In English history, the penal laws were a series of laws that sought to uphold the establishment of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

against

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

nonconformists by imposing various forfeitures,

civil penalties A civil penalty or civil fine is a financial penalty imposed by a government agency as restitution for wrongdoing. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees. The civil fine is not considered ...

, and

civil disabilities Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

upon these dissenters. The penal laws in general were repealed in the early 19th century during the process of

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

. Penal actions are civil in nature and were not English

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

Marian Persecutions

In 1553, following the death of her half brother,

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

, and deposing his choice of successor,

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. Jane was ...

Mary I of England Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...

seized the throne, and soon after repealed the religious legislation of her brother and father,

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

, through the First Statute of Repeal(1 Mary, st. 2, c. 2). Restoring England, Wales and Ireland to the Roman Catholic communion. An English inquisition was established to identify exile, convert, or punish non conforming Catholics, with over 300 Protestant dissenters branded heretics, and killed, and many more exiled in her 5 year reign. A

List of Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558). Radical Christians also were executed, though in much smaller numbers, during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–155 ...

published soon after her death. * Nov 1554 - Mary reintroduced a Heresy Act (1 & 2 Ph. & M. c.6), outlawing all dissenting literature and believers, it would be repealed a year after her death.

Elizabethan

* The

Act of Supremacy 1558 The Act of Supremacy 1558 (1 Eliz 1 c 1), sometimes referred to as the Act of Supremacy 1559, is an Act of the Parliament of England, which replaced the original Act of Supremacy 1534, and passed under the auspices of Elizabeth I. The 1534 Ac ...

(1 Eliz 1 c 1), confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and imposed an

Oath of Supremacy The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Failure to do so was to be treated as treasonable. The Oath of Supremacy was or ...

which required any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. It also made it a crime to assert the authority of any foreign prince, prelate, or other authority, and was aimed at abolishing the authority of the Pope in England. All who maintained the spiritual or ecclesiastical authority of any foreign prelate were to forfeit all goods and chattels, both real and personal, and all benefices for the first offence, or in case the value of these was below 20 pounds, to be imprisoned for one year; they were liable to the forfeitures of ''

praemunire In English history, ''praemunire'' or ''praemunire facias'' () refers to a 14th-century law that prohibited the assertion or maintenance of papal jurisdiction, or any other foreign jurisdiction or claim of supremacy in England, against the suprem ...

'' for the second offence. The penalties of ''praemunire'' were: exclusion from the sovereign's protection, forfeiture of all lands and goods, arrest to answer to the Sovereign and Council.Burton, Edwin, Edward D'Alton, and Jarvis Kelley. "Penal Laws." ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 28 August 2018 * The Act of Uniformity 1558 (1 Eliz 1 c 2) set the order of prayer to be used in the English ''Book of Common Prayer'' and required all persons to go to church once a week or be fined. It punished all clerics who used any other service by deprivation and imprisonment. * The Supremacy of the Crown Act 1562 (5 Eliz 1 c 1) made a second offence of refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy treason.

Response to ''Regnans in Excelsis''

In 1570

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is v ...

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

Queen Elizabeth I with the papal bull ''

Regnans in Excelsis ''Regnans in Excelsis'' ("Reigning on High") is a papal bull that Pope Pius V issued on 25 February 1570. It excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England, referring to her as "the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime", declared h ...

''. In response: * 13 Eliz. c.1 made it high treason to affirm that the queen ought not to enjoy the Crown, or to declare her to be a heretic or schismatic; * 13 Eliz. c. 2, which made it high treason to put into effect any papal Bull of absolution, to absolve or reconcile any person to the Catholic Church, or to be so absolved or reconciled, or to procure or publish any papal Bull or writing whatsoever. The penalties of ''praemunire'' were enacted against all who brought into England or who gave to others "Agnus Dei" or articles blessed by the pope or by any one through faculties from him. * 13 Eliz. c. 3, was designed to stop Catholics from taking refuge abroad, and declared that any subject departing the realm without the queen's license, and not returning within six months, should forfeit the profits of his lands during life and all his goods and chattels. * The Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in their obedience (23 Eliz. c. 1), passed in 1581. This made it high treason to reconcile anyone or to be reconciled to "the Romish religion", prohibited Mass under penalty of a fine of two hundred marks and imprisonment for one year for the celebrant, and a fine of one hundred marks and the same imprisonment for those who heard the Mass. This act also increased the penalty for not attending the Anglican service to the sum of twenty pounds a month, or imprisonment till the fine be paid, or till the offender went to the Anglican Church. A further penalty of ten pounds a month was inflicted on anyone keeping a schoolmaster who did not attend the Anglican service. The schoolmaster himself was to be imprisoned for one year. * An act against Jesuits, seminary priests, and such other like disobedient persons, (27 Eliz.1, c. 2) commanded all Roman Catholic priests to leave the country in 40 days or they be punished for high treason, unless within the 40 days they swore an oath to obey the Queen. Those who harbored them, and all those who knew of their presence and failed to inform the authorities would be fined and imprisoned, or where the authorities wished to make an example of them, they might be executed. This statute, under which most of the English martyrs suffered, made it high treason for any Jesuit or any seminary priest to be in England at all, and felony for any one to harbour or relieve them. The penalties of ''praemunire'' were imposed on all who sent assistance to the seminaries abroad, and a fine of 100 pounds for each offence on those who sent their children overseas without the royal licence.

