This act was made to give civil rights to Roman Catholics and lifted any previous restrictions to voting or serving in the government. With that being said, Jesuit Priests still faced limitations on their voting rights because of the British government’s ongoing fear of them. Each Roman Catholic citizen had to swear allegiance to the King and be put under oath to be able to vote. In Middlemarch, many characters bring up Roman Catholicism and often debated differences in religion.

Eliot, George. Middlemarch, edited Gregory Maertz. Broadview editions 2004.