PENAL
616
PENAL
prisonnient and death. The schoohnastor taught
under a sheltering liedge, anil the priest said Mass by
stealth, watched over Dv the people, and in spite of
priest-hunter and penal laws. Nor were the Catholics
won over by such Protestant ministers as they saw,
men without zeal and often without faith, not unlike
those described by Spenser in EHzabeth's day — "of
fleshy incontineney, greedy avarice and disordered
lives". In other respects the Penal Laws succeeded.
They made the Catholics helpless, ignorant, and poor,
without the strength to rebel, the hope of redress,
or even the courage to complain.
At last the tide turned. Too poor to excite the cupidity of their oiJjjressors, too feeble to rebel, the Catholics had nevertheless shown that they would not become Protestants; and the repression of a feeble people, merely for the sake of repression, had tar- nished the name of England, and alienated her friends among the Catholic nations. In these circumstances the Irish Parliament began to retrace its steps, and concessions were made, slowly and grudgingly. At first the Penal Laws ceased to be rigorously enforced, and then, in 1771, Catholics were allowed to take leases of unreclaimed bog for sixty-one years. Three years later they were allowed to substitute an Oath of Allegiance for the Oath of Supremacy; and in 1778 Gardiner's .-Vet allowed them to take leases of land for 999 years, and also allowed Catholic landlords to leave their estates to one son, instead of having, as hitherto, to divide between all. In 1782 a further Act enabled Catholics to set up schools, with the leave of the Protestant bishop of the place, enabling them also to own horses in the same way as Protestants, and further permitting bishops and priests to reside in Ireland. Catholics were also allowed to act as guardians to children. Grattan favoured complete equality between Catholics and Protestants, but the bigots in Parliament were too strong, and among them were the so-called patriot leaders, Charlemont and Flood. Not till 1792 was there a further Act allowing Catholics to marry Protestants, to practise at the bar, and to set up Catholic schools without obtaining a licence from the Protestant bishop. These conces- sions were scorned by the Catholic Committee, long charged with the care of Catholic interests, and which had lately passed from the feeble leadership of Lord Kenmare to the more capable leadership of John Keogh. The new French Republic had also become a menace to England, and English ministers dreaded having Ireland discontented. For these reasons the Catholic Rehef Bill of 1793 became lavy. This gave Catholics the parliamentary and municipal franchise, enabled them to become jurors, magistrates, sheriffs, and officers in the army and navy. They might carry arms under certain conditions, and they were ad- mitted to the degrees of Trinity College, though not to its emoluments or higher honours. Two years later the advent of Lord Fitzwilliam as viceroy was re- garded as the herald of complete religious equality. But Pitt suddenly changed his mind, and, having resolved on a legislative union, it suited his purpose better to stop further concession. Then came the recall of Fitzwilliam, the rapid rise of the United Irish Society with revolutionary objects, the rebellion of 1798, and the Union of 1800.
From the Imperial Parliament the Catholics ex- pected immediate emancipation, remembering the promises of British and Irish ministers, but Pitt shamefully broke his word, and emancipation was de- layed till 1829. Nor would it have come even then but for the matchless leadership of O'Connell, and because the only alternative to concession was civil war. Themannerof concession was grudging. Catho- lics were admitted to Parliament, but the forty-shilling free-holders were disfranchised, Jesuits banished, other religious orders made incapable of receiving charitable bequests, bishops penalized for assum-
ing ecclesiastical titles, and priests for appearing out-
side their churches in their vestments. Catholics
were debarred from being either viceroy or lord
chancellor of Ireland. The law regarding Jesuits has
not been enforced, but the viceroy must still be a
Protestant. Nor w-as it till the last half-century that
a Catholic could be lord chancellor, Lord O'llagan,
who died in 1880, being the first CathoHc to fill that
office since the Revolution of 1688.
O'DoNOVAN (ed.). Annals of the Four Masters (Dublin, 1S60); D'.\lton. History of Ireland (London, 1910); Gilbert, Viecroya of Ireland (Dublin, 1S65); Hardiman, Statute of Kilkenny (Dub- lin. 1843); Scully, Penal Laws (Dublin, 1812); Leckv, History of Ireland (London, 1897) ; Calendars of State Papers, 1509-1660; Journals of the Irish House of Commons: Irish Parliamentary De^ bates, 17S1-97: MoRAN, Persecutions of the Irish Catholics (Lon- don, 1900). — See also the authorities quoted in Act of Set- tlement; Ireland; O'Connell, Daniel; Plunkett, Oliver, Venerable; O'Neill, Hugh.
E. A. D'Alton.
Penal Laws in the English Colonies in Amer- ica. — Anglican Establishments. — The first Virginia Charter in KiOG established the Anglican Church. The second, in 1609, repeated the terms of the es- tablishment and prescribed the Oath of Supremacy. In support of the Establishment, the draconian laws of Governor Dale in 1611 were directed mainly against the moral laxity of the colonists and were soon ab- rogated. When lawmaking passed to the Colonial Assembly the Establishment was maintained, but penalizing laws were still directed towards the moral uplift of the church. Intolerance of dissent was latent and implicit. Lord Baltimore, refusing as a Catholic to acknowledge the ecclesiastical supremacy of the king, in 1628 was denied temporary residence in the colony. Following this incident a new Act of Uni- formity passed the Assembly, fining absentees from service. Another, in 1642, specifically disenfranchised Catholics and enforced the expulsion, within five days, of a priest coming to the colony. LTnder Governor Berkeley an Act, directed mainly against the Puritan influx, made mandatory the expulsion of Nonconform- ists; but Puritanism remained, affecting even the Anglican clergy, and gaining a first step toward dis- establishment in coercing the Assembly of 1642 to pass a law conferring upon vestries the right of choos- ing ministers. Under Cromwell this law was con- firmed. Toleration was further established, an ex- ception being made against Quakers who, in 1659, were banished and, upon return, were proceeded against as felons. Indeed, their consciences were not relieved from taking oaths and military service until the next century.
The Restoration ended this qualified liberty. In 1661 the old Law of 1642 was revived. The liturgy of the Anglican Church and the catechisms of the canons were prescribed; only ministers ordained by English bishops were allowed in the colony, who alone were to perform marriage services. Children bom of marriages otherwise performed were declared illegit- imate. Grudgingly enough Virginia recognized the Toleration Act of 1689, and from that time to the Revo- lution dissenting sects gradually merged into an anti- British political party arrayed against a Tory Estab- lishment, though the prejudice against Catholics in no wise diminished, persisting almost to the Revolution in the curious Act of 1755, "for Disarming Papists", during the French and Indian Wars. Other colonies maintaining the Establishment were North and South Carolina. Penalizing laws were here almost exclu- sively directed toward enforcing the Establishment upon a growing class of wealthy landowners whose religious indifference to theTory Church soon arrogated to itself political rather than spiritual independence. Intolerance of Catholics was legally expressed.
Puritan Establishments. — Massachusetts's charter made no mention of religion, and the Puritans were free to construct their absolute theocracy. Episcopacy was repudiated and Congregationalism established. The
