Background
The measures put in force shortly after Elizabeth's accession became much harsher after the Rising of the North (1569) and the Babington Plot in particular, the utmost severity of the law was enforced against seminary priests. An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the Catholic Church from celebrating the rites of his faith on pain of forfeiture for the first offence, a year's imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment for life for the third. All those who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy were called "Recusants" and were guilty of high treason. A law was also enacted which provided that if any "Papist" should be found converting an Anglican or Protestant to Catholicism, both would suffer death for high treason. In December 1591, a priest was hanged before the door of a house in Gray's Inn Fields for having said Mass there the month previously. Laws against seminary priests and Recusants were enforced with great severity after the Gunpowder Plot episode during James I's reign.
Read more about this topic: Priest Hole
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