Test Act (redirected from The Test Act)

Test Act, 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion according to the rites of the Church of England, or who refused to renounce belief in the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Although directed primarily against Roman Catholics, it also excluded Protestant nonconformists. In 1678 it was extended to members of Parliament. The law was modified by the Act of Toleration of 1689, which enabled most non-Catholics to qualify. However, some Protestants did not conform and were disqualified from office until the repeal of the act at the time of Catholic Emancipation. See Penal Laws.

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Test Act

(1673) Act passed by the British Parliament that required holders of civil and military offices to profess the established religion and to receive Holy Communion according to the rites of the Church of England. Though directed primarily against Roman Catholics, it extended in principle to all non-Anglicans; it was modified in 1689 to enable most non-Catholics to qualify. An act adopted in 1828 removed the test. In the U.S. Constitution, Article VI prescribes that “no religious test” shall be required for any officeholder. See also Catholic Emancipation.

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Test Act 

a law enacted by Parliament in England in 1673. It required that all those holding or wishing to hold public office take an oath according to the rites of the English church and renounce Catholic dogma. The Test Act annulled the Declaration of Indulgence issued by Charles II in 1672. The declaration had been considered by the opposition bourgeois nobility to be a step toward the restoration of Catholicism, which was the instrument of the feudal absolutist reaction in the country. The Test Act was annulled by the Declarations of Indulgence issued by James II in 1687 and 1688, but its provisions were partially restored after the revolution of 1688–89 by the Act of Toleration of 1689.