No. LXV. 25 Car. II. c. 2. First Day of to take the said Salary, Fee, or Wages, by reason of any Patent or Grant of his Majesty, or shall have Command or Place of Trust from or under his Majesty, his Heirs or Successors, or by his or their authority, or by authority derived from him or them, within this Realm of England, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or in his Majesty's Navy, or in the several islands of Jersey and Guernsey, or that shall be admitted into any service or imployment in his Majesty's or Royal Highness's houshold or family, after the first day of Easter Term aforesaid, and shall inhabit, be or reside, when he or they is, or are so admitted or placed, within the cities of London or Westminster, or within thirty miles of the same, shall take the said Oaths aforesaid in the said respective Court or Courts aforesaid, in the next Term after such his or their admittance or admittances into the The Time enOffice or Offices, Imployment or Imployments aforesaid, between the hours larged to six aforesaid, and no other, and the proceedings to cease as aforesaid; and Months,9 Geo. that all and every such Person or Persons to be admitted after the said 2. c. 26. first day of Easter Term as aforesaid, not having taken the said Oaths, in Persons bethe said Courts aforesaid, shall at the Quarter Sessions for that County or yond Sea helpPlace where he or they shall reside, next after such his admittance or ed by 13 Geo. admittances into any of the said respective Offices or Imployments afore- 1. c. 29. § 4. said, take the said several and respective Oaths as aforesaid: And all and every such Person and Persons so to be admitted as aforesaid, shall also receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the Church of England, within three months after his or their admittance in or receiving their said authority and imployment, in some publick church, When and upon some Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday, immediately after Divine where to be Service and Sermon. taken. III. And every of the said Persons in the respective Court where he Certificate. takes the said Oaths shall first deliver a certificate of such his receiving the said Sacrament as aforesaid, under the hands of the respective Minister and Churchwarden, and shall then make proof of the truth thereof by two credible Witnesses at the least, upon Oath; all which shall be enquired of, and put upon record in the respective Courts. judged uncapable of any other Off ce. IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and Whosoever every the Person or Persons aforesaid, that do or shall neglect or refuse shall refuse to to take the said Oaths and Sacrament in the said Courts or Places, and at take the Oaths the respective times aforesaid, shall be ipso facto adjudged uncapable and shall be addisabled in Law, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, to have, occupy, or enjoy the said Office or Offices, Imployment or Imployments, or any part of them, or any matter or thing aforesaid, or any profit or advantage appertaining to them, or any of them; and every such Office and Place, Employment and Employments, shall be void, and is hereby adjudged void. V. And be it further enacted, That all and every such Person or Persons No Person that shall neglect or refuse to take the said Oaths or the Sacrament as shall execute aforesaid, within the times, and in the places aforesaid, and in the manner any Office, aforesaid, and yet after such neglect or refusal shall execute any of the after Refusal, said Offices or Employments after the said times expired, wherein he or &c. they ought to have taken the same, and being thereupon lawfully convicted, in or upon any Information, Presentment, or Indictment, in any of the King's Courts at Westminster, or at the Assizes, every such Person and Persons shall be disabled from thenceforth, to sue or use any Action, Bill, Plaint, or Information in course of Law, or to prosecute any Suit in any Court of Equity, or to be Guardian of any Child, or Executor or Administrator of any Person, or capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gift, or to bear any Office within this Realm of England, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and shall forfeit the sum of five hundred pounds, to be recovered by him or them that shall sue for the same, to be prosecuted by any Action of Debt, Suit, Bill, Plaint, or Information, in any of his Majesty's Courts at Westminster, wherein no Essoin, Protection, or Wager of Law shall lie. VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the The Names of Names of all and singular such Persons and Officers aforesaid, That do or Persons takshall take the Oaths aforesaid, shall be in the respective Courts of Chan- ing the Oaths, No. LXV. 25 Car. II. c. 2. where to be registered. The Fees allowed. Upon due Ten der made to the Courts, they are to administer the Oaths. No Person shall breed up his Children in the Popish Religion, &c. At the taking of the Oaths to subscribe the Declara tion following. This Act not to extend to Peerage, &c. cery and King's Bench and the Quarter Sessions inrolled, with the day and VII. And further, That it shall and may be lawful to and