56 



W)t Accusants of ffitxtytfyixt, 



Being an Abstract of the Rolls for that County. 



By Pym Yeatman. 



HE history of the " Recusants" of any county is full of 

 interest. The progress of the Reformed Church was 

 for many years slow and insecure, and the old Romish 

 faith was stamped out by painful degrees Through severe punish- 

 ments and continued oppressions and exactions, it progressed 

 towards its full establishment. Of these measures we learn 

 something from the Statute-book, but more of their results from 

 the documents which have long remained hidden in the Record 

 Office called "Recusant Rolls." They are imperfect, and the 

 first of the series is dated 35 Elizabeth, the record of these fines 

 and forfeitures prior to this period being either lost or buried 

 away somewhere in other rolls at present undiscovered. It is to 

 be hoped that eventually the whole truth may be unearthed. 



The fierce Acts of Henry VIII. in relation to Roman Catholics 

 are well known, but it is not generally known that the greater 

 part of them are still extant upon the Statute Book, and may at 

 any moment be put in execution. One has only to turn to the 

 edition of existing Statutes, published under the direction of 

 Lord Cairns, to learn that by the first Act of Queen Elizabeth, 

 which is still in force, the repealing enactments of Queen Mary, 

 and " the Statutes, articles, and provisions made against the See 

 Apostolic of Rome since the 20th of King Henry the Eighth 

 were revived." 



