An Act for Preventing the Mischiefs and Dangers that May Arise by Certain Person Called Quakers, and Others, Refusing to Take Lawful Oaths

Great Britain; Charles II

London, Printed, by J. Bill and C. Barker, 1662

[The Quaker Act of 1662: Freedom of Conscious / Society of Friends, Religious Persecution] Unbound. 35 pages.  Royal Seal on front. 

The Quaker Act of 1662 "made it illegal for Quakers to worship together. Many members of the Religious Society of Friends reacted to these laws by holding meetings for worship in secret, but others continued to meet openly and faced the ongoing persecution. Quaker meetings organized to support their members who were imprisoned or fined for their beliefs and actions, and they often cared for the children of those who were in jail. The Quaker Act also made it illegal for people to refuse to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Church of England." - Global Nonviolence Action Database.  A significant act of Parliament attempting to eliminate the Quaker faith. This Act was the first of three Acts of Parliament aimed at the free practice of Quaker's faith.  The effects of these persecutions by the British state was the imprisonment and suffering of Quakers and the birth of the colony of Pennsylvania as refuge for freedom of conscience. 

Anno regni Caroli II., regis Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, decimo quarto. At the Parliament begun at Westminster, the eighth day of May, anno dom. 1661 ... and there continued untill Fryday the second of May 1662.