Toleration Act 1688
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1688 c. 18 |
| Year | 1688 |
(1 Will. & Mar.) C A P. XVIII.
'FORASMUCH as some Ease to scrupulous Consciences in the Exercise of Religion may be an effectual Means to unite their Majesties Protestant Subjects in Interest and Affection:'
II The several Laws not to extend to Dissenters.
II. Be it enacted by the King's and Queen's most Excellent Majesties, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That neither the Statute made in the three and twentieth Year of the Reign of the late QueenElizabeth , intituled, An Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due Obedience ; nor the Statutemade in the twenty-ninth Year of the said Queen, intituled,An Act for the more speedy and due Execution of certain Branches of the Statute made in the three and twentieth Year of the Queen's Majesty's Reign , viz. the aforesaid Act; nor that Branch or Clause of a Statute made in the first Year of the Reign of the said Queen, intituled, ; whereby all Persons, having no lawful or reasonable Excuse to be absent, are required to resort to their Parish Church or Chapel, or some usual Place where the Common Prayer shall be used, upon pain of Punishment by the Censures of the Church, and also upon pain that every Person so offending shall forfeit for every such Offence twelve Pence; nor the Statute made in the third Year of the Reign of the late KingJames the First, intituled, ; nor that other Statute made in the same Year, intituled, ; nor any other Law or Statute of this Realm made against Papists or Popish Recusants, except the Statute made in the five and twentieth Year of KingCharles the Second, intituled, ; and except also the Statute made in the thirtieth Year of the said KingCharles the Second, intiuled, An Act for the more effectual preserving the King's Person and Government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament ; shall be construed to extend to any Person or Persons dissenting from the Church of England , that shall take the Oaths mentioned in a Statute made this present Parliament, intituled, ; and shall make and subscribe the Declaration, mentioned in a Statute made in the thirtieth Year of the Reign of King the Second, intituled,An Act to prevent Papist from sitting in either House of Parliament ; which Oaths and Declaration the Justices of Peace at the General Sessions of the Peace, to be held for the County or Placewhere such Person shall live, are hereby required to tender and administer to such Persons as shall offer themselves to take, make and subscribe the same, and thereof to keep a Register: Andlikewise none of the Persons aforesaid shall give or pay, as any Fee or Reward, to any Officer or Officers belonging to the Court aforesaid, above the Sum of Six Pence, nor that more than once, for his or their Entry of his taking the said Oaths, and making and subscribing the said Declaration; nor above the further Sum of Six Pence for any Certificate of the same, to be made out and signed by the Officer or Officers of the said Court.
III Persons convicted, &c. taking the Oaths, &c. shall be discharged.
III. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every Person and Persons already convicted or prosecuted in order to Conviction of Recusancy, by Indictment, Information, Action of Debt, or otherwise, grounded upon the aforesaid Statutes, or any of them, that shall take the said Oaths mentioned in the said Statute made this present Parliament, and make and subscribe the Declaration aforesaid, in the Court of Exchequer, or Assizes, or General or Quarter-Sessions to be held for the County where such Person lives, and to be thence respectively certified into the Exchequer, shall be thenceforth exempted and discharged from all the Penalties, Seizures, Forfeitures, Judgments, and Executions, incurred by Forceof any of the aforesaid Statutes, without any Composition, Fee, or further Charge whatsoever.
IV. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every Person and Persons that shall, as aforesaid, take the said Oaths, and make and subscribe the Declaration aforesaid, shall not be liable to any Pains, Penalties, or Forfeitures, mentioned in an Act made in the five and thirtieth Year of the Reign of the late QueenElizabeth , intituled, ; nor in an Act made in the two and twentieth Year of the Reign of the late KingCharles the Second, intituled, An Act to prevent and suppress seditions Conventicles ; nor shall any of the said Persons be prosecuted in any Ecclesiastical Court, for or by reason of their non-conforming to the ChurchofEngland .
V Private Meetings excluded.
V. Provided always, and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That if any Assembly of Persons dissenting from the Church ofEngland shall be had in any Place for religious Worship with the Doors locked, barred, or bolted, during any Time of such meeting together, all and every Person or Persons, that shall come to and be at such Meeting, shall not receive any Benefit from this Law, but be liable to all the Pains and Penalties of all the aforesaid Laws recited in this Act, for such their meeting, notwithstanding his taking the Oaths, and his making and subscribing the Declaration aforesaid.
VI Tythes saved.
VI. Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt any of the Persons aforesaid from paying of Tythes or other parochial Duties, or any other Duties to the Church or Minister, nor from any Prosecution in any Ecclesiastical Court, or elsewhere, for the...
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