for the respective Courts aforesaid, to give and administer the said Oaths aforesaid to the Person or Persons aforesaid, in manner as aforesaid, and upon the due tender of any such Person or Persons to take the said Oaths, the said Courts are hereby required and enjoined to administer the same. VIII. And be it further enacted, That if any Person or Persons, not bred up by his or their Parent or Parents from their infancy in the Popish Religion, and professing themselves to be Popish Recusants, shall breed up, instruct, or educate his or their Child or Children, or suffer them to be instructed or educated in the Popish Religion, every such Person being thereof convicted, shall be from thenceforth disabled of bearing any Office or Place of trust or profit, in Church or State, and all such Children as shall be so brought up, instructed, or educated, are and shall be hereby disabled of bearing any such Office or Place of trust or profit, until he and they shall be perfectly reconciled and converted to the Church of England, and shall take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance aforesaid before the Justices of the Peace in the open Quarter Sessions of the County or Place where they shall inhabit, and thereupon receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper after the usage of the Church of England, and obtain a certificate thereof under the hands of two or more of the said Justices of the Peace. IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That at the same time when the Persons concerned in this Act shall take the aforesaid Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, they shall likewise make and subscribe this Declaration following, under the same Penalties and Forfeitures, as by this Act is appointed: 'I A. B. do declare, That I do believe that there is not any Transub'stantion in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of • Bread and Wine, at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person 'whatsoever.' X. Of which Subscription there shall be the like Register kept, as of the taking the Oaths aforesaid. XI. Provided always, That neither this Act, nor any thing therein contained, shall extend, be judged, or interpreted, any ways to hurt or prejudice the Peerage of any Peer of this Realm, or to take away any right, power, privilege, or profit which any Person (being a Peer of this Realm) hath or ought to enjoy by reason of his Peerage, either in time of Parliament or otherwise: or to take away Creation-money or Bills of Impost, nor to take away or make void any Pension or Salary granted by his Majesty to any Person for valuable and sufficient consideration for Life, Lives, or Years, other than such as relate to any Office, or to any Place of Trust under his Majesty, and other than Pensions of Bounty or voluntary Pensions; nor to take away or make void any Estate of Inheritance granted by his Majesty, or any his Predecessors, to any Person or Persons of or in any Lands, Rents, Tithes, or Hereditaments, not being Offices; nor to take away or make void any Pension or Salary already granted by his Majesty to any Person who was instrumental in the happy preservation of his sacred Majesty after the Battle at Worcester in the year one thousand six hundred fifty-one, until his Majesty's arrival beyond the seas, nor to take away or make void the Grant of any Office or Offices of Inhe No. LXV. 25 Car. II. c. 2. ritance, or any Fee, Salary or Reward for executing such Office or Offices, or thereto any way belonging, granted by his Majesty or any of his Predecessors, to, or enjoyed, or which hereafter shall be enjoyed by, any Person or Persons who shall refuse or neglect to take the said Oaths or either of them, or to receive the Sacrament, or to subscribe the Declaration mentioned in this Act, in manner therein expressed: Nevertheless so as Popish Offisuch Person or Persons having or enjoying any such Office or Offices of cers must apInheritance do or shall substitute and appoint his or their sufficient Deputy Point Deputies or Deputies (which such Officer or Officers respectively are hereby impow- the Oaths, &c. ered from time to time to make or change, any former Law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding) to exercise the said Office or Offices, until such time as the Person or Persons having such Office or Offices shall voluntarily in the Court of Chancery, before the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper for who must take the time being, or in the Court of King's Bench, take the said Oaths and and subscribe. receive the Sacrament according to Law, and subscribe the said Declaration, and so as all and every the Deputy and Deputies so as aforesaid to be appointed, take the said Oaths, receive the Sacrament, and subscribe the said Declaration from time to time, as they shall happen to be so appointed, in manner as by this Act such Officers whose Deputies they be, are appointed to do; and so as such Deputies be from time to time approved of by the King's Majesty under his Privy Signet. But that all and every the Peers of this Realm shall have, hold, and enjoy, what is provided for as aforesaid, and all and every other Person or Persons before mentioned, denoted, or