"Recusant convict" was a phrase frequently used in the English penal laws.
It literally referred to people who had been convicted of recusancy, i.e.,
of not conforming to the established church.  If a person didn't conform to
the established church but had not been convicted of non-conformity, they
were simply recusants.  Some of the penal laws applied only to "recusants
convict" and not to plain old recusants.

 

There's a discussion of the penal laws in England, Scotland, Ireland, and
the colonies in the Catholic Encyclopedia, available online for free at:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11611c.htm

It at least lays out most of the laws, although it is very dated and doesn't
reflect the scholarship of the past several decades showing how lax and
selective enforcement mitigated the harshness of the laws.

 

For an article on relief from the penal laws in England and Ireland, see:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13123a.htm

 

Bea Hardy

 

Beatriz B. Hardy, Director

Special Collections Research Center

Earl Gregg Swem Library

College of William and Mary

PO Box 8794

Williamsburg, VA 23187-8794

757-221-3054

 


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