1570.] ADMISSION TO HOLY ORDERS. 213 have subscribed the articles in the presence of the ordinary, and publicly read them in the parish church of that benefice, with declaration of his unfeigned assent to the same. And none shall be made minister, or admitted to preach or administer the sacraments, being under the age of twentyfour years; nor unless he bring to the bishop, from men known to the bishop to be of sound religion, a testimonial both of his honest life, and of his professing the doctrine expressed in the articles; nor unless he be able to answer, and render to the ordinary an account of his faith, in Latin, according to the articles, or have special gift or ability to be a preacher; nor shall be admitted to the order of deacon or ministry, unless he shall first subscribe to the articles. None shall thereafter be admitted to a benefice, with cure, of or above the value of £30 yearly, in the queen's books, unless he shall then be a bachelor of divinity, or a preacher allowed by some bishop, or by one of the universities of Cambridge or Oxford. Ten years elapse without another statute concerning religion. But in the parliament which met in 1581, the legis lation against popery was resumed, in "an act to retain the queen's subjects in their due obedience." This is the first statute expressly directed against the mass. It enacted that all persons who should have, or pretend to have power, or should by any ways or means put in practice to absolve, persuade, or withdraw any of her majesty's subjects from their natural obedience to her majesty, or to withdraw them from the established religion to the Romish religion; or to move them to promise obedience to the see of Rome; or should do any overt act to that purpose; should be adjudged traitors, and being lawfully convicted, should suffer and forfeit as in case of high treason. If any person be willingly absolved, or reconciled, or promise obedience to such pretended authority, he and his procurers and counsellors thereto, should suffer and forfeit in like manner. Every person who should say or sing mass should, on conviction, 123 Elizabeth, cap. 1, A.D. 1581-2. forfeit 200 marks, and be imprisoned for a year, and thenceforth until the fine was paid. Any person who should hear mass, should forfeit 100 marks, and suffer imprisonment for a year. Persons above sixteen, not repairing to church, should forfeit £20 a month; and persons forbearing for twelve months, besides these forfeitures, should be bound for their obstinacy, with two sufficient sureties, in £200 at least, and continue bound until they conformed and went to church. But it was provided that those who usually on Sunday had in their houses the divine service established by law, and should not obstinately refuse to come to church, and should also four times a year, at least, be present at divine service in his parish church or some other church, should not incur the penalty. A new parliament met in 1585, and began its labours by "an act against Jesuits, seminary priests, and other suchlike disobedient persons." This statute was directed against the Jesuits or priests of the then new-founded order of Ignatius Loyola, and the priests of the new seminary or college of Douay, in Flanders, who were continually passing to and from the kingdom, inciting the papists to disloyalty and insurrection. "Divers Jesuits, seminary priests, and other priests (the preamble states) come into the realm, not only to withdraw the queen's subjects from their obedience, but to stir up sedition, rebellion, and open hostility." And it was enacted that Jesuits, seminary priests, and other priests should, within forty days after the end of the session of parliament, depart out of the realm. No priest born within the realm should come into, be, or remain in the realm, after the end of the forty days (except under the special circumstances mentioned in the act), and if he did, it should be adjudged high treason. Any one who should receive, relieve, comfort, aid, or maintain a priest, after the end of the forty days, should suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy. Any person (not being a Jesuit) then being of or brought up in any college of Jesuits, or seminary in foreign 127 Elizabeth, cap. 2, A.D. 1585. 1585.] MASS-JESUITS-RECUSANTS. 215 parts, who should not, within six months after public procla mation, return into the realm, and within two days afterwards submit himself to her majesty and the laws, and take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, should, when he should otherwise return, for the offence of returning without submission, be adjugded a traitor, and suffer death as in case of high treason. Any person sending relief to a Jesuit or priest abroad incurred præmunire; and any one, after the forty days, knowing that a Jesuit or priest was within the realm, and not discovering it to a justice of the peace, within twelve days, should be fined and imprisoned at her majesty's pleasure. If the justice did not give information to the privy council within twenty-eight days, he should forfeit 200 marks. All persons were prohibited, during her majesty's life, from sending their children abroad, without the queen's license, on pain of forfeiting for every offence £100. Eight years elapsed, and two sessions of parliament intervened, before the parliament met in 