Nevertheless so as such person or persons having or enjoying any such office or offices of inheritance, do or shall substitute and appoint his or their sufficient deputy or deputies (which such officer or officers respectively are hereby impowered from time to time to make or change, any former law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding) to exercise the said office or offices, until such time as the person or persons having such office or offices shall voluntarily in the court of chancery, before the lord chancellor or lord keeper for the time being, or in the court of King's bench, take the said oaths, and receive the sacrament according to law, and subscribe the said declaration, and so as all and every the deputy and deputies so as aforesaid to be appointed, take the said oaths, receive the sacrament, and subscribe the said declaration from time to time, as they shall happen to be so appointed, in manner as by this act such officers whose deputies they be, are appointed to do; and so as such deputies be from time to time approved of by the King's majesty under his privy signet: But that all and every the peers of this realm shall have, hold and enjoy what is provided for as aforesaid, and all and every other person or persons before-mentioned, denoted or intended within this proviso, shall have, hold and enjoy what is provided for as aforesaid, notwithstanding any incapacity or disability mentioned in this act. par XII. Provided also, That the said peers and every of them may take the said oaths, and make the said subscription, and deliver the said certificates, before the peers sitting in liament, if the parliament be sitting within the time limited for doing thereof, and in the intervals of parliament in the high court of chancery, in which respective courts all the said proceedings are to be recorded in manner aforesaid. XIII. Provided always, That no married woman, or person under the age of eighteen years, or being beyond or upon the seas, or found by the lawful oaths of twelve men to be non compos mentis, and so being and remaining at the end of Trinity term in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred seventy-three, having any office, shall by virtue of this act lose or forfeit any such his or her office (other than such married woman during the life of her husband only) for any neglect or refusal of taking the oaths, and doing the other things required by this act to be done by persons having offices, so as such respective persons within four months after the death of the husband coming to the age of eighteen years, returning into this kingdom, and becoming of sound mind, shall respectively take the said oaths, and perform all other 1672. 25 Car. II. c. 2, sec. 13. Sec. 14. Any person forfeiting his office by virtue hereof may upon taking the oaths, &c. be capable of a new grant thereof. Sec. 15. tend to non commission navy if they subscribe the officers in the declaration. Sec. 16. the pensions granted to the Earl of Bristol and his Lady. things in manner as by this act is appointed for persons to do, who shall happen to have any office or offices to them given or fallen after the end of the said Trinity term. XIV. Provided also, that any person who by his or her neglect or refusal, according to this act, shall lose or forfeit any office, may be capable by a new grant of the said office or of any other, and to have and hold the same again, such person taking the said oaths, and doing all other things required by this act, so as such office be not granted to, and actually enjoyed by, some other person at the time of the regranting thereof. XV. Provided also, That nothing in this act contained shall extend to make any forfeiture, disability, or incapacity in, by, or upon any non-commission-officer or officers in his Majesty's navy, if such officer or officers shall only subscribe the declaration therein required, in manner as the same is directed. XVI. Provided also, That nothing in this act contained A saving for shall extend to prejudice George earl of Bristol, or Anne countess of Bristol his wife, in the pension or pensions granted to them by patent under the great seal of England, bearing date the sixteenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty and nine, being in lieu of a just debt due to the said earl from his Majesty, particularly expressed in the said patent. Sec. 17. to constables, churchwardens, &c. or private offi cers. Effect of Test XVII. Provided also, That this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to the office of any high constable, petty constable, tithingman, headborough, overseer of the poor, churchwardens, surveyor of the highways or any like inferior civil office, or to any office of forester, or keeper of any park, chace, warren, or game, or of bailiff of any manor or lands, or to any like private offices, or to any person or persons having only any the before mentioned, or any the like offices." The object of this Act was to exclude Catholics from all public employment. As the test imposed was what Catholics regarded as a fundamental part of their creed, no mental evasion was possible. It had its desired effect, it was followed by the resignation of the Lord Treasurer Clifford and the retirement of the Duke of York, the Lord High Admiral. But the mischief of the act did not apply to Catholics alone; it was like most of the persecuting laws of the time directed not only against the Catholics but also against other nonconformists, it effectually prevented any protestant dissenters from holding office under the Crown, reserving every place of profit or trust for those who conformed to the Church of England. But it was not only a test act, it placed Catholics under great civil disabilities and still further made the profession of the Catholic religion a crime. In the midst of so much intolerance it may be well to notice that the punishment of death by burning for heresy was taken away. The 29 Car. II. c. 9 abolished the writ de hæretico comburendo and all punishment of death in pursuance of any ecclesiastical censure. For the future a person can only be put to death after trial and sentence before the ordinary temporal courts of the land. Looking at the intolerance that then prevailed, it was fortunate that Parliament put it out of the power of zealots to send a person to the stake. 1672. 1676. 29 Car. II. c. 9. Burning for heresy abolished. 