Papists_Act_1778
Papists Act 1778
United Kingdom legislation
The Papists Act 1778[1] is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (18 Geo. 3. c. 60) and was the first Act for Roman Catholic relief. Later in 1778 it was also enacted by the Parliament of Ireland.
Before the Act, a number of "Penal laws" had been enacted in Britain and Ireland, which varied between the jurisdictions from time to time but effectively excluded those known to be Roman Catholics from public life. The timing of the Act was partly based on the fact that the Papacy had stopped recognising the Jacobite cause on the death of the "Young Pretender" in 1766, and also the possibility that the ongoing American rebellion of 1775 might inspire a rebellion by Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland.