Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/98

xciv the language by the ministers and curates throughout, where the  tongue was commonly spoken; that printed  and English copies of the Book of Common Prayer should be placed in the parish churches at the expense of the parish before May 1, 1664, so that "such as understand them may resort at all convenient times to read and peruse the same, and also such as do not understand the said language, may by conferring both tongues together, the sooner attain to the knowledge of the English tongue."

By this Act, which came into force on August 24, 1662 (and was not repealed until the reign of Queen Victoria) every minister, in order to be qualified to hold a living or to legally conduct any public religious service, was required, if not episcopally ordained before, to submit to be episcopally re-ordained; to declare his unfeigned assent and consent to everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer; to take the oath of canonical obedience; to engage not to endeavour to make any change or alteration of government either in Church or State; and to hold it unlawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms against the King. The general provisions of this Act were to apply to the Dominion of Wales, as well as to the Kingdom of England. In answer to this Act, over two thousand ministers in England, and one hundred and six ministers in, refused to subscribe to the required declarations, preferring ejectment from their livings, with imprisonment, poverty, and suffering. The Act of Uniformity of 1662 was followed by, and administered rigorously in conjunction with, the Conventicle Act of 1664 and the Five Mile Act of 1665. Legislation of this character had the effect which it generally produces. remained for more than a century in a precarious condition in matters of religion (and adopting the words of the preamble to the Act of Uniformity) to the "great decay and scandal of the reformed religion and to the hazard of many souls."