Roman Catholic relief bills
The Roman Catholic relief bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late 18th and early 19th centuries before the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom to remove the restrictions and prohibitions imposed on British and Irish Catholics during the English Reformation. These restrictions had been introduced to enforce the separation of the English church from the Catholic Church which began in 1529 under Henry VIII.
Following the death of the Jacobite claimant to the British throne James Francis Edward Stuart on 1 January 1766, the pope recognised the legitimacy of the Hanoverian dynasty, which began a process of rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the United Kingdom. Over the next sixty-three years, various bills were introduced in Parliament to repeal restrictions against practise of the Catholic faith, but these bills encountered political opposition, especially during the Napoleonic Wars. With the exception of the Papists Act 1778 and the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791, these bills were defeated. Then, finally, most of the remaining restrictions against Catholics in the United Kingdom were repealed by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 .
Background
England
Under laws passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, any English subject receiving Holy Orders of the Church of Rome and coming to England was guilty of high treason, and any one who aided or sheltered him was guilty of a capital felony. It was likewise made treason to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and to procure others to be reconciled. Any official, civil and ecclesiastical, who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy denying the pope's spiritual jurisdiction could also be tried for treason. Parents were prohibited from educating their children in the Catholic faith.Saying Mass was punishable by a fine of 200 marks, while attending Mass was subject to a fine of 100 marks. The statutes of recusancy punished nonconformity with the Established Church by a fine of twenty pounds per lunar month during which the parish church was not attended, there being thirteen of such months in the year. Such non-attendances constituted recusancy in the proper sense of the term, and originally affected all, whether Catholic or otherwise, who did not conform.
In 1593 by the Popish Recusants Act 1592, the consequences of such non-conformity were limited to Popish recusants. A Papist, convicted of absenting himself from church, became a Popish recusant convict, and besides the monthly fine of £20, was prohibited from holding any office or employment, from keeping arms in his house, from maintaining actions or suits at law or in equity, from being an executor or a guardian, from presenting to an advowson, from practising the law or physic, and from holding office civil or military. He was likewise subject to the penalties attaching to excommunication, was not permitted to travel from his house without licence, under pain of forfeiting all his goods, and might not come to court under a penalty of £100. Other provisions extended similar penalties to married women. Popish recusants convict were, within three months of conviction, either to submit and renounce their papistry, or, if required by four justices, to abjure the realm. If they did not depart, or returned without licence, they were guilty of a capital felony.
The Oath of Allegiance, enacted under James I in 1606 in immediate aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, required Catholic recusants to declare their loyalty to James. By the Corporation Act 1661, no one could legally be elected to any municipal office unless he had within the year received the Sacrament according to the rite of the Church of England, and likewise, taken the Oath of Supremacy. The first provision excluded all non-conformists; the second Catholics only. The Test Act 1673 imposed on all officers, civil and military, a "Declaration against Transubstantiation", whereby Catholics were debarred from such employment. Five years later, the Test Act 1678 required all members of either House of Parliament, before taking their seats, to make a "Declaration against Popery", denouncing Transubstantiation, the Mass and the invocation of saints as idolatrous.
After the Glorious Revolution
With the Revolution of 1688 came a new crop of penal laws. These laws were more likely to be enforced. The sanguinary penalties of the sixteenth century had, in great measure, defeated their own end but were generally left on the statute book in terrorem. That is, the Elizabethan laws were so harsh that no one was willing to actually enforce them. In 1689, the Papists Act 1688 substituted a shorter form of the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, the clause aimed against Catholics being carefully retained. It was likewise ordered that all Papists and reputed Papists should be "amoved" from the cities of London and Westminster.The Popery Act 1698 effective 25 March 1700, offered a reward of one hundred pounds was to anyone who should give information leading to the conviction of a Popish priest or bishop, who was made punishable by imprisonment for life. Moreover, any Papist who within six months of attaining the age of eighteen failed to take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and subscribe to the Declaration against Popery, was disabled in respect to himself from acquiring or holding land, and until he submitted, his next of kin who was a Protestant might enjoy his lands, without being obliged to account for the profits. The recusant was also incapable of purchasing, and all trusts on his behalf were void.
With the Security of the Sovereign Act 1714 a new element was introduced, namely 'constructive recusancy'. The Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy might be tendered to any suspected person by any two justices of the peace, and persons refusing it were to be adjudged Popish recusants convict and to forfeit, and be proceeded against accordingly. Thus the refusal of the oath was placed on the same footing as a legal conviction, and the person so convicted was rendered liable to all penalties under those statutes. At the same time an obligation was imposed on Catholics requiring them to register their names and estates, and to enroll their deeds and wills.
Enforcement in the 18th century
These penal laws remained on the statute book unmitigated till late in the 18th century, and although there was less and less disposition to put them in force, there was ever the danger, which upon occasion grew more acute. In 1767 a priest named Malony was tried at Croydon for his priesthood, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, which, at the end of two or three years, was commuted "by the mercy of the Government" to banishment. In 1768 the Reverend James Webb was tried in the Court of King's Bench for saying Mass but was acquitted, the Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, ruling that there was no evidence sufficient to convict.In 1769 and on other occasions, seemingly as late as 1771, Dr. James Talbot, coadjutor to Bishop Challoner, was tried for his life at the Old Bailey, on the charge of his priesthood and of saying Mass, but was acquitted on similar grounds. Such instances were not solitary. In 1870, Charles Butler found that one firm of lawyers had defended more than twenty priests under prosecutions of this nature. In 1778 a Catholic committee was formed to promote the cause of relief for their co-religionists, and though several times elected afresh, continued to exist until 1791, with a short interval after the Gordon Riots. It was always uniformly aristocratic in composition, and until 1787 included no representation of the hierarchy and then but three co-opted members.
Papists Act 1778
In the same year, 1778, was passed the first 'Act for Catholic Relief', the Papists Act 1778. By this, an oath was imposed, which besides a declaration of loyalty to the reigning sovereign, contained an abjuration of the Pretender, and of certain doctrines attributed to Catholics, as that excommunicated princes may lawfully be murdered, that no faith should be kept with heretics, and that the pope has temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction in this realm. Those taking this oath were exempted from some of the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701. The section as to taking and prosecuting priests were repealed, as also the penalty of perpetual imprisonment for keeping a school. Catholics were also enabled to inherit and purchase land, nor was a Protestant heir any longer empowered to enter and enjoy the estate of his Catholic kinsman.The passing of this act was the occasion of the Gordon Riots in 1780, in which the violence of the mob was especially directed against Lord Mansfield who had balked various prosecutions under the statutes now repealed.
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
In 1791 there followed another the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791, far more extensive and far-reaching legislation. By it there was again an oath to be taken, in character much like that of 1778, but including an engagement to support the Protestant Succession under the Act of Settlement.Catholics were no longer to be summoned to take the Oath of Supremacy, or to be removed from London; the legislation of George I, requiring them to register their estates and wills, was repealed; while the legal professions were opened to them. It was however provided that all their assemblies for religious worship should be certified at Quarter Sessions.
The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 marked a step in the removal of Catholic grievances. William Pitt and his rival, Charles James Fox, were alike pledged to a full measure of Catholic Emancipation, but they were both thwarted by George III, who insisted that to agree to any such measure would be a violation of his coronation oath.