Test Oath

An oath required as a condition precedent to the right to fill a public office. Generally, an oath of present allegiance, or of denial of connection with some past insurrection.

An oath required to be taken as a criterion of the fitness of the person to fill a public or political office; but particularly an oath of fidelity and allegiance (past or present) to the established government. -Test-paper.

In practice. A paper or instrument shown to a jury as evidence. A term used in the Pennsylvania courts. Depue v. Clare, 7 Pa. 428. Defined under Test in Black's Law Dictionary.

An oath of loyalty to government Test paper: a paper or instrument shown to a jury as evidence. In Englishlaw. Test act: the statute 25 Car. IL, c. 3, which provided that all persons having any office, or receiving pay from the crown, or holding a place of trust under it, should take the oaths of alle- ^ance and supremacy, and subscribe a declaration against transubstautiation, and also receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the Church of England, As to the sacrament, repealed by the statute 9 Geo. IV., c. 17, and a new declaration substituted.