| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for banishing all Papists exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and all Regulars of the Popish Clergy out of this Kingdom. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 9 Will. 3. c. 1 (I) |
| Introduced by | Murrough Boyle, 1st Viscount Blesington |
| Territorial extent | Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 25 September 1697 |
| Commencement | 25 September 1697 |
| Repealed | 13 August 1878 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1878 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
TheBanishment Act 1697 orBishops' Banishment Act 1697 (9 Will. 3. c. 1 (I)) was a 1697act of theParliament of Ireland which banished allordinaries andregular clergy of theRoman Catholic Church from Ireland. By 1 May 1698 all "popisharchbishops,bishops,vicars general,deans,Jesuits,monks,friars, and other regular popish clergy" had to be in one of several named ports awaiting a ship out of the country. Remaining or entering the country after this date would be punished as a first offence with 12 months' imprisonment followed by expulsion. A second offence constitutedhigh treason.
The act was one of thePenal Laws passed after theWilliamite War to safeguard theChurch of Ireland as theestablished church and from fears of Catholic clerical support forJacobitism. It was foreshadowed byproclamations issued by theDublin Castle administration in 1673 and 1678 with similar terms.[1] The banishment was originally and most effectively applied to regular clergy, many of whom registered (under theRegistration Act 1704) asparish priests to be treated assecular clergy and avoid deportation. The ban on bishops may have been intended to preventordination of new priests, which, coupled with a ban on clerical immigration, would lead to their eventual extinction.[2] Of the eight Catholic bishops in Ireland when the act was passed, two left, one (John Sleyne) was arrested, and five went into hiding. The port authorities paid for the passage of 424 clerics who emigrated;Mary of Modena estimated that about 700 in total left, of whom 400 settled in France.Priest hunters were active in subsequent decades. Maurice Donnellan,Bishop of Clonfert, was arrested in 1703 but rescued by an armed crowd.
The act was gradually less stringently enforced as the eighteenth century progressed.[3] TheRoman Catholic Relief Act 1782 provided that its provisions could not apply to a priest who had registered and taken theoath of supremacy. The act was explicitly repealed by theStatute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1878.[4]
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