Five Mile Act - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition five-mile-act

Definition :

Five-mile Act, 35 Eliz. c. 2,whereby popish recusants, convicted for not going to church, were compelled to repair to their usual place of abode, and not to remove above five miles from thence, repealed (after long disuse) by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 102. Also, 17 Car. 2, c. 2, whereby clergy who refused to take the oath of non-resistance imposed by the Act on all who had not subscribed the Act of Uniformity, were forbidden to come within five miles of a corporate town, and non-conformists were forbidden to teach in any school under heavy penalties; repealed by 52 Geo. 3, c. 155, s. 1.

A 1665 Act prohibiting Puritan minister from teach-ing or coming within fix miles any town where they had held of the if they refused to pledges that they would not seek to overturn the church of England. Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.