English post-Reformation oaths

On 10 Feb. 1763, following the Treaty of Paris, France formally ceded Canada to Great Britain. The fourth article of the treaty granted Roman Catholics in Quebec religious liberty “as far as the laws of Great Britain permit.” But those laws included the Corporation Act of 1661 and the Test Acts of 1673 and 1678, by which Catholics were barred from all offices under the crown, disabled in the courts, deprived of the vote, and banned from both houses of parliament. Access to some positions was possible on condition of swearing a test oath, in which one had to deny certain dogmas of the Catholic religion and continue to pledge allegiance to the British crown. The intent to anglicize the new colony, expressed in the Royal Proclamation of October 1763, did not materialize for lack of massive immigration by British colonists. As a result it was finally deemed that the conquered people, whose population growth was undeniable, would not be subject to the “Incapacities, Disabilities and Penalties” imposed on Catholics in Great Britain. Under the Quebec Act of 1774 Catholics in the province of Quebec were therefore no longer subject to the oath. The Test Act was repealed throughout the empire in 1828.