Test Acts 1673 & 1678
The Test Acts were a series of penal laws originating in Restoration England, passed by the Parliament of England, that served as a religious test for public office in England and Wales, which imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformist Protestants. The underlying principle was that only people taking communion in the established Church of England were eligible for public employment, and the severe penalties pronounced against recusants, whether Catholic or nonconformist, were affirmations of this principle.