Jon's discussion below is about "test oaths" -- that is loyalty oaths to the King or the state. "Religious tests" were laws or constitutional provisions what made being a Christian or a Protestant (or in Delaware and Trinitarian) as a test for officeholding. So, if you were not Protestant (in some states) or Christian (in others) you were not allowed to hold public office. I am trying to figure out what was the rule in Va before and after the Revolution.
----------------------
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
.
:
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/>
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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