Test Act
Test Act#1678 Act
Date in force: 1673The 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 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.
Read more about Test Act: Corporation Act, 1673 Act, 1678 Act, Repeal
Famous quotes containing the words test and/or act:
“The test of a given phrase would be: Is it worthy to be immortal? To “make a beeline” for something. That’s worthy of being immortal and is immortal in English idiom. “I guess I’ll split” is not going to be immortal and is excludable, therefore excluded.”
—Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)
“To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)