Description:

Two Test Oaths, The First Combating Catholic Doctrines and the Second Rejecting James III's Claim to the Throne

(Colonial Massachusetts) An extremely rare pair of broadsides offering a series of oaths pledging fealty to the reign of George I. The first attests to George I as rightful King of England, rejects any influences of the Pope and Roman Catholicism (shown below), and rejects transubstantiation (turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ) as an article of faith. The second broadside is a complete rejection of James III's or his progeny's claims to England's, or anyone else's, throne.

[KING GEORGE I] Broadside. " Oaths Appointed to be taken instead of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and Declaration," pledged and signed by Josiah Wolcot[t], Salem, Mass., March 26, 1722. Also pledged and signed: Thomas Burritt, May 20, 1722; William Gedney, July 19, 1722; and John Williams, August 7, 1722. Includes witness signatures.

[KING GEORGE I] Broadside. " Declaration" [to the reign of King George], pledged and signed by Josiah Wolcot[t], Salem, Mass., March 26, 1722. Also pledged and signed: Thomas Burritt, May 20, 1722; William Gedney, July 19, 1722; and John Williams, August 7, 1722. Includes witness signatures.

Excerpt of the Second Oath, Rejecting the Pope's Authority
" I...Do Swear, That I do from my Heart, abhor, detest and abjure as Impious and Heretical, that damnable Doctrine and Position, that Princes Excommunicated, or deprived by the Pope or any authority of the See of Rome, may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects, or any other whatsoever; And I do declare that no Forein [sic]Prince, Person, Prelate, State or Potentate, hath or out to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Preeminence or Authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, within the Realm of GREAT BRITAIN. So Help me GOD."

Historical Background
Except in Maryland, most colonial Americans (and their English forefathers) found Catholicism anathema. Catholics were excluded from voting and holding public office, forbidden to have churches and schools, and were subject to numerous other legal disabilities. Public officials were required to take " test oaths" attesting to their rejection of Catholic doctrine and loyalty to English monarchs.

The English Civil War, beginning in 1642, threw the nation into nearly a century of political turmoil. While the both monarchy and the Church of England returned with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants continued to dominate the political landscape. When Charles II died, James II, a Roman Catholic, became king. James's Catholicism led English noblemen to invite William III (of Orange) to invade. James would prove to be the last Catholic King of England, and abdicated during the Glorious Revolution (1688). Protestants William and Mary ruled Britain until their deaths, hers in 1694, and his in 1702, at which time Mary's daughter Anne ascended the throne.

Upon James II's death in exile in 1701, his son James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766),
declared himself King James III and was immediately recognized by the predominantly Catholic nations of France, Spain, the Papal States, and Modena, his mother's birthplace. He mounted his own invasion in 1708, which failed. The 1701 Act of Settlement forbade Catholics from attaining the throne, so when Queen Anne died in 1714, George I, a German Protestant, ascended the throne and established the Hanoverian line. In 1715, James III (who was also James VIII of Scotland) joined the Jacobite Uprising, returned to Scotland, and challenged George I for the throne. When popular support withered, he returned to France and eventually moved to Rome, where he died in 1766, having lived to see his son, "Bonny" Prince Charlie's 1745 effort to regain the throne also end in failure at the Battle of Culloden.

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