During the reign of Charles H. many acts were passed for the punishment of persons who did not conform to the Esta blished Church. Some of them were even more severe than those passed in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. [NONCONFORMISTS.] William III. was more tolerant than most of his subjects, and soon after his accession he proposed a repeal of the Test Act, the statute most obnoxious to the Nonconformists ; but the House of Lords rejected a motion to this effect. Even tually, however, an act was passed (1 Wm. III. c. 18) which mitigated the enactments against all sects except the Roman Catholics. We must again refer to the article NONCONFORMISTS, for a brief notice of the Toleration Act, and some other statutes of a like character. Between this act of Wm. III. and the reign of Geo. IV. little was done to re lieve Nonconformists or Roman Catholics from any of the penalties against those who did not conform to the doctrines and discipline of the Protestant Established Church of England and Ireland.
In 1828 an act was passed (9 Geo. IV. c. 17) " for repealing so much of several acts as imposes the necessity of receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as a qualification for certain offices and em ployments." This act, which repeals the Test Act, provides another security in lieu of the tests repealed : " And whereas the Protestant Episcopal Church of England and Ireland, and the Pro testant Presbyterian Church of Scot land, and the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof respectively, are by the laws of this realm severally established, permanently and inviolably : and whereas it is just and fitting, that on the repeal of each parts of the said acts as impose the necessity of taking the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the rite or usage of the Church of England, as a qualification for office, a det.oration to the following effect shOuld be substituted in lieu thereof, it is therefore enacted, that every person who shall hereafter be placed, elected, or chosen in or to the office of mayor, alder man, recorder, bailiff, town clerk, or com mon councilman, or in or to any office of magistracy, or place, trust, or employment relating to the government of any city, corporation, borough, or cinque port with in England and Wales, or the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, shall within one calendar month next before or upon his admission into any of the aforesaid of fices or trusts, make and subscribe the declaration following :—' I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, upon the true faith of a Christian, that I will 'never exercise any power, authority. or influence which I may possess, by virtue of the office — , to injure or weaken the Protestant Church as it is by law established in England, or to disturb the said church, or the bishops and clergy of the said church, in the possession of any rights or privileges io which such church, or the said bishops and clergy, are or may be by law entitled.' " The
7th section of the act provides that no naval officer below the rank of rear-ad miral, and no military officer below the rank of major-general in the army, or colonel in the militia, shall be required to make or subscribe the above declara tion ; and no commissioner of customs, excise, stamps, and taxes, or any person holding any of the offices concerned in the collection, management, or receipt of the revenues which are subject to the said commissioners, or any persons sub ject to the authority of the postmaster general, shall be required to make or de scribe such declaration.
In 1829, when the Roman Catholic Relief Act (10 Geo. IV. c. 7) was passed, a provision was made for the security of the Established Church; and the oath to be taken by Roman Catholic peers on taking their seat in the House of Lords, and Roman Catholic persons upon taking their seat as members of the House of Commons, contains the following pledge, which is sworn to " on the true faith of a Christian :" " I do hereby disclaim, dis avow, and solemnly abjure any intention to subvert the present Church Establish ment as settled by law within this realm." Other acts have also been passed which have further departed from the old prin ciple of requiring uniformity of reli gious faith. The act 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 85, enables persons to be married ac cording to the rites of their own sect, in stead of those of the Established Church only ; and the same act permits the mar riage contract to be made by a merely civil ceremony, in which respect the law now resembles in effect that which was established during the Commonwealth. In the act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 72, which is an act relating to marriages, the recent acts on the same subject are alluded as being framed with the view of enabling mar riage to be " solemnized according to the form, rite, or ceremony the parties see fit to adopt." The act for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths renders baptism unnecessary for civil purposes, and establishes a lay department for the regis tration of births, marriages, and deaths. The act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 92, enabled courts of justice to admit non-parochial registers as evidence of births or baptisms, deaths or burials, and marriages. In England the chaplains of gaols mast be clergymen of the Church of England, but in Ireland there may be appointed for each union workhouse three chaplains, one Roman Catholic, one of the Established Church, and one Protestant dissenter.