Editing No Religious Test Clause (section)

==Background==
A variety of [[Test Act]]s were instituted in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their main purpose was to exclude anyone not a member of the [[Church of England]]—the official [[state religion]]—from holding government office, notably [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and [[English Dissenters|"nonconforming" Protestants]]. Government officials were required to swear oaths, such as the [[Oath of Supremacy]], that the [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|monarch of England]] was the head of the Church and that they possessed no other foreign loyalties, such as to the [[pope]]. Later acts required officials to disavow [[transubstantiation]] and the [[veneration]] of saints. Such laws were common throughout Europe, where numerous countries had a state religion.

Many colonists of the [[Colonial history of the United States|Thirteen Colonies]] had left England in part in search of a place where they could practice their own religion. In many cases the colonial governments established an official religion, requiring residents to adhere to the beliefs of the founding sect.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/|title=America's True History of Religious Tolerance|last=Davis|first=Kenneth C.|date=October 2010|work=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=25 May 2019}}</ref> With the royal government's religious favoritism fresh in their memory, the Founders sought to prevent the return of the Test Acts by adding this clause to the Constitution. Specifically, [[Charles Pinckney (governor)|Charles Pinckney]], delegate from South Carolina—where a Protestant denomination was the established state religion—introduced the clause to Article VI, and it passed with little opposition.<ref>''Drawn from original source'': {{cite book|url=http://archive.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/history/overview.aspx|chapter=overview: history of religious liberty in America|author=Charles C. Haynes|title=A Framework for Civic Education|year=1991|publisher=Council for the Advancement of Citizenship and the Center for Civic Education|access-date=2012-10-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115121039/http://archive.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/history/overview.aspx|archive-date=2013-01-15|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>''Drawn from original source'': "The Individual Liberties within the Body of the Constitution: A Symposium: The No Religious Test Clause and the Constitution of Religious Liberty: A Machine That Has Gone of Itself." Case Western Reserve Law Review 37: 674–747. Dreisbach, Daniel L. 1999. {{cite web|url=http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1149714&currentSection=1129168&productid=2|title=The Bill of Rights: Almost an Afterthought?|work=ABC-CLIO|year=2011}}</ref>