[4] The Act allowed for freedom of worship to nonconformists who had pledged to the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and rejected transubstantiation, i.e., to Protestants who dissented from the Church of England such as Baptists, Congregationalists or English Presbyterians, but not to Roman Catholics.

Under his leadership, Parliament twice considered bills to modify the law, but both were unsuccessful and it was not until Pickard and many others had ended their efforts that a new attempt was made in 1779.

During both the English Commonwealth and the reign of Charles II, nonconforming dissenters including Roman Catholics, were subject to religious persecution and precluded from holding official office.

[8] The succession of the Roman Catholic James II was challenged on religious grounds prior to his accession in what became known as the Exclusion Crisis and after he took the crown in 1686 in the Monmouth Rebellion.

However, the Tory leadership of the Anglican church initially supported his right to rule based on the theology of active obedience to the monarch.

Failing to secure parliamentary support, James II's attempt to dispense with the Test Acts through the 1687 and 1688 Declarations of Indulgence helped spark the constitutional crises that culminated in the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William and Mary, who became joint sovereigns.

[9] Both the Whig and Tory parties that had rallied around William and Mary had promised nonconformists that such an act would be enacted if the revolution succeeded.

James II had himself issued a declaration of indulgence that suspended the laws against religious nonconformity, but nonconformists believed James II's efforts to undermine their civil liberties and circumvent parliament placed the religious liberties provided via the Declarations of Indulgence at risk.

c. 10), passed following the union between Scotland and England, granted limited toleration, specifically the right to worship for Scottish Episcopalians who prayed for the monarch and used the English Book of Common Prayer.

[6] The colonies of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, and New Jersey went further than the Act of Toleration by outlawing the establishment of any church and allowing a greater religious diversity.