Legal Fictions and Fictional Entites in Renaissance Jurisprudence

This article charts the history of England's laws and customs regarding the oaths and declarations required of those appointed or elected to public office, and in particular parliamentary office and offices under the Crown. It provides a brief account of medieval law and practice from the mid-thirteenth century and a fuller account of changes effected by statute over the centuries which followed England's break with the Church of Rome during the reign of Henry VIII. The article shows that well into the nineteenth century the statutes were effective to exclude from many important public offices persons who were not communicants of the Church of England, and that the reforms achieved in that century were achieved in a piecemeal fashion. The article concludes with an account of changes made in the twentieth century in the law and practice regarding oaths to be sworn and declarations to be made by the monarch on accession to the throne.