Test Acts

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Test Acts were a series of

civil disabilities on Catholics and nonconformist Protestants
.

The underlying principle was that only people taking

recusants, whether Catholic or nonconformist, were affirmations of this principle.[1]

Although theoretically encompassing all who refuse to comply with Anglicanism in a dragnet approach, in practice the nonconformist Protestants had many defenders in Parliament and were often exempted from some of these laws through the regular passage of

Test Act 1673 and the Corporation Act 1661 that public office holders must have taken the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in an Anglican church.[2]

An exception was at Oxbridge, where nonconformists and Catholics could not matriculate (Oxford) or graduate (Cambridge) until 1871.

Similar laws were introduced in Scotland with respect to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and also in Ireland, where the minority Anglican Church of Ireland had penal laws set up in its favour to allow the Anglo-Irish minority to maintain control of land, law and politics as part of the Protestant Ascendancy.

Corporation Act 1661

Main article: Corporation Act 1661

The

7 Jas. 1. c. 2) 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

public office. The earliest imposition of this test was by the Corporation Act 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.[1]

Test Act 1673

Popish Recusants Act 1672
Act of Parliament
Commencement
4 February 1673
Repealed28 July 1863
Other legislation
Amended by
Repealed byStatute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Corporation Act 1661 was followed by the Test Act 1673

long title of which is "An act for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants").[4] This act enforced upon all persons filling any office, civil, military or religious, 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.[1]
The oath for the Test Act 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

consecration
thereof by any person whatsoever.

The act was passed in the parliamentary session that began on 4 February 1673 (Gregorian calendar). The act is, however, dated 1672 in some accounts due to the Julian calendar then in force in England.[5]

One of the immediate reasons that the "Country Party" (proto-Whigs) in Parliament pushed for this was to break up the

James, Duke of York
, heir to the throne, had converted to Catholicism.

Test Act 1678

Parliament Act 1678
Act of Parliament
30 Cha. 2. St. 2.
Dates
Royal assent30 November 1678
Other legislation
AmendsPopish Recusants Act 1672
Repealed byParliamentary Oaths Act 1866
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Initially, the Act did not extend to

Five Popish Lords" from the House of Lords, a change motivated largely by the alleged Popish Plot. The Lords deeply resented this interference with their membership; they delayed passage of the Act as long as possible, and managed to greatly weaken it by including an exemption for the future James II, effective head of the Catholic nobility, at whom it was largely aimed.[7]

Scotland

In Scotland, a religious test was imposed immediately after the

Calvinism. The Scottish Test Act was passed in 1681 but rescinded in 1690. Later attempts to exclude Scotland from the English Test Acts were rejected by the Parliament of Scotland. In 1707, anyone bearing office in any university, college or school in Scotland was to profess and subscribe to the Confession of Faith. All persons were to be free of any oath or test contrary to or inconsistent with the Protestant religion and Presbyterian Church government. The reception of the Eucharist was never a part of the test in Scotland as it was in England and Ireland. The necessity for subscription to the Confession of Faith by persons holding a university office was removed in an act of 1853. The act provided that in place of subscription every person appointed to a university office was to subscribe a declaration according to the form in the act, promising not to teach any opinions opposed to the divine authority of Scripture or to the Confession of Faith, and to do nothing to the prejudice of the Church of Scotland or its doctrines and privileges.[8] All tests were finally abolished by an act of 1889.[9][1]

A 1790 cartoon satirizing the efforts of Charles James Fox to get the acts repealed. Theologian Joseph Priestley preaches from atop a pile of his own works, in a pulpit inscribed "FANATICISM", to Fox seated in a box pew. Fox asks, "Pray, Doctor is there such a thing as a Devil?" Priestley responds "No", However the devil himself announces, "If you had eyes behind, you'd know better my dear Doctor".

Repeals

Test Abolition Act 1867
Act of Parliament
30 & 31 Vict. c. 62
Dates
Royal assent25 July 1867

The necessity of receiving the sacrament as a qualification for office was repealed in Ireland in 1780

30 & 31 Vict. c. 62) repeated the 1829 repeal more explicitly.[13]

The 1661, 1672 and 1678 acts were repealed by the

Universities (Scotland) Act 1889.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Test Acts". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 665–666.
  2. ^ E. Neville Williams, The Eighteenth-Century Constitution, 1688–1815: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 341–343.
  3. ^ University of London & History of Parliament Trust
  4. ^ 'Charles II, 1672: An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628–80 (1819), pp. 782–85. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47451. Date accessed: 6 March 2007.
  5. ^ Plunknett, Theodore, Studies in English Legal History Hambledon Press 1983 p. 323
  6. ^ 'Charles II, 1678: (Stat. 2.) An Act for the more effectuall preserving the Kings Person and Government by disableing Papists from sitting in either House of Parlyament.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628–80 (1819), pp. 894–96. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47482. Date accessed: 6 March 2007.
  7. ^ Kenyon, J.P. The Popish Plot 2nd Edition Phoenix Press 2000 pp. 104–5
  8. ^ Universities (Scotland) Act 1853 16 & 17 Vict. c. 89, ss. 2, 4, 5
  9. ^ Universities (Scotland) Act 1889, 52 & 53 Vict. c. 55, s. 17.
  10. ^ 19 & 20 George III c.6 [Ir.]
  11. ^ Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X., eds. (1967). The Course of Irish History. Cork: Mercier Press. p. 373.
  12. ^ Norman Gash, Mr Secretary Peel (1961) pp: 460–65; Richard A. Gaunt, "Peel's Other Repeal: The Test and Corporation Acts, 1828," Parliamentary History (2014) 33#1 pp 243–262.
  13. ^ 30 & 31 Vict. c. 62

Further reading

External links
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