Religion Act 1592
| Year | 1592 |
(35 Eliz. 1) C A P. I.
'F O R the preventing and avoiding of such great Inconveniences and Perilsas might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous Practices of seditious Sectaries and disloyal Persons;' (2) Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That if any Person or Persons above the Age of sixteen Years, which shall obstinately refuse to repair to some Church, Chapel or usual Place of Common Prayer, to hear Divine Service established by her Majesty's Laws and Statutes in that Behalf made, and shall forbear to do the same by the Space of a Month next after, without any lawful Cause, shall at any Time after forty Days, next after the End of this Session of Parliament, by Printing, Writing, or express Words or Speeches, advisedly or purposely practise or go about to move or perswade any of her Majesty's Subjects, or any other within her Highness Realms or Dominions, to deny, withstand and impugn her Majesty's Power and Authority in Cases Ecclesiastical, united and annexed to the ImperialCrown of this Realm; (3) or to that End or Purpose shall advisedly and maliciously move or perswade any other Person whatsoever to forbear or abstain from coming to Church to hear Divine Service, or to receive the Communion according to her Majesty's Laws and Statutes aforesaid, or to come to or be present at any unlawful Assemblies, Conventicles or Meetings, under Colour or Pretence of any Exercise of Religion, contrary to her Majesty's said Laws and Statutes: (4) Or if any Person or Personswhich shall obstinately refuse to repair to some Church, Chapel or usual Place of Common Prayer, and shall forbear by the Space of a Month to hear Divine Service, as is aforesaid, shall after the said forty Days, either of him or themselves, or by the Motion, Perswasion, Enticement or Allurement of any other, willingly join in, or be present at, any such Assemblies, Conventicles or Meetings, under Colour or Pretence of any such Exercise of Religion, contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, as is aforesaid; (5) Thatthen every such Person so offending as aforesaid, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be committed to Prison, there to remain without Bail or Mainprise, until they shall conform and yield themselves to come to some Church, Chapel or usual Place of Common Prayer, and hear Divine Service, according to her Majesty's Laws and Statutes aforesaid, and to make such open Submission and Declaration of their said Conformity, as hereafter in this Act is declared and appointed.
II An Offender not conforming himself shall abjure the Realm.
II. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That if any such Person or Persons, which shall offend against this Act as aforesaid, shall not within three Months next after they shall be convicted of their said Offence, conform themselves to the Obedience of the Laws and Statutes of tis Realm, in coming to the Church to hear to Divine Service, and in making such publick Confession and Submission, as hereafter in this Act is appointed and expressed, being thereunto required by the Bishop of the Diocese, or any Justice of the Peace of the County where the same Person shall happen to be, or by the Minister or Curate of the Parish; that in every such Case every such Offender, being thereunto warned or required by any Justice of the Peace of the same County where such Offender shall then be, shall upon his and their corporal Oath before the Justices of the Peace in the open Quarter-Sessions of the same County, or at the Assizes and Gaol-delivery of the same County, before the Justices of the same Assizes and Gaol-delivery, abjure this Realm ofEngland , and all other the Queen's Majesty's Dominions for ever, unless her Majesty shall licence the Party to return; (2) and thereupon shall depart out of this Realm at such Haven or Port, and within such Time, as shall in that Behalf be assigned and appointed by the said Justices...
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