TheTest Actswere a series ofpenal lawsoriginating inRestoration England,passed by theParliament of England,that served as a religious test for public office and imposed variouscivil disabilitiesonCatholicsandnonconformist Protestants.
The underlying principle was that only people takingcommunionin the establishedChurch of Englandwere eligible for public employment, and the severe penalties pronounced againstrecusants,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 ofActs of Indemnity:in particular, theIndemnity Act 1727relievedNonconformistsfrom the requirements in theTest Act 1673and theCorporation Act 1661that public office holders must have taken thesacrament of the Lord's Supperin anAnglicanchurch.[2]
An exception was atOxbridge,where nonconformists and Catholics could not matriculate (Oxford) or graduate (Cambridge) until 1871.
Similar laws were introduced inScotlandwith respect to thePresbyterianChurch of Scotlandand also inIreland,where the minority AnglicanChurch of Irelandhadpenal lawsset up in its favour to allow theAnglo-Irishminority to maintain control of land, law and politics as part of theProtestant Ascendancy.
Corporation Act 1661
editTheNaturalisation and Restoration of Blood Act 1609{Repealed byNaturalization Act 1870} (7 Jas. 1.c. 2) provided that all such as were naturalized or restored in blood should receive the sacrament of theLord's Supper.
It was not, however, until the reign ofCharles IIthat actually receivingcommunionin theChurch of Englandwas made a precondition for holdingpublic office.The earliest imposition of this test was by theCorporation Act 1661requiring that, besides taking theOath 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
edit| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 25 Cha. 2.c. 2 |
| Territorial extent |  England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 29 March 1673 |
| Commencement | 4 February 1673 |
| Repealed | 28 July 1863 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by |
|
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1863 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Corporation Act 1661 was followed by the Test Act 1673[3](25 Cha. 2.c. 2) (thelong titleof 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 againsttransubstantiationand 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 thebread and wine,at or after theconsecrationthereof 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 theJulian calendarthen 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 theCabal ministry— members of the Court Party of powerful statement underCharles II,who had divergent religious interests — the CatholicLord Cliffordcould not accept this oath which ran contrary to his beliefs, so resigned his position in government and the Cabal ministry completely unravelled by 1674. Foreign nations and their agents also had a vested interest in lobbying either way on the issue, as the leaders of the Cabal ministry (Arlington and Clifford) were allied with Catholic France against the Protestant Dutch in theThird Anglo-Dutch War;after the fall of the Cabal ministry, the pro-DutchFirst Danby ministrycame to power. In addition to this, 1673 was also the year that it became public knowledge thatJames, Duke of York,heir to the throne, had converted to Catholicism.
Test Act 1678
edit| Parliament Act 1678 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for the more effectuall preserving the Kings Person and Government by disableing Papists from sitting in either House of Parlyament. |
| Citation | 30 Cha. 2. St. 2. |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 30 November 1678 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | Popish Recusants Act 1672 |
| Repealed by | Parliamentary Oaths Act 1866 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Initially, the act did not extend topeers,but in 1678 the act was extended by a further act (30 Cha. 2. St. 2)[6]which required that all peers and members of theHouse of Commonsshould make a declaration against transubstantiation, invocation of saints, and the sacrificial nature of theMass.[1]The effect of this was to excludeCatholicsfrom both houses, and in particular the "Five Popish Lords"from theHouse of Lords,a change motivated largely by the allegedPopish 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 futureJames II,effective head of the Catholic nobility, at whom it was largely aimed.[7]
Scotland
editIn Scotland, a religious test was imposed immediately after theReformation,and by a 1567 law no one was to be appointed to a public office or to be anotarywho did not professCalvinism.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 theParliament of Scotland.In 1707, anyone bearing office in any university, college or school in Scotland was to profess and subscribe to theConfession 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 theEucharistwas 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]
Repeals
edit| Test Abolition Act 1867 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to abolish a certain Declaration, commonly called the Declaration against Transubstantiation, the Invocation of the Saints, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as practised in the Church of Rome; and to render it unnecessary to take, make, or subscribe the same as a Qualification for the Exercise or Enjoyment of any Civil Office, Franchise, or Right. |
| Citation | 30 & 31 Vict.c. 62 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 25 July 1867 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1989 |
Status: Repealed | |
The necessity of receiving the sacrament as a qualification for office was repealed in Ireland in 1780[10][11]and in1828 in England and Wales.Provisions requiring the taking of oaths and declarations againsttransubstantiationwere repealed by theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829.[1]SirRobert Peeltook the lead for the government in the repeal and collaborated with Anglican Church leaders.[12]The application of the 1828 and 1829 acts to Irish acts was uncertain and so the Test Abolition Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict.c. 62) repeated the 1829 repeal more explicitly.[13]
The 1661, 1672 and 1678 acts were repealed by thePromissory Oaths Act 1871,Statute Law Revision Act 1863,and theParliamentary Oaths Act 1866respectively.[1]Religious tests for officers of theancient universitieswere repealed by theUniversities Tests Act 1871for England, theUniversity of DublinTests Act 1873, and theUniversities (Scotland) Act 1889.[1]
References
edit- ^abcdefghOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Test Acts".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 665–666.
- ^E. Neville Williams,The Eighteenth-Century Constitution, 1688–1815: Documents and Commentary(Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 341–343.
- ^University of London & History of Parliament Trust
- ^'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.
- ^Plunknett, Theodore,Studies in English Legal HistoryHambledon Press 1983 p. 323
- ^'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.
- ^Kenyon, J. P.The Popish Plot2nd Edition Phoenix Press 2000 pp. 104–5
- ^Universities (Scotland) Act 185316 & 17 Vict. c. 89, ss. 2, 4, 5
- ^Universities (Scotland) Act 1889,52 & 53 Vict. c. 55, s. 17.
- ^19 & 20 George III c.6 [Ir.]
- ^Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X., eds. (1967).The Course of Irish History.Cork: Mercier Press. p. 373.
- ^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.
- ^30 & 31 Vict. c. 62
Further reading
edit- Ditchfield, Grayson M. (1974). "The Parliamentary Struggle over the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 1787–1790".The English Historical Review.89(352).Oxford University Press:551–577.doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXXIX.CCCLII.551.eISSN1477-4534.ISSN0013-8266.JSTOR567426.
- Loades, D.M. (2003).Reader's Guide to British History.Vol. 2: M-Z. Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 1262–1263.ISBN9781579584276.
- Machin, G. I. T. (1979). "Resistance to Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 1828".The Historical Journal.22(1).Cambridge University Press:115–139.doi:10.1017/S0018246X00016708.eISSN1469-5103.ISSN0018-246X.JSTOR2639014.S2CID154680968.
External links
edit- 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.