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Select Documents of English Constitutional History
Contents:
225.
First Conventicle Act
(1664, May I7. 16 Charles II. c. 4. 5 S. R. 516.)
WHEREAS an act made in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of our late sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, entitled, An Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s subjects in their due obedience, hath not been put in due execution by reason of some doubt of late made, whether the said act be still in force, although it be very clear and evident, and it is hereby declared, that the said act is still in force and ought to be put in due execution; for providing therefore of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries and other disloyal persons, who, under pretence of tender consciences, do at their meetings, contrive insurrections as late experience hath showed; be it enacted by the king’s most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any person of the age of sixteen years or upwards, being a subject of this realm, at any time after the first day of July, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty and four, shall be present at any assembly, conventicle or meeting, under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion in other manner than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the Church of England, in any place within the kingdom of England, dominion of Wales or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, at which conventicle, meeting or assembly there shall be five persons or more assembled together over and above those of the same household, then it shall and may be lawful to and for any two justices of the peace of the county, limit, division or liberty wherein the offence aforesaid shall be committed, or for the chief magistrate of the place where such offence aforesaid shall be committed (if it be within a corporation where there are not two justices of the peace), and they are hereby required and enjoined upon proof to them or him respectively made of such offence, either by confession of the party, or oath of witnesses, or notorious evidence of the fact (which oath the said justices of the peace and chief magistrate respectively are hereby empowered and required to administer), to make a record of every such offence and offences under their hands and seals respectively, which record so made as aforesaid shall to all intents and purposes be in law taken and adjudged to be a full and perfect conviction of every such offender for such offence, and thereupon the said justices and chief magistrate respectively shall commit every such offender so convicted as aforesaid to the gaol, or house of correction, there to remain without bail or mainprise for any time not exceeding the space of three months, unless such offender shall pay down to the said justices or chief magistrate such sum of money, not exceeding five pounds, as the justices or chief magistrate (who are hereby thereunto authorized and required) shall fine the said offender at for his or her said offence, which money shall be paid to the church wardens for the relief of the poor of the parish, where such offender did last inhabit.
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III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any such offender so convicted of a second offence contrary to this act in manner aforesaid shall at any time again commit the like offence contrary to this act, then any two justices of the peace and chief magistrate as aforesaid respectively shall commit every such offender to the gaol or house of correction, there to remain without bail or mainprise, until the next general quarter sessions, assizes, gaol-delivery, great sessions or sitting of any commission of oyer and terminer in the respective county, limit, division or liberty which shall first happen, when and where every such offender shall be proceeded against by indictment for such offence, and shall forthwith be arraigned upon such indictment, and shall then plead the general issue of not guilty and give any special matter in evidence, or confess the indictment, and if such offender proceeded against shall be lawfully convicted of such offence either by confession or verdict, or if such offender shall refuse to plead the general issue or to confess the indictment, then the respective justices of the peace at their general quarter sessions, judges of assize and gaol-delivery at the assizes and gaol delivery, justices of the great sessions at the great sessions and commissioners of oyer and terminer at their sitting, are hereby enabled and required to cause judgment to be entered against such offender, that such offender shall be transported beyond the seas to any of His Majesty’s foreign plantations (Virginia and New England only excepted) there to remain seven years.
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Contents:
Chicago: "First Conventicle Act," Select Documents of English Constitutional History in Select Documents of English Constitutional History, ed. George Burton Adams (1851-1925) and Henry Morse Stephens (1857-1918) (New York: Macmillan Company, 1916), 432–433. Original Sources, accessed December 10, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8QU9IGJIFURYY64.
MLA: . "First Conventicle Act." Select Documents of English Constitutional History, in Select Documents of English Constitutional History, edited by George Burton Adams (1851-1925) and Henry Morse Stephens (1857-1918), New York, Macmillan Company, 1916, pp. 432–433. Original Sources. 10 Dec. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8QU9IGJIFURYY64.
Harvard: , 'First Conventicle Act' in Select Documents of English Constitutional History. cited in 1916, Select Documents of English Constitutional History, ed. , Macmillan Company, New York, pp.432–433. Original Sources, retrieved 10 December 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8QU9IGJIFURYY64.
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