The register’s most striking implication is that religious control relied not only on prohibition, but on creating official categories that reshaped everyday pastoral geography. Registered Catholic priests could continue limited ministry, yet their fixed locations and exposure to scrutiny made succession increasingly fragile. This administrative approach contrasts with the simultaneous encouragement of Protestant immigrants, revealing selective population management rather than exclusion. The article notes uneven enforcement, however, leaving room to consider magistrates, clergy and lay communities. How far did variations in enforcement enable Catholic parish networks to preserve continuity despite restrictions on movement, replacement and worship in different local settings?