EMANCIPATION, Act of. - It concerns the repeal of the laws that in Great Britain and Ireland placed Catholics in a state of legal and political inferiority with respect to Protestants.

The most important provision on the matter is the Act for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects of 13 April 1829 (10 George 4 c. 7). Prior to this one, which is the fundamental one, other laws had already alleviated the condition of Catholics under the reign of George III. In 1778 (18 George 3 c. 60), upon taking an oath of allegiance, they acquired the right to possess land, and in 1791 (31 George 3 c. 32) Catholics who had taken the oath were guaranteed the practice of the professions of consulting lawyer, trial lawyer, solicitor and notary.

This was only the beginning; but while in Parliament, given the gravity of the Irish situation, the abolition of the restrictions was debated several times, an insuperable obstacle was found in the Protestant stronghold of the House of Lords. Finally, during the winter of 1828-29, Prime Minister Wellington and Home Secretary Peel succeeded in convincing King George IV of the political expediency of granting Catholics the civil and political rights hitherto denied them. The bill was presented to the Commons with a great speech by Peel (5 March 1829). Approved on third reading by 320 votes to 132, it was then transmitted to the Lords, where it obtained a majority of 104 votes. Having received royal sanction, it came into force on 13 April of the same year. By effect of this law Catholics acquired the right to belong to the House of Lords and to the House of Commons, and had the faculty of exercising the right to vote: only ministers of worship were forbidden the mandate of deputy. Every civil and military office, upon taking an oath, later abolished in 1871, could be held by Catholics, with the exception, however, of those of regent of the united kingdom, of Lord Chancellor and others. Nevertheless Catholics could celebrate their religious ceremonies only in places designated for that purpose or in private houses; members of Catholic Orders or ecclesiastical communities residing in the Kingdom had, moreover, to register themselves, and those who had entered clandestinely into the territory of the State were banished from it for life. These last provisions were repealed by the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 15 Dec. 1926 (16 to 17 George 3 c. 53). Some restrictions still remain, among them the one that the sovereign cannot be of the Catholic religion nor have a Catholic as wife, and the other that forbids Catholics to hold certain high offices (regent, etc.).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: J. Amherst, The History of the Catholic Emancipation and the Progress of the Catholic Church in the British Isles, London 1886; W. S. Lilly, J. E. P. Wallis, A manual of the law specially affecting Catholics, ibid. 1893, in which from p. 160 to p. 170 the text of the Act of 1829 is also reproduced in full; H. W. C. Davis, Catholic Emancipation, in The Cambridge Modern History, X, Cambridge 1907, pp. 620-54, with bibl. On the movement of Catholic emancipation in the early years of the nineteenth century cf. G. C. Brodrick, J. K. Fotheringham, The History of England from Addington's administration to the close of William IV's reign, in The Political History of England, XI, London 1906, pp. 237-52. Silvio Furlani

@incollection{ec5_emancipazione_atto_di, author = {Furlani, Silvio}, title = {Emancipazione, atto di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {270}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/emancipazione-atto-di} }

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Emancipation, Act of

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