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CHAP. XXXVIII.

OFFENCES AGAINST RELIGION.

[See 4 Black. Com. chap. 4; 4 Steph. Com. chap. 7.]

Apostacy]-Apostacy is a total renunciation of Christianity, by embracing either a false religion or no religion at all. By 9 & 10 Will. 3, c. 32, to deny by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, the Christian religion to be true, or the holy scriptures to be of divine authority, is punishable, for the first offence by loss of office; for the second, by being put out of the protection of the law, and three years' imprisonment, except he repent within four months after his first conviction, and renounce his error in open court.

Heresy.]- Heresy consists not in a total denial of Christianity, but of some of its essential doctrines, publicly and obstinately avowed. This offence was punishable by the writ de hæretico comburendo; but this punishment being abolished by 29 Car. 2, c. 9, it is enacted by 9 & 10 Will. 3, c. 32, that if any person educated in the Christian religion shall maintain that there are more Gods than one, he shall suffer the same penalties and incapacities as above described in the case of apostacy.

REVILING THE CHURCH.

343

Reviling the Church.]-By 1 Eliz. c. 1, whoever reviles the sacrament of the Lord's Supper shall be punished by fine and imprisonment. And by 1 Eliz. c. 2, if any minister shall speak anything in derogation of the Book of Common Prayer, he shall suffer six months' imprisonment, and forfeit a year's value of his benefice; and if any person shall in plays, songs, or other open words, speak anything in derogation, depraving, or despising of the said book, he shall forfeit, for the first offence, an hundred marks; for the second, four hundred; and for the third, all his goods and chattels, and suffer imprisonment for life.

Nonconformity.]-Nonconformists are of two sorts-1. Such as absent themselves from divine worship in the Established Church, and attend the service of no other persuasion, and they were punishable by 5 & 6 Edw. 6, and 1 Eliz. c. 2, but these statutes are, so far as respects such provisions, repealed by the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59. The second species of nonconformists are Papists and Protestant Dissenters; but the penalties to which these offenders were once liable are, by the Toleration Act of 1 Will. and Mary, c. 18, and subsequent acts, taken away with respect to dissenters, and by the 18 Geo. 3, c. 60, 10 Geo. 4, c. 7, and 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59, and other statutes, with respect to Roman Catholics, so that it is needless to notice the old provisions on the subject. By the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59, s. 2, the Jews are subject to the same laws as Protestant Dissenters in respect to schools and places of worship.

Blasphemy.]-Blasphemy, by denying the being or providence of God, or by uttering contumelious reproaches of Our Saviour Christ, is punishable by fine and imprisonment, at the common law.

Profane cursing and swearing.]-By 19 Geo. 2, c. 21, if any person shall profanely curse or swear, and be convicted on the oath of one witness, or by confession, or by the hearing of one magistrate, he shall forfeit, first, every day-labourer, common soldier, sailor, or seaman, one shilling; secondly, every other person under the degree of a gentleman, two shillings; thirdly, every person of or above the degree of a gentleman, five shillings. On a second conviction double, and for every other treble, the sum first forfeited.

Witchcraft.]-By 9 Geo. 2, c. 5, whoever shall pretend to exercise the arts of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or shall undertake to tell fortunes, or pretend by crafty science to discover stolen goods, are liable to be imprisoned for a year, and find sureties as the court shall direct. And by 5 Geo. 4, c. 83, s. 4, persons using any subtle craft, means, or device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive people, shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds.

Religious impostors.]—Religious impostors are such as falsely pretend an extraordinary commission from Heaven, or terrify and abuse the people with false denunciations of judgments, and are punishable by fine, imprisonment, and infamous corporal punishment.

Sabbath-breaking.]-As to sabbath-breaking, or profanation of the Lord's-day, by the 27 Hen. 6, c. 5, all manner of fairs and markets on feast days, or on Sundays, the four Sundays in harvest excepted, shall clearly cease, on pain of forfeiting the goods exposed to sale. By i Car. 1, c. 1, there shall be no meetings, assemblies, or concourse of

DRUNKENNESS, ETC.

345

people out of their own parishes on the Lord's-day, nor any unlawful exercises and pastimes, used by any person or persons within their own parishes, on pain of forfeiting 3s. 4d. to the poor for every offence. By 29 Car. 2, c. 7, no tradesman, labourer, or other person above the age of fourteen years, shall exercise any worldly business, labour, or work of their ordinary callings, on the Lord's-day, works of necessity and charity only excepted, on pain of forfeiting five shillings. And also that no person shall publicly cry, shew forth, or expose to sale, any wares on the Lord's-day, on pain of forfeiture; and that no drover, waggoner, or their servants, shall travel or come to his inn or lodging, on pain of twenty shillings. And that no person shall serve any process on the Lord's-day, except in cases of treason, felony, or breach of the peace, but the same shall be void, and the offender liable in damages (a). By the 21 Geo. 3, c. 49, every place of' public entertainment or debating, opened on any part of the Lord's-day, to which admittance shall be had for money or by tickets, or by charging an extraordinary price for refreshments, shall be deemed a disorderly house.

Drunkenness.]-Drunkenness is punished by 4 Jac. 1, c. 5, and 21 Jac. 1, c. 11, ss. 1, 3, with the forfeiture of five shillings.

Lewdness.] - Open and notorious lewdness, grossly scandalous, is an offence indictable at common law, and punishable by fine and imprisonment.

CHAP. XXXIX.

OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS

[See 4 Black. Com. ch. 66; 4 Steph. Com. ch. 8.]

Violation of passports.]—Truce-breaking, or the violation of passports expressly granted by the King or his ambassadors to the subjects of a foreign power, in the time of mutual war, is a breach of the public faith, and was, by 2 Hen. 5, c. 6, declared high treason; but by 20 Hen. 6, c. 2, and 31 Hen. 6, c. 4, is punishable by restitution and forfeiture.

Violating the rights of ambassadors.]-By 7 Anne, c. 12, all process whereby the person of any ambassador, or his domestic servant, may be arrested, or his goods distrained or seised, shall be utterly void; and all persons prosecuting, soliciting, or executing such process, shall be deemed violators of the law of nations, disturbers of the public repose, and shall suffer such penalties and corporal punishment as the lord chancellor and the chief justice shall, on conviction, think fit (a).

Piracy.]-Piracy is a felony against the goods of any other person, by a depredation or robbing at

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