intended within this Proviso, shall have, hold, and enjoy what is provided for as aforesaid, notwithstanding any incapacity or disability mentioned in this Act. XII. Provided also, That the said Peers and every of them may take the The Peers said Oaths, and make the said Subscription, and deliver the said Certificates, may take the before the Peers sitting in Parliament, if the Parliament be sitting within Oaths, &c. in the time limited for doing thereof, and in the intervals of Parliament in the Parliament. High Court of Chancery, in which respective Courts all the said proceedings are to be recorded in manner aforesaid. XIII. Provided always, That no married Woman, or Person under the Married Woage of eighteen years, or being beyond or upon the Seas, or found by the men, &c. lawful oaths of twelve men to be Non compos mentis, and so being and remaining at the end of Trinity Term in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred seventy-three, having any Office, shall by virtue of this Act lose or forfeit any such his or her Office (other than such married Woman during the life of her Husband only) for any neglect or refusal of taking the Oaths, and doing the other things required by this Act to be done by Persons having Offices, so as such respective Persons within four months after the death of the Husband, coming to the age of eighteen years, returning into this Kingdom, and becoming of sound mind, shall respectively take the said Oaths, and perform all other things in manner as by this Act is appointed for Persons to do, who shall happen to have any Office or Offices to them given or fallen after the end of the said Trinity Term. XIV. Provided also, That any Person who by his or her neglect or refusal, according to this Act, shall lose or forfeit any Office, may be capable by a new grant of the said Office, or of any other, and to have and hold the same again, such Person taking the said Oaths, and doing all other things required by this Act, so as such Office be not granted to, and actually enjoyed by, some other Person at the time of the regranting thereof. XV. Provided also, That nothing in this Act contained shall extend to make any forfeiture, disability, or incapacity in, by, or upon any Noncommissioned Officer or Officers in his Majesty's Navy, if such Officer or Officers shall only subscribe the Declaration therein required, in manner as the same is directed. XVII. Provided also, That this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to the Office of any High Constable, Petty Constable, Tithingman, Headborough, Overseer of the Poor, Churchwardens, Surveyor of the Highways, or any like inferior Civil Office, or to any Office of Any Person forfeiting his Office, upon taking the Oaths, &c. capable of a new Grant thereof. Not to extend to Non-commissioned Officers in the Navy, &c. Constables, &c. No. LXV. 25 Car. II. c. 2. For these Oaths, see 1 W. & M. sess. 1. c. 1. § 3. The Declaration. Forester, or Keeper of any Park, Chace, Warren, or Game, or of Bailiff of any Manor or Lands, or to any like private Offices, or to any Person or Persons having only any the before-mentioned, or any the like Offices. [ No. LXVI. ] 29 Charles II. c. 7.-An Act for the better [ No. LXVII. ] 29 Charles II. c. 9.-An Act for taking [ No. LXVIII.] 30 Charles II. stat. 2.*-An Act for the more effectual preserving the King's Person and Government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament. FORASMUCH as divers good Laws have been made for preventing the increase and danger of Popery in this Kingdom, which have not had the desired effects, by reason of the free access which Popish Recusants have had to his Majesty's Court, and by reason of the liberty which of late some of the Recusants have had and taken to sit and vote in Parliament:" II. Wherefore, and for the safety of his Majesty's royal Person and Government, be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and of the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That, from and after the first day of December, which shall be in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred seventy and eight, no Person that now is or hereafter shall be a Peer of this Realm, or Member of the House of Peers, shall vote, or make his proxy in the House of Peers, or sit there during any debate in the said House of Peers; nor any Person that now is, or hereafter shall be a Member of the House of Commons, shall vote in the House of Commons, or sit there during any debate in the said House of Commons after their Speaker is chosen; until such Peer or Member shall, from time to time respectively, and in manner following, first take the several Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and make, subscribe, and audibly repeat this Declaration following, III. I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, pro'fess, testify, and declare, That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the con'secration thereof by any Person whatsoever: And that the invocation or 'adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and 'idolatrous. And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, This Declara- and declare, That I do make this Declaration, and every part thereof, in tion to be sub-the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are professed Pa- commonly understood by English Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this Declaration, or scribed by all pists at their Age of Eighteen, by 1 Anne, st. 1. c. 32. §7. 