which became known as the "Oath of Abjuration":

In 1656-7, it was reissued in what was for Catholics an even more objectionable form. Everyone was to be "adjudged a Papist" who refused this oath, and the consequent penalties began with the confiscation of two-thirds of the recusant's goods, and went on to deprive him of almost every civic right.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia makes the point that the oath and the penalties were so severe that it stopped

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