In times of excitement the severer laws might be put in force.

The public exercise of the Catholic religion was forbidden, and to be a Catholic was to be predisposed to the various Jacobite intrigues which still had many chances in their favour.

When the pretender was expected in 1744, a proclamation, to which Pope thought it decent to pay obedience, forbade the appearance of Catholics within ten miles of London; and in 1730 we find him making interest on behalf of a nephew, who had been prevented from becoming an attorney because the judges were rigidly enforcing the oaths of supremacy and allegiance.
Catholics had to pay double taxes and were prohibited from acquiring real property.

The elder Pope, according to a certainly inaccurate story, had a conscientious objection to investing his money in the funds of a Protestant government, and, therefore, having converted his capital into coin, put it in a strong-box, and took it out as he wanted it.

The old merchant was not quite so helpless, for we know that he had investments in the French _rentes_, besides other sources of income; but the story probably reflects the fact that his religious disqualifications hampered even his financial position.
Pope's character was affected in many ways by the fact of his belonging to a sect thus harassed and restrained.