Five Mile Act

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Five Mile Act, 1665. 17 Car. II c. 2 was part of the ‘Clarendon code’, which aimed at restoring Anglican supremacy. Clergymen and schoolmasters were forbidden to live within 5 miles of any city or parliamentary borough unless they took an oath not to endeavour to alter the government in church and state. Such a loosely framed statute was almost impossible to implement and few prosecutions were undertaken.

J. A. Cannon

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