--- On Tue, 11/9/10, Finkelman, Paul <[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:<<
So my question is this: IS there a religious test for officeholding in VA that is statutory but not constitutional that exists before the Revolution and continues afterwards? >>

No. Virginia had statutory requirements of being an Anglican and later to “conform” to the Church of England, and to not be a Papist [Catholic], from the earliest charters, until 1786.  Quakers, Menonists, and “other separatists” were outlawed – not just to hold office, but their gathering and marriages were illegal.  So, obviously they couldn’t hold office. You can find the statutes throughout Henings’s Statutes at Large: http://www.vagenweb.org/hening/index.htm

The 1786 clause that religion “will not diminish, enlarge, or affect” civil capacities, ended any possibility of having an *official* religious test to hold office after that date. 

In the short period between the end of the war and 1786, some of the laws were still on the books, but not enforced.  Once a law is passes, it remains until officially repealed, which didn’t happen until 1799 and 1802, when all of the laws regarding the Anglican Church and even the American Episcopal Church, were repealed by the legislature.  The code of 1802 embodies Jefferson’s exact words concerning civil capacity, and was also added to our 1830 Constitution.  The state even confiscated all Anglican glebe lands and returned them to the public, whose tax money had funded their purchase. Virginia had other ways to control who was elected to office. 

I thought Pennsylvania was a colony that never had an official religion. Or did you have to be a Christian to hold office there?

Langdon Hagen-Long

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html