"[2]
In the spirit of these votes, the civil commissioners ordered by
proclamation[a] all Catholic clergymen to quit Ireland within twenty days,
under the penalties of high treason, and forbade all other persons to
harbour any such clergymen under the pain of death. Additional provisions
tending to the same object followed in succession. Whoever knew of the
concealment
[Footnote 1: Bruodin, 693. Hibernia Dominicana, 706.]
[Footnote 2: Journals, 1652, June 1.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Jan. 6.]
of a priest, and did not reveal it to the proper authorities, was made
liable to the punishment of a public whipping and the amputation of his
ears; to be absent on a Sunday from the service at the parish church,
subjected the offender to a fine of thirty pence; and the magistrates were
authorized to take away the children of Catholics and send them to England
for education, and to tender the oath of abjuration to all persons of
the age of one and twenty years, the refusal of which subjected them to
imprisonment during pleasure, and to the forfeiture of two-thirds of their
estates real and personal.[1]
During this period the Catholic clergy were exposed to a persecution far
more severe than had ever been previously experienced in the island.
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