What was Catholic Emancipation? | The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 | UK Parliamentary Archives

[Music] ever since Henry the eighth's break with Rome the king or queen has been both head of state and head of the Church of England during coronation ceremonies English kings and queens pledged to uphold the Protestant faith and as the established church the Church of England has also enjoyed certain privileges such as the right of its bishops to sit in the House of Lords and influence legislation the flip side of this Anglican privilege is discrimination its Protestant centres and particularly Catholics until 1829 Catholics in Britain and Ireland were barred from holding high office and serving as MPs in that year two unlikely candidates the Tory Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and his Home Secretary Robert Peel introduced the Roman Catholic relief bill or both have been staunch opponents of Catholic emancipation in the past the risk of civil war in Ireland if Catholic MPs continued to be barred convinced them that reform was needed while the Act makes clear in its opening lines that the restraints and disabilities affecting Roman Catholic subjects were to be henceforth discontinued it's details also shed light onto how the government sort of reconcile Catholic emancipation with a Protestant state religion for example addressing concerns the Catholic MPs might have split loyalties to the Pope in King they were to declare that the Pope of Rome was not to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction power superiority or preeminence directly or indirectly within this realm there were also to promise to not disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or Protestant government in the United Kingdom despite these safeguards there was bitter opposition to the passage of the bill with a Duke of Wellington fighting a duel with one particularly vocal critic Lord Winchell see the Act also hastened the disintegration of the Tory Party and inadvertently accelerated the pace of parliamentary reform Tory ultras furious with emancipation joined the Whigs in now calling for an extension of the franchise they believed a more representative parliament sharing their anti-catholic prejudice would never have allowed the bill to pass the first step on the path to representative democracy was in part by prejudiced