ABSTRACT O F An Act for relieving his Majesty's Subjects profeffing the Popish Religion from certain Penalties and Disabilities imposed on them by an Act, made in the Eleventh and Twelfth Years of the Reign of King William the Third, INTITLED An Act for the further Preventing the Growth of Popery. HE Preamble to this Act fets forth, "That THE it is expedient to repeal certain provisions in an Act of the eleventh and twelfth Years of the Reign of William the Third, intitled, An Act for the further preventing the Growth of Popery; whereby certain Penalties and Dif abilities are impofed on perfons profeffing the Popish Religion." Therefore it is enacted that the following claufes in the faid Act shall be repealed. ift. The profecuting of Popish Bishops, Priests, or Jefuits. 2d. Imprifoning for life those Papists who keep fchools, or take upon them the education or boarding of youth in this realm. 3d. The difabling Papists to inherit lands by defcent, &c. It farther enacts, That every person having or claiming any lands, &c. under titles not hitherto litigated, fhall hold the fame notwithftanding the faid Act, provided that nothing extends to effect any action or fuit now depending. Nor is it to extend to any person who fhall not within fix months after paffing this Act, or coming of age, &c. take the following Oath. I A. B. do fincerely promife and fwear, that I will bear true Allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third, and Him will defend, to the utmost of my Power, against all Confpiracies and Attempts whatever that shall be made against His Perfon, Crown, or Dignity, and I will do my utmoft Endeavour to disclose and make known to His Majesty, His Heirs and Succeffors, all Treafons and traiterous Confpiracies which may be formed against Him or them; and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost utmost of my Power, the Succeffion of the Crown in His Majefty's Family, against any Perfon or Perfons whatsoever; hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto the Person taking upon himself the Stile and Title of Prince of Wales, in the Lifetime of his Father, and who, fince his Death, is faid to have affumed the Stile and Title of King of Great Britain, by the Name of Charles the Third, and to any other Perfon claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of those Realms; and I do fwear, that I do reject and deteft, as an unchriftian and impious Position, That it is lawful to murder or deftroy any Perfon or Perfons whatfoever, for or under Pretence of their being Hereticks; and alfo that unchriftian and impious Principle, That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks: I further declare, that it is no Article of my Faith, and that I do renounce, reject, and abjure, the Opinion, That Princes excommunicated by the Pope and Coun→ cil, or by any Authority of the See of Rome, or by any Authority whatfoever, may be depofed or murdered by their fubjects, or any Perfon whatfoever: and I do declare, that I do not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign Prince, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or or ought to have, any temporal or civil Jurifdiction, Power, Superiority, or Pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this Realm. And I do folemnly, in the Prefence of God, profefs, testify and declare, That I do make this Declaration, and every Part thereof, in the plain and ordinary Senfe of the words of this Oath; without any Evafion, Equivocation, or mental Refervation whatever, and without any Dispensation already granted by the Pope, or any Authority of the See of Rome, or any Perfon whatever; and without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or Man, or abfolved of this Declaration, or any Part thereof, although the Pope, or any other Perfons or Authority whatsoever, fhall difpenfe with or annul the fame, or declare that it was null or void. The Court of Chancery, Courts of Record at Westminster, Courts of Great Seffion in Wales, &c. may adminifter the Oath; and a regifter to be kept of the taking and fubfcribing the fame. Nothing in this Act is to extend to any Popish Bifhop, Prieft, Jefuit, or Schoolmafter who fhall not have taken the faid Oath before he was apprehended. N. B. N. B. Notwithstanding the relief granted the Papifts in this Act, they are ftill fubject to the following Penalties, in confequence of Statutes which remain in full force. [Stat. 23. 1. 3. 7. Jac. I. 27. 29. 35. Eliz. 25 30. Car. II. 1. Ann. 1. 3. Geo. I. 11. Geo. H.] 1. They are prohibited, upon pain of fine and imprisonment, from teaching schools, unless they be licensed by the ordinary, and fubscribe a declaration of Conformity to the Liturgy of the Church, and frequent the worship established by law. 2d. They are incapable of presenting to any advowfon. 3d. If they willingly fay or hear Mafs, they forfeit, the one two hundred, the other one hundred marks, and each fhall fuffer one year's imprisonment. 4th. If convicted in a court of law, of not attending the fervice of the Church of England, they can hold no office or employment. 5th. They must not keep arms in their houses, nor come within ten miles of London, upon pain of one hundred pounds. |