from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
RELIGIOUS TEST. The constitution of the United States, art. 6, s. 3,
declares that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification
to any office, or public trust under the United States."
2. This clause was introduced for the double purpose of satisfying the
scruples of many respectable persons, who feel an invincible repugnance to
any religious test or affirmation, and to cut off forever every pretence of
any alliance between church and state in the national government. Story on
the Const. Sec. 1841.