The granting by the English Parliament of freedom of worship to dissenting Protestants, who could not accept the authority or teaching of the Anglican Church. Dissenters were allowed their own ministers, teachers, and places of worship subject to their taking oaths of allegiance and to their acceptance of most of the Thirty‐Nine Articles. The Test Acts, which deprived dissenters of public office remained, but from 1727 annual indemnity acts allowed them to hold local offices. Roman Catholics were excluded from the scope of the Act, and had to rely on failure to enforce the penal laws.