This would have been a profound departure from the policy of excluding Catholics from government, which had existed since the Protestant takeover in 1689.

Some states devised loyalty oaths designed to exclude Catholics from state and local office.

This meant well over two thousand jobs went to the secret brotherhood, which excluded Catholics from its membership.

Beecher's well-known Plea for the West (1835) urged Protestants to exclude Catholics from western settlements.

The requirements of the Test Act also effectively excluded Catholics from administrative positions in the British Empire.

This measure, of course, would exclude Catholics and other non-Anglicans from holding government posts.

At the time, colonial laws excluded Catholics from holding public office.

The Duke of York, then residing in Scotland, had, under the law which excluded Catholics from public trust, no right whatever to public employment.

Anti-Catholicism was widespread; the Test Act of 1673 excluded Roman Catholics from both Houses of Parliament.

The intention of the act was to exclude Catholics and dissenters from public office.