Five Mile Act - Definition and Overview

The Five Mile Act, 17 Charles II c. 2, (1665), was one of the English penal laws that sought to enforce conformity to the established Church of England. It forbade clergymen from living within five miles of a parish from which he had been banned, unless they swore an oath never to resist the king, or attempt to alter the government of Church or State.

For more information, see Conventicle Act.

(The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter. This is the method used for Acts of Parliament from before 1962.)

source

• Ronald Hutton, Charles II (1989, Oxford) 228-229.

See also

• Religion in the United Kingdom