The present volume is the fourth to be published by the Catholic Record Society devoted to the business of the Exchequer in dealing with the offence of recusancy. Some fifty years ago, the Society published the Latin text of the first Recusant Roll of the Exchequerl, and, in recent years, it has published an abstract in English of the second, third and fourth Recusant Rolls2. Dom Hugh Bowler, in a pioneer article in Recusant History3, which he later enlarged in his definitive introduction to the second Recusant Ro1l4, pointed out that the earliest records of prosecutions for failure to attend the new Anglican church services, under the Act of 23 Eliz., c.l, were entered in the annual Great Pipe Rolls of the Exchequer. These began to appear during the period 161an.-18 March 158011, and continued to be recorded on the Pipe
Rolls until the opening 'Of the Recusant Rolls at Michaelmas 1592.
