Penal law (British)
Laws against Catholics and other nonconformists / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For penal laws applied in Ireland and Wales, see Penal laws (Ireland) and Penal laws against the Welsh.
In English history, the penal laws were a series of laws that sought to uphold the establishment and State decreed religious monopoly of the Church of England against illegal and underground Catholics and Protestant nonconformists by imposing various forfeitures, civil penalties, and civil disabilities upon recusants from mandatory attendance at weekly Anglican Sunday services. The penal laws in general were repealed in the early 19th century during the process of Catholic Emancipation. Penal actions are civil in nature and were not English common law.
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