Are you feeling the love here?

A friend linked this blog to a thread on a Catholic forum discussing Protestant Persecution of Catholics. So I went to read the thread and was pointed to this delightful website. I had vague knowledge of them previously but reading the text is a rather chilling experience. I even learned a new vocabulary word:

 *Praemunire: “that from the conviction, the defendant shall be out of the king’s protection, and his lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to the king, and that his body shall remain in prison at the king’s pleasure….. Such delinquent can bring no action for any private injury, how atrocious soever, being so far out of the protection of the law, that it will not guard his civil rights, nor remedy any grievance which he as an individual may suffer. And no man, knowing him to be guilty, can with safety give him comfort, aid, or relief.” Blackstone, vol. iv, p. 117-118.

Want to know what you had to do to incur such a penalty?

Sec. 1. Any person who shall seduce any protestant to forsake the same and to profess the popish religion, as also any protestant who shall be so seduced, shall incur the penalty of praemunire. And any person who for any reason, shall send any child under the age of 21 into France, or any place beyond the seas, except ships boys and merchants’ apprentices, without special licence of her Majesty or the chief governors of this kingdom and four or more privy councillors, they shall incur the penalties of 7 Will 3, ch 4

It was forbidden to send yourself or a child overseas for a Catholic education and the government was empowered to make parents produce children suspected of being sent overseas for Catholic education and if the child was not produced; then, the penalties for giving the child a Catholic education overseas were automatic. It was forbidden to give a child a Catholic education and Catholics were prohibited from holding positions as teachers except in private families. If any Catholic clergy were found in an area, the Catholic residents of the area were fined.

Catholics were required to work on Holy Days and could be fined if it was suspected they were not working in observance of some Popish holiday. Magistrates were required “to demolish all crosses, pictures, and inscriptions that are anywhere publickly set up and which are the occasion of popish superstitions.” Protestant women with assests who married Catholic men were stripped of their property. Protestant men who married Catholic women were to convert their wives within a year or be considered Catholic. And this is one of my favorites

Every marriage celebrated after the 1st day of May, 1746, between a papist and any person who has been a protestant within twelve months before such celebration of marriage, or between two protestants if celebrated by a popish priest, shall be absolutely null and void.

This one is fun too:

Any voter who was papist and has conformed to the Church of Ireland as by law established and shall tender his vote at any election for members to serve in parliament, may omit the words “I am not married to a papist” and substitute “I was educated in the popish religion, and have conformed to the Church of Ireland as by law established, and have not since my conformity married a popish wife”.

Again, I do understand the historical context of these laws. I’m just trying to stomp out the idea of Protestant Religious Tolerance in these areas that seems to pervade most discussions that I have about these issues. If you’re a Protestant who is not suffering under such ideas, I salute you.

Sometimes I think it’s easier to face outright martyrdom and death than face life as an impoverished second-class citizen. I am humbled by the dedication that Irish Catholics had in the face of such laws. May God bless their sacrifices and renew in all of us a spirit of that sort of martyrdom.