants Act 1605
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of England (1603-1649).svg
Long title An Act to prevent and avoid dangers which may grow by Popish Recusants.
Citation 3 Jas. 1. c. 4
Territorial extent  England and Wales
Dates
Royal assent 27 May 1606
Commencement 6 January 1606 [a]
Repealed18 August 1846
Other legislation
Repealed by Religious Disabilities Act 1846
Relates to Oath of Allegiance, etc. Act 1609
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Popish Recusants Act 1605 (3 Jas. 1. c. 4) was an act of the Parliament of England which quickly followed the Gunpowder Plot of the same year, an attempt by English Roman Catholics to assassinate King James I and many of the Parliament.

Contents

The act forbade Roman Catholics from practising the professions of law and medicine and from acting as a guardian or trustee; and it allowed magistrates to search their houses for arms. The act also provided a new oath of allegiance, which denied the power of the Pope to depose monarchs. The recusant was to be fined £60 or to forfeit two-thirds of his land if he did not receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at least once a year in his Church of England parish church. [1]

Sections 22 and 23 of the act also made it high treason to obey the authority of Rome rather than the King.

Subsequent developments

The whole act was repealed by section 1 of the Religious Disabilities Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. 59).

See also

Notes

  1. Start of session.

References

  1. Dudley Julius Medley, A Student's Manual of English Constitutional History. Sixth Edition (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1925), pp. 639-40.