The Profane Oaths Act 1745 (19 Geo. II, c.21) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1746, in effect from 1 June 1746, and formally repealed in 1967. It established a system of fines payable for "profane cursing and swearing".
The preamble described the ubiquity of the "horrid, impious, and execrable vices of profane cursing and swearing" in the country, noting that this "may justly provoke the divine vengeance to increase the many calamities these nations now labour under", and that the existing laws designed to prevent this were ineffective. It is worth noting, however, that many of the provisions in this Act were essentially the same as those in the 1694 Act which it replaced.
Read more about Profane Oaths Act 1745: Overview, Fines, Repeal of Earlier Acts, Repeal of 1745 Act
Famous quotes containing the words profane, oaths and/or act:
“Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vows, and in devotion.
As humorous is my contrition
As my profane Love, and as soon forgot:
As ridlingly distempered, cold and hot,”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“However great a man’s fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear- headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival.”
—Graham Greene (1904–1991)