In Scotland a religious test was imposed immediately after the Reformation. By 1567, e.9 no one was to be appointed to a public office or to be a notary who did not profess the Reformed religion. The Scottish Test act (1681, c.6) was rescinded by 1690, C.7. By 1700, C.3, renunciation of popery was to be made by persons em ployed in education. By 1707, c.6, all professors, principals, re gents, masters, or others bearing office in any university, college, or school in Scotland were bound to profess and subscribe to the Confession of Faith; and all persons were to be free of any oath or test contrary to or inconsistent with the Protestant religion and Presbyterian Church government. The necessity for subscription to the Confession of Faith was removed for persons other than principals and professors of theology by 16 and 17 Vict. c.89. 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. All tests were finally abolished by an act of 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.55). The reception of the communion was never a part of the test in Scotland as in England and Ireland.
In Ireland an oath of allegiance was required by the Irish act of Supremacy (2 Eliz. c.r). The English act of 3 Will. & M. C.2
substituted other oaths and enforced in addition from peers, mem bers of the House of Commons, bishops, barristers, attorneys, and others a declaration against transubstantiation, invocation of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and the sacrifice of the mass. By the Irish act of 2 Anne, c.6, every person admitted to any office, civil or military, was to take and subscribe the oaths of allegiance, su premacy, and abjuration, to subscribe the declaration against tran substantiation, etc., and to receive the Lord's Supper according to the usage of the Church of Ireland. English legislation on the subject of oaths and declarations was adopted in Ireland by Yel verton's act, 21 & 22 Geo. III. c.48, § 3 (Ir.). These provisions were all repealed by the Promissory Oaths act 1871. The Roman Catholic Relief act of 1793 (33 Geo. III. C.21. Ir.) excepted Trin ity College, Dublin, from its provisions, and tests existed in Dub lin university—except for professors and lecturers in divinity— until finally abolished by the University of Dublin Tests act 1873.
In the United States by art. 6 of the constitution, "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." A similar provision is generally included in the state constitutions.