Pardons and pardons!
On a totally different subject, but very pertinent to this business of old laws being repealed or whatever.
1 I think no one nowadays pays a five-shilling fine for not attending an Anglican service on Sunday - come on George, you could clear Britain's debt by retroactively collecting all that money.
2 When I was a boy, brought up Catholic, it was a mortal sin to attend a service in any other church than a RC church - if you had a relatrive's wedding or funeral to attend, you had to get a special dispensation from the Bishop. If you died in an accident on the way home from attending an un-dispensated service, you would, of course, have died in a state of mortal sin and gone straight to Hell!
I did not actually remain a Catholic, and spent some years after my retirement from full-time work singing in a choir at Manchester Cathedral (CofE).
Lo and behold, some of the services we then sang at were concelebrations of the Eucharist with the Bishop of Manchester (CofE) and the Bishop of Salford (RC) presiding! (I must mention that the Bishop of Salford used to bring his own consecrated bread with him, since the Catholics still have some reservations about whether CofE clergy are able to work the Transubstantion.) But the congregation were invited to take Communion, and it did not seem to matter which officiate they went to!
Not only that but a year or so ago, there was Pope Benedict XVI with the Archbishop of Canterbury joining in a service in Westminster Abbey - a church long Catholic but changed hands during the Reformation.
Now, are all the poor Catholics suffering in Hell for having entered churches or taken part in services of other denominations to be released from Hell? What they did is no longer a sin, so should they be punished while Johnny-come-lately Catholics are free to attend services in other churches?
What about Catholics who might attend a teaching from the Dalai Lama? Is that still anathema?
Is Armageddon upon us?