|
|
All places of religious worship of protestants to be certified and registered.
|
2. And . . . from and after the passing of this Act no congregation or assembly for religious worship of protestants (at which there shall be present more than twenty persons besides the immediate family and servants of the person in whose house or upon whose premises such meeting, congregation, or assembly shall be had) shall be permitted or allowed, unless and until the place of such meeting, if the same shall not have been duly certified and registered under any former Act or Acts of Parliament relating to registering places of religious worship, shall have been or shall be certified to the bishop of the diocese, or to the archdeacon of the archdeaconry, or to the justices of the peace at the general or quarter sessions of the peace for the county, riding, division, city, town, or place in which such meeting shall be held; and all places of meeting which shall be so certified to the bishop’s or archdeacon’s court shall be returned by such court once in each year to the quarter sessions of the county, riding, division, city, town, or place; and all places of meeting which shall be so certified to the quarter sessions of the peace shall be also returned once in each year to the bishop or archdeacon; and all such places shall be registered in the said bishop’s or archdeacon’s court respectively, and recorded at the said general or quarter sessions, the registrar or clerk of the peace whereof respectively is hereby required to register and record the same; and the bishop or registrar or clerk of the peace to whom any such place of meeting shall be certified under this Act shall give a certificate thereof to such person or persons as shall request or demand the same, for which there shall be no greater fee nor reward taken than two shillings and sixpence; and every person who shall knowingly permit or suffer any such congregation or assembly as aforesaid to meet in any place occupied by him until the same shall have been so certified as aforesaid shall forfeit for every time any such congregation or assembly shall meet contrary to the provisions of this Act a sum not exceeding twenty pounds nor less than twenty shillings, at the discretion of the justices who shall convict for such offence.
|
