Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813

The Act 53 Geo. 3. c. 160, sometimes called the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813,^[2] the Trinitarian Act 1812,^[3] the Unitarian Relief Act,^[4] the Trinity Act, the Unitarian Toleration Bill, or Mr William Smith's Bill (after Whig politician William Smith),^[5] was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended its blasphemy laws and granted toleration for Unitarian worship.^[6]

• Section 1 amended the Toleration Act 1689 (passed by the Parliament of England) to include non-Trinitarians among the Protestant dissenters whose practices would be tolerated.
• Section 2 repealed the provision of the Blasphemy Act 1697 (also English) which imposed civil penalties on anyone professed or educated as a Christian who denied the Trinity.
• Section 3 repealed two Acts of the Scottish Parliament which made blasphemy punishable by death: the Act against Blasphemy 1661 and Act against Blasphemy 1695.

The Dissenters (Ireland) Act 1817 (57 Geo 3 c 70) extended the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 to Ireland, and amended the Prohibition of Disturbance of Worship Act 1719 (passed by the Parliament of Ireland)^[7] in the same way as the 1813 Act had amended the 1689 Act.^[8]

The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1873.^[9]

Notes

Further reading

• Archibald John Stephens. The Statutes Relating to the Ecclesiastical and Eleemosynary Institutions of England, Wales, Ireland, India, and the Colonies. 1845. Volume 1. Pages 1066 and 1067.
• John Shortt. The Law Relating to Works of Literature and Art. Second Edition. 1884. Pages 368 and 369.