He that would not take the oath should be executed, OHG

rōtī, G. röthe, redne , red; from the adj.] though unarmed; and the recusants were shot on the roads,. or as they stood in prayer. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., II. 411. 2. Specifically, in Eng . hist . , one who refused to attend divine worship in Anglican churches, or to acknowledge the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown. Heavy penalties were inflicted on such persons, but they pre ed far more lightly on the simple recusant or nonconformist than on the Roman Catholic recusant, the chief object being to secure national unity and loyalty to the crown, in opposition to papal excommunications, which declared British subjects absolved from their allegiance (as in 1570), and plots against the government. The name recusant , though legally applied to both Protestants and Roman Catholics, was in general given especially to the latter. As well those restrained as generally all the pa pists in this kingdom, not any of them did refuse to come to our church, and yield their formal obedience to the laws established. And thus they all continued, not any one refusing to come to our churches, during the first ten years of her Majesty's [Queen Elizabeth's] government. And in the beginning of the eleventh year of her reign, Cornwall is, Be ding field, and Silyarde were the first recu sants , they absolutely refusing to come to our churches. And until they in that sort began, the name of recusant was never heard of amongst us.