Religion Act 1580

Religion Act 1580

Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due Obedience.
Citation	23 Eliz. 1. c. 1
Territorial extent	England and Wales
Dates
Royal assent	18 March 1581
Commencement	16 January 1581 [a]
Repealed	9 August 1844
Other legislation
Repealed by	Roman Catholics Act 1844
Relates to	Religion Act 1586 Popish Recusants Act 1605 Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Religion Act 1580 or Recusancy Act 1680 (23 Eliz. 1. c. 1) was an act of the Parliament of England during the English Reformation. ^[1]

The act made it high treason to persuade English subjects to withdraw their allegiance to the Queen, or from the Church of England to Rome, or to promise obedience to a foreign authority.

The act also increased the fine for absenteeism from church to £20 a month or imprisonment until they conformed. Finally, the act fined and imprisoned those who celebrated the mass or attended a mass. ^[2]

Subsequent developments

The whole act was repealed by section 1 of the Roman Catholics Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 102).

See also

• Praemunire
• High treason in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. Start of session.

References

1. Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Raithby, John (1811). Religion Act 1580 [23 Eliz. I. - A.D. 1580 Chapter I]. The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain: from Magna Carta to the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. IV. London, Great Britain: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan. pp. 374–377. OCLC   1110419501 – via Internet Archive.
2. Dudley Julius Medley, A Student's Manual of English Constitutional History. Sixth Edition (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1925), p. 638.

Bibliography

• Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Raithby, John (1811). Religion Act 1587 [29 Eliz. I. - A.D. 1587 Chapter VI]. The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain: from Magna Carta to the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. IV. London, Great Britain: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan. pp. 442–445. OCLC   15609908 – via Internet Archive.
• Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Raithby, John (1811). An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants (1605) [3 Jac. I. - A.D. 1605 Chapter IV]. The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain: from Magna Carta to the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. IV. London, Great Britain: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan. pp. 637–649. OCLC   15609908 – via Internet Archive.
• Frederick, George William (1794). Religion Act 1791 [31 Geo. III. - A.D. 1791 Chapter XXXII]. The Statutes at Large, from the Thirtieth Year to Thirty-fourth Year of Reign of King George the Third. Vol. XVI. London, Great Britain: Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan. pp. 129–134. OCLC   722388097.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)