Whoever was suspected of being a Jesuit might be interrogated, and, if he refused to answer, might be sent to prison for life.

[103] These laws, though they had not, except when there was supposed to be some peculiar danger, been strictly executed, and though they had never prevented Jesuits from resorting to England, had made disguise necessary.

But all disguise was now thrown off.

Injudicious members of the King's Church, encouraged by him, took a pride in defying statutes which were still of undoubted validity, and feelings which had a stronger hold of the national mind than at any former period.

Roman Catholic chapels rose all over the country.