6 any part thereof, although the Pope, or any other person or persons, or power whatsoever should dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it was null or void from the beginning,' This is the single Act of the Session in which it was passed.. 30 Car. II. stat. 2. The Time and IV. Which said Oaths and Declaration shall be in this and every suc- No.LXVIII. ceeding Parliament solemnly and publicly made and subscribed betwixt the hours of nine in the morning and four in the afternoon, by every such Peer and Member of the House of Peers, at the table in the middle of the said House, before he take his place in the said House of Peers, and whilst a full House of Peers is there with their Speaker in his place; and by every such Member of the House of Commons, at the table in the middle of the said House, and whilst a full House of Commons is there duly sitting with their Speaker in his chair; and that the same be done in either house in such like order or method as each house is called over respectively. Place of taking the Oaths, and making & the Declarasubscribing tion. Members of V. And be it further enacted, That from and after the said first day of December, every Peer of this Realm, and Member of the House of Peers, Parliament and every Peer of the Kingdom of Scotland, or of the Kingdom of Ireland, not swearing being of the age of one and twenty years or upwards, not having taken the and declaring said Oaths, and made and subscribed the said Declaration; and every as aforesaid, Member of the said House of Commons, not having as aforesaid taken the and Recusants said Oaths, and made and subscribed the said Declaration; and every bidden the convict, forPerson now, or hereafter convicted of Popish Recusancy, who hereafter King's s or shall at any time after the said first day of December, come advisedly into Queen's Preor remain in the presence of the King's Majesty or Queen's Majesty, or shall come into the Court or House where they or any of them reside, as well during the reign of his present Majesty (whose life God long preserve) as during the reigns of any of his royal successors Kings or Queens of England; shall incur and suffer all the pains, penalties, forfeitures, and disabilities in this Act mentioned or contained; unless such Peer, Member, or Person so convicted, do respectively, in the next Term after such his coming or remaining, take the said Oaths, and make and subscribe the said Declaration in his Majesty's High Court of Chancery between the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon, sence, VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any The Penalty Person that now is or hereafter shall be a Peer of this Realm, or Member uponMembers of the House of Peers, or Member of the House of Commons, shall pre- of Parliament sume to do any thing contrary to this Act, or shall offend in any of the offending con. cases aforesaid; That then every such Peer and Member so offending trary to this shall from thenceforth be deemed and adjudged a Popish Recusant convict Act. to all intents and purposes whatsoever, and shall forfeit and suffer as a Popish Recusant convict; and shall be disabled to hold or execute any Office or Place of profit or trust civil or military, in any of his Majesty's Realms of England or Ireland, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or in any of his Majesty's Islands or Foreign Plantations to the said Realms belonging; and shall be disabled from thenceforth to sit or vote in either House of Parliament, or make a Proxy in the House of Peers, or to sue or use any action, bill, plaint, or information in course of Law, or to prosecute any suit in any Court of Equity, or to be Guardian of any Child, or Executor or Administrator of any Person, or capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gift; and shall forfeit for every wilful offence against this Act the sum of five hundred pounds, to be recovered and received by him or them that shall sue for the same, and to be prosecuted by any action of debt, suit, bill, plaint, or information in any of his Majesty's Courts at Westminster, wherein no essoin, protection, or wager of Law shall lie. VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,That from the said first day of December it shall and may be lawful to and for the House of Peers and House of Commons, or either of them respectively, as often as they or either of them shall see occasion, either in this present Parliament, or any other hereafter to be holden, to order and cause all or any of the Members of their respective Houses of Parliament openly in their respective Houses of Parliament, to take the said Oaths, and to make and subscribe the said Declaration, at such times, and in such manner, as they shall appoint. And if any Peer shall, contrary to such order made by their said House, wilfully presume Either House of Parliament may cause any of their Mem, bers to swear and subscribe as aforesaid. |