1678. In the year 1678 the celebrated Popish plot was said to have been discovered. In proportion as Oates proceeded to Popish plot. make more and more startling revelations, so the zeal of the House of Commons and the country against the Catholics increased: this zeal led to the passing of another act against them, 30 Car. II. Stat. 2, c. 1. It is entitled "An Act for the more effectual preserving the King's person and government, by disabling papists from sitting in either house of parliament. Forasmuch as divers good laws have been made for preventing the increase and danger of popery in this kingdom, which have not had the desired effects, by reason of the free access which popish recusants have had to his Majesty's court, and by reason of the liberty which of late some of the recusants have had and taken to sit and vote in parliament. 30 Car. II. Stat. 2, c. 1. II. Wherefore, and for the safety of his Majesty's royal Sec. 2. person and government, be it enacted by the King's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and of the commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the first day of December, which shall be in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred seventy and eight, no person that now is or hereafter shall be a peer of this realm, or member of the house of peers, shall vote, or make his proxy in the house of peers, or sit there during any debate in the said house of peers; nor any person that now is, or hereafter shall be a member of the house of commons, shall vote in the house of commons, or sit there during any debate in the said house of commons after their speaker is chosen; until such peer or member shall from time to time respectively, and in manner following, first take the 1678. 30 Car. II. Stat. 2. c. 1. Sec. 3. tion. several oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and make, subscribe and audibly repeat this declaration following. III. I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify and declare, That I do believe that in the The declara- sacrament of the Lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever : And that the invocation or adoration of the virgin Mary or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous. And I do solemnly in the presence of God profess, testify and declare, That I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by English protestants, without any evasion, equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the pope, or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration or any part thereof, although the pope, or any other person or persons, or power whatsoever, should dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it was null or void from the beginning. Sec. 4. The time and place of taking the said oaths and sub scribing the declaration. IV. Which said oaths and declarations shall be in this and every succeeding parliament solemnly and publickly made and subscribed betwixt the hours of nine in the morning and and making four in the afternoon, by every such peer and member of the house of peers at the table in the middle of the said house, before he take his place in the said house of peers, and whilst a full house of peers is there with their speaker in his place; and by every such member of the house of commons, at the table in the middle of the said house, and whilst a full house of commons is there duly sitting with their speaker in his chair; and that the same be done in either house in such like order or method as each house is called over by respectively. Sec. 5. V. And be it further enacted, That from and after the said first day of December every peer of this realm, and member of the house of peers, and every peer of the kingdom of Scotland, or of the kingdom of Ireland, being of the age of one and twenty years or upwards, not having taken the said oaths, and made and subscribed the said declaration; and every member of the said house of commons, not having as aforesaid taken the said oaths, and made and subscribed the said declaration; and every person now or hereafter convicted of popish recusancy, who hereafter shall at any time after the said first day of December come advisedly into or remain in the presence of the King's majesty or Queen's majesty, or shall come into the court or house where they or any of them reside, as well during the reign of his present Majesty (whose life God long preserve) as during the reigns of any his royal successors Kings or Queens of England; shall incur and suffer all the pains, penalties, forfeitures and disabilities in this act mentioned or contained; unless such peer, member or person so convicted, do respectively in the next term after such his coming or remaining, take the said oaths, and make and subscribe the said declaration in his Majesty's high court of chancery between the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon. VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person that now is, or hereafter shall be a peer of this realm, or member of the house of peers, or member of the house of commons, shall presume to do any thing contrary to this act, or shall offend in any of the cases aforesaid; that then every such peer and member so offending shall from thenceforth be deemed and adjudged a popish recusant convict to all intents and purposes whatsoever, and shall forfeit and suffer as a popish recusant convict; and shall be disabled to hold or execute any office or place of profit or trust, civil or military, in any of his Majesty's realms of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, or in any of his Majesty's islands or foreign plantations to the said realms belonging; and shall be disabled from thenceforth to sit or vote in either house of parliament, or make a proxy in the house of peers, or to sue or use any action, bill, plaint or information in course of law, or to prosecute any suit in any court of equity, or to be guardian of any child, or executor or administrator of any person, or capable of any legacy or deed of gift; and shall forfeit for every wilful offence against this act the sum of five hundred pounds, to be recovered and received by him or them that shall sue for the same, and to be prosecuted by any action of debt, suit, bill, plaint or information in any of his Majesty's courts at Westminster, wherein no essoin, protection or wager of law shall lie. Sect. 7. Either house of Parlia ment may cause any of their mem VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from the said first day of December it shall and may be lawful to and for the house of peers and house of commons, or either of them respectively, as often as they or either of them shall see occasion, either in this present par- aforesaid. S. T. II. 7 bers to swear and subscribe as |