Catholic emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws. Requirements to abjure the temporal and spiritual authority of the pope and transubstantiation placed major burdens on Roman Catholics.
Historic restrictions
The penal laws started to be dismantled from 1766. The most significant measure was the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholicism in the United Kingdom.The Act of Settlement 1701 and the Bill of Rights 1689 provisions on the monarchy still require the monarch of the United Kingdom to not be a Catholic. The Bill of Rights asserts that "it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Papist Prince" and requires a new monarch to swear a coronation oath to maintain the Protestant religion.
The Act of Settlement 1701 went even further limiting the succession to the heirs of the body of Sophia of Hanover, provided that they do not "profess the Popish religion", "marry a Papist", "be reconciled to or ... hold Communion with the See or Church of Rome".
A Roman Catholic heir can therefore only inherit the throne by changing religious allegiance. Ever since the Papacy recognised the Hanoverian dynasty in January 1766, none of the immediate royal heirs has been a Roman Catholic, and thereby disallowed by the act. Many more distantly related potential Roman Catholic heirs are listed on the line of succession to the British throne. Section 2 of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, and similar provisions in the law of other signatories to the Perth Agreement, allow marriage by such an heir to a Roman Catholic.
Initial reliefs
In Canada, British since 1763, the Quebec Act 1774 ended some restrictions on Roman Catholics, so much so that it was called one of the "Intolerable Acts" and criticised in the Petition to the King submitted in October 1774 by the First Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies.In Great Britain and, separately, in Ireland, the first Relief Act, called the Papists Act 1778, was passed; subject to an oath renouncing Stuart claims to the throne and the civil jurisdiction of the pope, it allowed Roman Catholics to own property and to inherit land. Reaction against this led to riots in Scotland in 1779 and then the Gordon Riots in London on 2 June 1780.
Further relief was given by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1781 allowing the establishment of Roman Catholic schools and bishops. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 allowed the free practice of Catholicism subject to certain substantial restrictions designed to make Catholicism less visible in the communities where it was practiced. In Ireland, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 was enacted by the Irish Parliament, extending the right to vote to Catholics. Since the electoral franchise at the time was largely determined by property, this relief gave the votes to Roman Catholics holding land with a rental value of £2 a year. They also started to gain access to many middle-class professions from which they had been excluded, such as the legal profession, grand jurors, universities and the lower ranks of the army and judiciary.
Act of Union with Ireland 1800
The issue of greater political emancipation was considered in 1800 at the time of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland: it was not included in the text of the act because this would have led to greater Irish Protestant opposition to the Union. Non-conformists also suffered from discrimination at this time.William Pitt the Younger, the Prime Minister, had promised emancipation to accompany the act. No further steps were taken at that stage, in part because of the belief of King George III that it would violate his Coronation Oath. Pitt resigned when the king's opposition became known, as he was unable to fulfil his pledge. Catholic emancipation then became a debating point rather than a major political issue.
The increasing number of Irish Catholics serving in the British army led to the army giving freedom of worship to Catholic soldiers in 1811. Their contribution in the Napoleonic Wars may have contributed to the support of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington for emancipation.
File:Stamp irl 1929oconnellset.jpg|thumb|200px|The first commemorative postage stamps of Ireland, issued in 1929, commemorate the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 with a portrait of Daniel O'Connell.
Developments of the 1820s
In 1823, Daniel O'Connell started a campaign for emancipation by establishing the Catholic Association. In 1828, he stood for election in County Clare in Ireland and was elected even though he could not take his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.O'Connell's manoeuvres were important, but the decisive turning point came with the change in public opinion in Britain in favour of emancipation. Politicians understood the critical importance of public opinion. They were influenced as well by the strong support for the measure by the Whigs in the House of Lords and by the followers of Lord Grenville. The increasing strength of public opinion, as expressed in the newspapers and elections over a twenty-year period, overcame religious bias and deference to the crown, first in the House of Commons and then in the House of Lords. As Robert Peel pointed out to George IV in 1829, every House of Commons elected beginning in 1807 expressed majority support for Catholic emancipation, except that of 1818, which voted only once on the issue, in 1819, and rejected the motion by two votes.
Despite this, the votes in the House of Lords were consistently negative, in part because of the King's own opposition. The balance of opinion in the House of Lords shifted abruptly in 1828–29 in response to public opinion and O'Connell's election, especially reflecting fear of a religious civil war in Ireland. The Sacramental Test Act 1828 removed the barrier that required certain public officials to be members of the established Church.
File:Burking Poor Old Mrs Constitution. Wellcome L0019663.jpg|thumb|Burking Poor Old Mrs Constitution by William Heath, 1829. Satirical cartoon showing Wellington and Peel, as the murderers Burke and Hare, extinguishing the constitution for Catholic emancipation.
The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel changed positions to support the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. This act removed many of the remaining substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. However, at the same time the minimum property qualification for voters was increased, rising from a rental value of forty shillings per annum to £10 per annum, substantially reducing the number of those entitled to vote.
After 1832 the threshold was again lowered in successive Reform Acts. The major beneficiaries were the Roman Catholic middle classes, who could now enter careers in the higher civil service and in the judiciary. O'Connell was then re-elected and took his seat in Westminster. The year 1829 is therefore generally regarded as marking the chief moment of emancipation in Britain and Ireland.
The obligation, however, to pay tithes to the established Anglican church in Ireland remained, resulting in the Tithe War of the 1830s, and many other minor disabilities remained. A series of further reforms were introduced over time.
Political results
The slowness of liberal reform between 1771 and 1829 led to much bitterness in Ireland, which underpinned Irish nationalism. Fresh from his success in 1829, O'Connell launched his Repeal Association in the 1830s and 1840s, hoping but failing to repeal the Acts of Union 1800.In 1926 the last but one of the disabilities were removed from the statute book—the exception was that Catholics could not be king or queen. This came through the initiative of MP Francis Blundell. by means of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1926.
House of Commons Act 2001 removed clergy disqualification to sit in the House of Commons.
Succession to the Crown Act 2013 ended disqualification of a person who married a Roman Catholic from succession.
Church of Scotland Act 2025 made Roman Catholics eligible to hold the office of High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.