1593. In that parliament Elizabeth concluded this series of legislation against the pope, with an act1 "for restraining popish recusants to some certain places of abode." It was directed against "sundry wicked and seditious persons, who, terming themselves Catholics, and being indeed spies and intelligencers, not only for her majesty's foreign enemies, but also for rebellious and traitorous subjects, and, hiding their most detestable and devilish purposes under a false pretext of religion and conscience, do secretly wander and shift from place to place within this realm, to corrupt and seduce her majesty's subjects, and to stir them to sedition and rebellion." It was enacted that all persons, above sixteen years, born within the realm, or made denizen, being popish recusants, and convicted for not repairing to church, and having a certain place of abode within the realm, should, within forty days after conviction, repair to their place of dwelling; and not at any time after, pass or remove above five miles from thence, upon pain of forfeiture of all their goods and chattels, and 135 Elizabeth, cap. 2, A.D. 1593-4. all their lands and tenements, rents, and annuities, for the life of the offender. Popish recusants not repairing to church, and not having any certain dwelling and abode within the realm, should repair to the place where they were born, or where their father or mother should be dwelling, and not remove or pass above five miles from thence, upon pain of the like forfeiture. If a popish recusant (not being a married woman, and not having freehold lands of the yearly value of twenty marks, or goods and chattels above the value of £20) should not, within the forty days limited by the act, repair to his place of abode, or to that of his father or mother, or place of his birth, and notify his coming, with his name, to the minister or curate of the parish, and to the constable of the town,—or should pass or remove above five miles from the same, and should not, on being apprehended, conform to the laws by coming to church, he should, upon his corporal oath, before two justices of the peace, abjure the realm of England for ever, and depart out of the realm, at such haven or port, and within such time, as should be assigned by the justices. Offenders might, before conviction, come to the parish church on Sunday or festival day, and at service-time, before the sermon, or reading of the gospel, make public and open submission, and declaration of conformity, and be discharged. Married women were bound by every article of the statute, other than the article of abjuration. In the same parliament legislation was commenced against the puritans, and now we find, in the statute-book, the depreciatory terms, "sectaries," "conventicles," "meetings," in later times so familiar. "An act to retain the queen's majesty's subjects in their due obedience" was passed.' It is declared to be for the preventing and avoiding of such great inconveniences and perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries and disloyal persons; and it enacted that persons, above the age of sixteen years, obstinately refusing to come to the church established by law, and persuading others to deny 35 Elizabeth, cap. 1, A.D. 1593. 1593.] STATUTE AGAINST SECTARIES. 217 or impugn her majesty's authority in cases ecclesiastical, or to abstain from coming to church, or who should willingly join in, or be present at, any unlawful assemblies, conventicles, or meetings, under colour or pretence of the exercise of religion-being thereof convicted-should be committed to prison, there to remain until they should conform and come to church, and make open submission and declaration of their conformity. Any person who should not, within three months after conviction, on being required so to do, conform himself, and make public confession, should abjure and depart from the realm; and if he returned, without license, he should be adjudged and suffer as a felon, without benefit of clergy. If with impatience we pass through the formal and heavy language of these statutes, we should think of the terror which the same words imparted to great multitudes of people, who, for the most part, were only desirous of peacefully worshiping God according to the religion in which they had been brought up, or according to the light of their consciences. Historians compute that about two hundred Roman Catholics were put to death in Elizabeth's reign. But that severe punishment was but one branch of the misery which this legislation produced. We have no record of that which resulted from the heavy penalties of præmunire, and of banishment, fine, and imprisonment; and we can only imagine, by reference to our own feelings and the force of our own convictions, the unhappiness and remorse of those who only avoided martyrdom or punishment, by concealment of their inward and most cherished opinions on the most sacred and important of all subjects. These statutes, whilst they established the supremacy of the crown as against all foreign potentates, and settled the national religion, did not alter the relations between the sovereign and the people, or the legislature, in temporal matters. We must now, therefore, consider how these relations stood at this period of our history. No sovereign, since Magna Charta, seems to have been so free and un |