Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 (31 Geo. 3. c. 32) was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 which partially reduced discrimination against Roman Catholics and permitted them to more fully participate in public life, as part of the process of Catholic emancipation in Great Britain. It permitted Catholics to practise law, practise their religion, and establish Catholic schools, with significant restrictions.

Chapels, schools, officiating priests and teachers had to be registered, and children of Protestants were not permitted to attend. Catholics were not permitted to hold assemblies with locked doors, and chapels could not have steeples or bells. Priests were not permitted to wear vestments or celebrate liturgies in the open air. Monastic orders and endowments of schools and colleges were prohibited.

Political sentiment for reform was helped along by the signing of the Edict of Versailles in France in 1787, which gave non-Catholic French subjects full legal status in a kingdom where Catholicism had always been the state religion.