Test Act

Test Act

Test Act#1678 Act

Date in force: 1673 Status: Repealed

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 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 first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
    F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)

    Every constitution..., and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years [a generation]. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)