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‘HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE’‘DIEV ET MON DROIT’

By the King. A PROCLAMATION For the Confinement of Popish Recusants within Five Miles of their respective Dwellings.

CHARLES R.

THe Kings most Excellent Majesty having been Informed of the Dangerous and Wicked Plots and Designs of Popish Recusants, against His Majesties Royal Person and Government, and tending to the Subversion of the True Protestant Religion Established by Law within this His Realm, Doth (with the Advice of His Privy Council) by this His Royal Proclamation, strictly Charge and Command all persons being above the Age of Sixteen years, born within any of His Majesties Realms or Dominions, or made Denizens, who being Popish Recusants, have been, or shall be thereof Law­fully Convicted, That they and every of them do (according to the Statutes in that behalf made) repair to their respective places of abode; and if they have no places of abode, then to the places where the Father or Mother of such respective persons is or shall be then dwelling, and do not at any time thereafter remove or pass above Five miles from thence, upon Pain that the Offenders shall lose and forfeit to the Kings Majesty, all their Goods and Chattels, and also all their Lands and Tenements, Rents, Annuities, and Hereditaments, during their respective natural lives. And because many Popish Recusants, who are notoriously known, or reputed to be such, have notwithstanding, by the connivance or negligence of those by whom they ought to have been Prosecuted, escaped Conviction, and yet may be (by their concourse and contrivances) as dangerous to His Majesty, His Government, and the True Protestant Religion, as those who are actually Convicted; His Majesty doth hereby further straitly Charge and Command all His Iudges, Iustices, Magistrates, Ministers and Officers, That if any Popish Recusant, or person reputed so to be, though not Convicted, being above the Age of Eighteen years, shall not repair to his or her place of abode, and there continue with­out removing or passing above Five miles from thence, That then such Popish Recusants, or persons reputed to be so respectively, shall be Prosecuted and brought to Punishment, as well by tendring unto them the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and taking advantage of their refusal thereof, as by putting in Execution the severest Laws which are now in force against them. And His Majesty doth hereby further signifie to all His Loving Subjects, That upon Certificate made to the Lord Chancellor of England, by any Iustice of the Peace, That there are any Popish Recusants, or persons reputed to be such, who do not give their Obedi­ence to this His Majesties Royal Proclamation, together with the Names of such Offenders, His Majesty hath Commanded the said Lord Chancellor to Issue forth respective Commissions under the Great Seal of England, to the Iustices of the Peace (of the several Counties, Cities and Liberties from which such Certificates shall come) to Require and Authorize them, or any Two of them respectively, to tender and administer the said Oaths to the said Offenders ac­cordingly. Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall be Construed to Command any Popish Recusant Convicted, or any other Popish Recusant, or person reputed to be such, to come within Ten miles of the Cities of London or Westminster, or to require any of the persons afore­said to repair to their places of abode, or other the places aforesaid, who are Restrained by Im­prisonment, or Disabled by such Sickness, as they shall not be able to Travel without immi­nent danger of life, during the respective times of such Imprisonment, or Disability; or to Confine any such persons within the said space of Five miles from the places aforesaid, who shall be (according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm) Allowed, or Licenced to Travel, or Remove from thence; So that their Travelling, Attending, and Returning by pretence of such Allowance or Licence, be no longer, or otherwise then by the said Statutes is Warranted.

God save the King.

LONDON, Printed by John Bill, Christopher Barker, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. 1678.

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