The exclusion of clergy from political office in American states: An oddity in church-state relations

During the early nineteenth century thirteen American states had provisions in their state constitutions which prohibited clergy from holding politica l offices. Most states dropped this provision from their constitutions befo re 1880. Most of the states with these provisions in their constitutions we re southern or border states. How can we explain why some states did or did not exclude clergy from political office! The timing of adoption of these rules shows that they were not adopted to limit the influence of the Roman Catholic church. It was not part of the nineteenth-century nativist campaig ns against the Catholic church. Some evidence is presented to support the h ypothesis that discrimination against clergy war, a way of taking revenge a gainst Great Britain, the pre-revolution colonial power.