Clarendon Code

While some of the Penal Laws were much older, they took their most drastic shape during the reign of Charles II, especially the laws known as the Clarendon Code and the Test Act. The four penal laws collectively known as Clarendon Code are named after Charles II's chief minister

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II fr ...

, though Clarendon was neither their author nor fully in favour of them. These included: *the Corporation Act (1661) required all municipal officials to take Anglican communion, and formally reject the

Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1 ...

of 1643. The effect of this act was to exclude nonconformists from public office. While the legislation was not rescinded until 1828, the legal power to enforce it lapsed in 1663, and therefore many evicted officials were able to regain their positions after a few years. Harris, Tim, ''Politics Under the Later Stuarts: Party Conflict In a Divided Society, 1660-1715''. London: Longman, 1993. p. 39. *the Act of Uniformity (1662) made use of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

compulsory in religious service. Over two thousand clergy refused to comply and so were forced to resign their livings (the Great Ejection). The provisions of the act were modified by the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act, of 1872. *the Conventicle Act (1664) forbade conventicles (a meeting for unauthorized worship) of more than five people who were not members of the same household. The purpose was to prevent dissenting religious groups from meeting. *the Five Mile Act (1665) forbade nonconformist ministers from coming within five miles of incorporated towns or the place of their former livings. They were also forbidden to teach in schools. Most of the Act's effects were repealed by 1689, but it was not formally abolished until 1812. Combined with the Test Act, the Corporation Act excluded all nonconformists from holding civil or military office, and prevented them from being awarded degrees by the Universities of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Further penal laws in Great Britain

In the late 17th and 18th centuries, many non-conformist Protestants successfully evaded the political disabilities imposed by the Test Act by taking communion in the Church of England as required, while otherwise attending non-conformist meetings. High churchmen and

Tories A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

, empowered late in Queen Anne's reign, sought to close this loophole with the passing of the Occasional Conformity Bill in 1711, however the Act was repealed after the Hanoverian Succession with the return to power of the Whigs, who were generally allied with non-conforming Protestants. In the wake of the

Jacobite Rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, ...

, the British parliament also passed the

Disarming Act The Disarming Act (1 George 1 session 2 C.26) was an 18th-century Act of Parliament of Great Britain that was enacted to curtail Jacobitism among the Scottish clans in the Scottish Highlands after the Jacobite rising of 1715. The new law, which ca ...

of 1716.

Penal laws in Ireland

The Penal Laws were introduced into Ireland in the year 1695, disenfranchising nonconformists in favour of the minority established

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the sec ...

, aligned with the Protestant

. The laws' principal victims were members of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, numbering over three quarters of the population in the south, and adherents of the

Presbyterian Church in Ireland The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI; ga, Eaglais Phreispitéireach in Éirinn; Ulster-Scots: ''Prisbytairin Kirk in Airlann'') is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in ...

, a majority of the population in

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

. These laws included: * Education Act 1695 *

Banishment Act The Banishment Act or Bishops' Banishment Act (9 Will 3 c.1) was a 1697 Act of the Parliament of Ireland which banished all ordinaries and regular clergy of the Roman Catholic Church from Ireland. By 1 May 1698 all "popish archbishops, bishops ...

1697 * Registration Act 1704 *

Popery Act An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery, commonly known as the Popery Act or the Gavelkind Act,Andrew Lyall; Land Law in Ireland; was an Act of the Parliament of Ireland that was passed in 1703 and amended in 1709. One of a series of P ...

1704 and 1709 *

Disenfranchising Act The Disfranchising Act was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Ireland debated in 1727 and enacted in 1728, one of a series of Penal Laws, and prohibited all Roman Catholics from voting in parliamentary elections. Its full title is "An Ac ...

1728 The laws were eventually repealed, beginning in the 1770s by the 1774 Quebec Act and the Papists Act 1778. The British Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 was followed in Ireland in 1793. Finally in 1829

Catholic emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

was enacted, largely due to Irish political agitation organised under

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

in the 1820s.

Sectarianism Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups which are often related to the form of government which they live under. Prejudice, discrimination, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo ...

between Catholics and Protestants persisted through the 20th century, and its effects can still be seen, particularly in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

, today.

References

{{UK law Law of the United Kingdom Criminal law English law Penology History of Catholicism in the United Kingdom 18th century in Ireland Religion and politics Persecution of Christians eo:Puna juro