2. On Preaching in certified places (a). in certified ALL persons teaching, preaching, or officiating in Officiating any congregation or congregations, assembly or places, suassemblies, for religious worship of Protestants, persedes its whose place of worship is duly certified according necessity. to law, are now as fully exempted, without precedent qualification, from the penalties of any acts relating to religious worship, as those who take the oaths and make the declaration prescribed by or mentioned (b) in the Toleration Act, or any other act amending the said act. sition. Provided that any such person, not having taken Except on the oaths to government, and subscribed the declalegal requiration (c) against transubstantiation, when required by any one justice of the peace, by writing under (a) 52 Geo. 2, c. 155, s. 4, 11. These exemptions, like those under the 1 W. & M., s. 1, c. 18, which they supersede, are exclusively confined to Dissenting ministers, 2 Atk. 498. The latter act makes it a proviso that the doors of the meeting-house shall not be fastened. (b) By the Toleration Act, neither subscription to the declaration of assent to the enumerated articles, which may be presumed to be the declaration intended by the term prescribed, nor the declaration against transubstantiation, which is the one mentioned in that act, would severally suffice, to exonerate from the penalties therein mentioned: and the disjunctive or, in re ference to the act of 19 Geo. (d) 52 Geo.3, c. 155, s. 5. . Penalty on refusal. What distance to travel. his hand, or signed by him, in his presence, shall take, make, and subscribe the oaths to government, and the declarations against transubstantiation, and of Protestant belief: and no such person, who, on being required to take such oaths and make such declaration as aforesaid, refuses to attend the justice requiring the same, or to take, make, and subscribe such oath and declaration, as aforesaid, is permitted to teach or preach in any such congregation or assembly, until he takes the said oaths, and makes the declaration aforesaid, on pain of forfeiting, for each offence, a sum not exceeding 10%., nor less than 10s., at the discretion of the convicting justice (a). But no person is required to go farther than five miles from his home or place of residence at the time of such requisition, for the purpose of qualifying (b). Congrega. And teaching, preaching, or officiating in contions below gregations, or religious assemblies, consisting of a the prohibited num- less number of persons than is prohibited by the statute to meet without license, is placed on the footing of a function performed under the protection of a certificate (c). ber. Conse 3. Of subsisting Liabilities. THE performance of their duties, in some conquence of gregation or assembly, permitted and allowed by (a) 52 Geo. 3, c. 155, s. 5, the provisions as to recovering the penalty, &c. are mentioned in a preceding chapter, of permitting conventicles to 1 be held, and apply to all pe- the Toleration Acts (a), being the sole condition on preaching in uncertifiwhich Dissenting ministers are now indulged in the cated exercise of their religious functions; it follows, that places. the exercise of those functions in any other congregation or assembly, exposes them to the penalties of the statutes restrained by the Toleration Acts. Hence, teaching, preaching, or officiating in any place of worship, field, or place in the open air, or other place, not duly certified, subjects the offender, not only to the penalties incurred by the laity by being present at unlawful conventicles, but also, unquestionably, to the penalties of the statute of Elizabeth (6) mentioned in a preceding section; and on certificate from the ordinary to two justices of a county, or the chief magistrate of a city or town corporate, the offender is liable, under the statutes of Car. II., above quoted (c), to be imprisoned three months for neglecting to use the book of Common Prayer, for administering the Lord's supper without episcopal ordination, or for preaching and lecturing without episcopal license, assent to the thirty-nine articles, and open reading or assent to the Book of Common Prayer. without consent of And for teaching or preaching in a congregation Preaching or assembly consisting of more than the lawful number, in any place, without the consent of the occu- owner. pier thereof (d); or in any place with the locked, bolted, barred, or otherwise fastened, (a) Dissenting ministers are not permitted or allowed to preach in an episcopal church. (b) 1 Eliz. c. 2, s. 4. 7, 8. &c. (c) 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 4, door or with doors fas so tened. Preachers, as to prevent any person entering therein during the time of meeting (a), the offender incurs, on conviction, by the oath of one or more witnesses, a forfeiture for each offence of the first class, of a sum not exceeding 301., nor less than 40s.; and of the second class, of a sum not exceeding 201., nor less than 40s., at the discretion of two or more convicting justices. It must be observed, in this section, that Dissent&c., not ex- ing ministers are excluded from the provision which cused by ex exonerates Protestant Dissenters in general from the qualifica- penalties of acts relating to religious worship, on ex post facto qualification (6). post facto tion. CHAP. II. OF IMMUNITIES AND EXEMPTIONS. 52 Geo 3, not extend to them. SECT. I.-From Civil and Military Service and 1. Of Dissenting Ministers in trade; being Teachers of separate Congregations. THE 52 Geo. III., c. 155, being only an enlargec. 155, does ment of the Toleration Act, and repealing neither of the preceding remedial statutes, it is necessary for ministers engaged in trade, although teaching a separate congregation, since to them the first-mentioned (a) 52 Geo. 3, c. 155, s. 11. (b) 10 Anne, c. 2. statute, as it regards this subject, does not apply, to qualify under one or other of the following enactments, in order to avail themselves of the immunities and exemptions specified in this chapter. Every teacher (a) or preacher, in holy orders, or pre- Statutes untended holy orders, that is, a minister, preacher, der which they must or teacher of a congregation (b), who takes the oaths qualify. to government, and subscribes the declaration against transubstantiation, at the general or quarter sessions for the county, town, part or division where he lives (c), (which such court is empowered to administer, and enter of record, the clerk of the peace being entitled to a fee of sixpence for the same); and also subscribes the thirty-nine articles, except the thirtyfourth, thirty-fifth, and thirty-sixth, and these words of the twentieth article, viz. "the church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith and yet:" or in case he scruples the baptising of infants, except also, part of the twenty-seventh article touching infant baptism; is exempted from serving on juries (d), being chosen or (a) 1 W. & M., s. 1, c. 18, s. 11, extended to Unitarians by the 53 Geo. 3, c. 160. (b) It would seem, that to come within this section of the Toleration Act, the party must be attached to a separate congregation, R. v. Justices of Denbighshire, 14 East, 284 n. (a). (c) A preacher or teacher duly qualified, may officiate under this act, in any congregation duly certified in any county; but if required must produce the certificate of his (d) The late Jury Act has |