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The fourth Year of William and Mary

A.D. 1692

Chap. II.

An Act for Encouragement of Protestant Strangers to settle in this Kingdom of

Ireland.


Whereas in the Parliament held at Dublin the eighth day of May, in the thirteenth year of the reign of our late sovereign lord King Charles the second, and by divers prorogations held and continued to the seventeenth day of April in the fourteenth year of his said Majesty's reign, a certain act of Parliament was made and passed, [intituled, An Act for encouraging Protestant strangers, and others, to inhabit and plant in the kingdom of Ireland] which said act, as to the naturalizing the strangers thereby intended to be naturalized, had continuance only for the term of seven years from the end of the said Parliament: and forasmuch as the said act had been found to be of good advantage to this your Majesties kingdom; may it therefore please your Majesties, that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the king and Queen's most excellent Majesties, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and of the commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, That all and every part of the said act [for encouraging Protestant strangers, and others, to inhabit and plant in the kingdom of Ireland] which is now expired, shall be, and is hereby revived, and shall continue and be in full force and vertue to all intents and purposes whatsoever for and during the term of seven years, from the end of this present session of Parliament, and no longer.

II. Provided always, that no person or persons shall have the benefit thereof, until he shall, instead of the oaths of supremacy and allegiance which were by the said act to be taken, taken the oaths hereafter mentioned, viz.

I A.B. do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary.

So help me God.


I A.B. do swear, That I do from my heart abhor, detest and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and position that princes excommunicated or deprived by the pope, or any authority of the see of Rome, may be deposed and murthered by their subjects,


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or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, That no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm.

So help me God.


And shall also make and subscribe the declaration following, viz.


I A.B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify and declare, That I do believe, that, in the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at or after the consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever; and, that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of mass, as they are now used in the church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous. And I do solemnly in the presence of God, profess, testify and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever; and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without believing that I am, or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope or any other person or persons, or power whatsoever shall dispense with, or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.


Which said oaths and declaration shall be solemnly and publickly made and subscribed in the high court of Chancery, court of King's-bench, or in open court in the session time, before three or more justices of the peace in any county of this kingdom where such person or person shall reside, or before any judge, or justice of assize in his circuit, who are hereby impowered and authorized to administer the same, and thereupon to certify his or their doing thereof into the high court of Chancery, there to remain on record; and that the fee only of one shilling be taken upon administering the said oaths, and subscribing the said declaration; one shilling for certifying the same, and one shilling for recording the same in chancery.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all Protestant strangers and foreigners, who at any time hereafter shall come into this kingdom, and shall take the oaths, and subscribe the declaration herein above mentioned, shall have and enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and have liberty of

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meeting together publickly for the worship of God, and of hearing divine service, and performing other religious duties in their own several rites used in their countries; any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding.

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