Why The Penal Laws Failed

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24, 1691 when William and Mary made an Anti Catholic declaration
for the oath of supremacy. The oath banned all Catholics from becoming
members of the parliament or any other position of power. Catholics could
not practice law, run for office, purchase land or own land, vote, enter
any profession, hold arms, guard a child or educated his/her child. The
purpose of setting up such laws was to lessen the overall power of the
catholic people in society. The Irish parliament believed that if there
were no Catholics in a position of power then people would no longer accept
the religion of Catholicism. However this was not so. This law did not work
as originally planned, and the catholic religion still flourished. This
upset the Protestants in parliament to great degrees, they quickly tr ies
to create and implement more penal laws that they hoped would be more
effective, long lasting and impressionable then the first laws set in place.
However these laws were thought up and developed ...

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clergy to leave Ireland by May 1 1698. The law failed
since many of the Catholic leaders refused to leave Ireland. Instead many
of these people would live with families as they traveled from town to town
giving mass and hearing confessions secretly. The Catholic educational
system was outlawed as well, Catholics rebelled by engaging in
"underground" education where Catholics were educated by priest under
extreme secrecy. This law backfired on the Protestants and brought the
Catholic community of Ireland closer together. The Catholic town's people
who helped the fugitives evade the law felt extremely close to the church
after they helped the priest and their alliances from ...

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