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Handout #236 |
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Catholic Emancipation |
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Part of the opening of the 1829 Act of
Parliament. The 'various Acts mentioned were all of the late seventeenth or
early eighteenth century.
WHEREAS by various Acts of Parliament certain restraints and disabilities are imposed on the Roman Catholic subjects of His Majesty, to which other subjects of His Majesty are not liable: and whereas it is expedient that such restraints and disabilities shall be from hence for discontinued, and whereas various Acts certain Oaths and certain Declarations, commonly called the Declaration against Transubstantiation, and the Declaration against Transubstantiation and the Invocation of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as practiced in the Church of Rome are or may be required to be taken, made, and subscribed by the Subjects of His Majesty, as qualifications for sitting and voting in Parliament, and for the enjoyment of certain offices, franchises, and civil rights: Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the commencement of this Act all such parts of the said Acts as required the said Declarations, or either of them, to be made or subscribed by any of His Majesty's Subjects, as a qualification for sitting and voting in Parliament or for the exercise or enjoyment of any office, franchise or civil right, be and the same are (save as hereinafter provided and excepted) hereby repealed. |
