Well Madison complains about presection in the 1780s,
My real interest is not to debate the Baptist persecution, but to answer the (maybe not-so-simple) question: Did you have to be a Christian or a Protestant to hold office in A before or after the Revolution. Every state constitution except NY and VA has a religious test for officeholding -- either Christian or Protestant. Also, ever constitution except those two has an establishment of some kind.
NY specifically rejects its establishment. VA we know continues the Anglican--then Episcopalian-- establishment until the end of the 1780s but it is not in the state constitution.
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?
I would greatly appreciate any help on this one,
----------------------
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY 12208-3494
518-445-3386 (o)
518-445-3363 (f)
www.paulfinkelman.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 11:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Religous tests in early Va --Query to Jon Kukla
Just reservation about timing - aren't the notable instances of persecution
of baptists, for example, ca 1773 ?
Within a two years though we see petitions from baptists and other
dissenters treated with sympathy by many in Va assembly, and after the war
starts, evangelical recruits were needed for the army etc......
Madison in 1780s of course recruited dissenters to support passage of the
statute for religious freedom -- Jefferson was in France, had written the
statute during 1776-9 revision of the laws program -- but my sense is that
active persecution was earlier...... so just quibbling about timing.
Jon Kukla
________________
www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>
On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 11:18 AM, <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Jon, in your response to Paul Finkelman, you say "not sure I would
> characterize *1780s* as a period of 'vicious persecution' of any
> denomination in
> VA." Does your uncertainty have to do with your sense of the degree of
> the persecution that does seem to have existed? More than one religious
> historian has maintained that it was the treatment of Baptists and others
> by
> both government authorities and general population that helped produce our
> national position on religious tolerance and freedom. Similarly, Thomas
> Jefferson's concept of separation of church and state seems to have been
> influenced by his perception of ill treatment of such folk as the
> Baptists.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
> In a message dated 11/9/2010 9:05:49 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> When described in detail, the oaths taken by 18th-c VA officeholders were
> typically described as "the Oaths appointed to be taken by Act of
> Parliament* followed by a statement about "repeat[ing] and subscrib[ing --
> i.e., signing] the Test"**
>
> {Language quoted from William Nelson's assumption of governorship in
> October
> 1770 in Van Horne ed Nelson Correspondence 37-38n}
>
> *Act I George I stat 2 cap XIII - oath of allegiance to George I and
> succession of his Protestant heirs
> ** The Test was a repudiation of transubstantion required by the Test Act
> of
> 1673
>
> At the beginning of a general assembly session and when new burgesses
> entered the Assembly from by-elections, the journals refer more succinctly
> to the oaths....
>
> George Washington signed a Test Act Oath about May 22, 1754 - the document
> is extant, or at least preserved by published photographs......
>
> And in 1777 VA adopted its own (secular) Test Act requiring "free male
> inhabitants of this state above a certain age to give assurance of
> allegiance to the same [i.e. to the commonwealth]." - Hening Statutes 9:
> 281-83.
>
> PS to original query : not sure I would characterize *1780s* as a period
> of
> " vicious persecution" of any denomination in VA
>
> Jon Kukla
> ________________
> www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/> <http://www.jonkukla.com/>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Henry Wiencek
> <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
> > According to the "Industrial and historical sketch of Fairfax County,
> > Virginia," (1907), in colonial times all county officials were
> > required to take the "Test Oath" denying belief in the
> > Transubstantiation of the Eucharist, a clause no Roman Catholic could
> > swear to.
> >
> > Henry Wiencek
> >
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