RECUSANTS. – The name “r.” or nonconformists dates back to the time of Elizabeth, when the Anglican Church was established. At first, this name served to designate Catholics who had remained faithful to the country’s ancient religion, but it was later also applied to left-wing dissenters, likewise called puritans (v.), who still found too many Catholic elements in Anglicanism. During the seventeenth century, the term r. was applied equally to the new sects that rejected the worship of the established Church.
The term r. would have had little significance had it not influenced legislation. Elizabeth had persecuted Catholics and puritans, more or less arbitrarily, with the support of the existing laws. But in 1593, in order to secure greater resources for the treasury, she convened Parliament. Elizabeth dealt with the matter with incredible hauteur and severity. Parliament accepted everything and, among the other fiscal measures, voted against the r. the law Act to retain her majesty's subjects in their due obedience: a law to keep the subjects of the sovereign in their obligatory obedience (1593). It affected puritans and Catholics through: 1) a fine of £20, for each lunar month, imposed on anyone who refused to attend the official religious service; 2) civil incapacity for any employment or office; 3) prohibition against keeping weapons in the home; 4) incapacity to testify and to bring legal actions before the courts; 5) incapacity to act as guardian or executor of a will; 6) incapacity to practise as a lawyer or physician and to serve in the military. In certain cases, the r. could be expressly subjected to excommunication, whereby he was forbidden to travel more than 5 miles from his domicile without having obtained the proper permission, under penalty of being deprived of all his property. The law likewise contemplated the case in which the r., expressly found guilty of nonconformism, could be obliged either to renounce, within three months, the pope’s supremacy over the Church or, if four judges so decided, to leave the Kingdom. Once exiled from England, the r. could no longer return without permission, and in the event of a violation he became guilty of a capital offense.
The Act theoretically remained in force until the accession of George III (1760). In practice, its application varied continually; generally, certain fiscal agreements were made secretly between the government and the r., with the result that “recusancy” became a genuine source of revenue for the State.