Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/228

198 6. They were forbidden to act as executors or trustees;

7. Married Roman Catholics, unless they had been united by a Protestant clergyman, held no legal right to property accruing to either party by marriage;

8. Every Roman Catholic, educated on the Continent, became ipso facto an outlaw;

9. The houses of Roman Catholics might be broken open and searched, on the order of a single magistrate, at any time, and under any pretext, however shallow;

10. Every Protestant, entertaining a Roman Catholic visitor, or employing a Roman Catholic servant, was liable to a heavy fine;

11. Any Roman Catholic refusing to deny his or her belief in the Deposing Power of the Holy See became liable to perpetual imprisonment.

Soon after the death of Garnet, James offered some considerable relief to those Roman Catholics who refused to acknowledge the Deposing Power of the Roman Pontiffs, and many agreed to accept the proposal made to them. But the authorities at Rome, backed up by the Society of Jesus—the everlasting curse of English Roman Catholicism—were determined to prevent the King's offer of relief being accepted by Romanists willing to take