58 THE RECUSANTS OF DERBYSHIRE. 



only the punishment of praemunire. These punishments are 

 repealed, but the offences are still existing as part of the law of 

 the land, and are punishable as misdemeanours or felonies. 

 Still the people clung to the old faith, and it was only when these 

 persecutions ceased that they lost their love for it. There was 

 inaugurated a system of indulgences, against which, when prac- 

 tised under very different circumstances by the Church of Rome, 

 Luther had inveighed so eloquently. This system the Queen 

 now extended to all who were convicted of " Recusancy," a 

 crime invented to describe the act of following the Romish faith. 

 By these indulgences her Majesty reaped a rich reward. But 

 so weak is poor human nature that the persons who had defied 

 the rack and the headsman, now that they were permitted to 

 follow the dictates of their consciences, for a pecuniary con- 

 sideration soon gave up the ancient faith. By the 23rd 

 Elizabeth, an Act which is now repealed, Catholics were allowed 

 to compound for their offences, of not going to church, etc., by 

 the payment of £2.0 a month, and subject to this might live in 

 peace ; this included all who had attained sixteen years. One- 

 third of the sum was enjoyed by the Queen herself, one-third was 

 given to the poor, who, since the suppression of monasteries, were 

 becoming troublesome, and one-third was given to the informer. 



The clergy were sometimes among the informers. In Lansdowne 

 MSS., No. 153, there is a letter of the Vicar of Blackburn, always 

 a Popishly inclined place, which is very instructive. He writes 

 under date 17th June, 161 1, giving the names of parents who had 

 had children born under five years " not baptised in the parish 

 church, etc., which," he adds, " I merely think were baptised by 

 Popish priests, who do swarm in these parts." In a chapelry 

 near there had not been twenty baptized within seven years at the 

 church, and he winds up his letter, " non sine summo animi do- 

 lore." In a postscript, in spite of this grief, he adds, " I still hope 

 to find out many more within these two months." One-third of 

 the fines had evidently debauched the charity of this worthy man. 

 In the same MSS. (1607) are recorded considerations "touching 

 his Majesty's (James I.) revenue, answerable by recusants. By 



