Test Acts 1673 & 1678: Difference between revisions

The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists. The principle was that none but persons professing the Established Church were eligible for public employment, and the severe penalties pronounced against recusants, whether Roman Catholic or Nonconformist, were affirmations of this principle. In practice nonconformists were often exempted from some of these laws through the regular passage of Acts of Indemnity.

The Act of James I provided that all such as were naturalized or restored in blood should receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It was not, however, until the reign of Charles II that actually receiving of the communion of the Church of England was made a precondition for holding public office. The earliest imposition of this test was by the Corporation Act of 1661 requiring that, besides taking the Oath of Supremacy, all members of corporations were within one year after election to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of England.

This act was followed by the Test Act of 1673^[1] (25 Car. II. c. 2) (the long title of which is "An act for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants"^[2] ). This act enforced upon all persons filling any office, civil or military, the obligation of taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance and subscribing to a declaration against transubstantiation and also of receiving the sacrament within three months after admittance to office. The oath for the Test Act of 1673 was:

"I, N, do declare that I do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of the bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever."

The act did not extend to peers; but in 1678 the act was extended by a further act (30 Car. II. st. 2^[3] ) which required that all peers and members of the House of Commons should make a declaration against transubstantiation, invocation of saints, and the sacrifice of the mass.^[4] The effect of this was to exclude Roman Catholics from both houses, and in particular the "five Popish Lords" from the House of Lords, a change motivated largely by the alleged Popish Plot.

The necessity of receiving the sacrament as a qualification for office was repealed in 1828 under George IV and all acts requiring the taking of oaths and declarations against transubstantiation etc. were repealed by the Catholic Relief Act 1829.

After the American Revolution, the new United States (which adopted much of the body of British law) sought to prevent certain practices of the old government. The U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits religious tests: "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."^[5]

• Committees for the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts: the minutes of two committees for the repeal of the Act. First published by the London Record Society, available as part of British History Online.

• Legal history of England
• Acts of the Parliament of England concerning religion
• 1661 in law
• 1672 in law
• 1678 in law
• 17th century in England
• 17th-century laws in Christianity