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• test act
  test act

  noun

  any law requiring a person to belong to the established church of a country as a condition for holding public office.
• Test Act
  Test Act

  noun

  a law passed in 1673 in England to exclude Catholics from public life by requiring all persons holding offices under the Crown, such as army officers, to take the Anglican Communion and perform other acts forbidden to a Catholic: repealed in 1828

test act

American  

noun

1. any law requiring a person to belong to the established church of a country as a condition for holding public office.

2. (initial capital letters) the statute (1673) requiring all military officers and public officials to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown, receive the sacraments of the Church of England, and reject the doctrine of transubstantiation: repealed in 1828.

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Test Act British  

noun

1. a law passed in 1673 in England to exclude Catholics from public life by requiring all persons holding offices under the Crown, such as army officers, to take the Anglican Communion and perform other acts forbidden to a Catholic: repealed in 1828

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Etymology

Origin of test act

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

A motion to relieve the Scottish presbyterians from the obligation of the test act was lost by a large majority, and a motion for the relief of unitarians, which must be noticed later, also failed.

From The Political History of England - Vol. X. The History of England from the Accession of George III to the close of Pitt's first Administration by Poole, Reginald Lane

The only test act that science knows is that of the recognition of truth.

From History of Human Society by Blackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)