The Act of Toleration 1649
In 1647 Leonard Calvert died. Until the Proprietary's will should be
known, Thomas Greene acted as Governor. Over in England, Lord Baltimore
stood at the parting of the ways. The King's cause had a hopeless look.
Roundhead and Parliament were making way in a mighty tide. Baltimore was
marked for a royalist and a Catholic. If the tide rose farther, he might
lose Maryland. A sagacious mind, he proceeded to do all that he could,
short of denying his every belief, to placate his enemies. He appointed as
Governor of Maryland William Stone, a Puritan, and into the Council,
numbering five members, he put three Puritans. On the other hand the
interests of his Maryland Catholics must not be endangered. He required of
the new Governor not to molest any person "professing to believe in Jesus
Christ, and in particular any Roman Catholic." In this way he thought
that, right and left, he might provide against persecution.
Under these complex influences the Maryland Assembly passed in 1649
an Act concerning Religion. It reveals, upon the one hand, Christendom's
mercilessness toward the freethinker -- in which mercilessness, whether
through conviction or policy, Baltimore acquiesced -- and, on the other
hand, that aspiration toward friendship within the Christian fold which is
even yet hardly more than a pious wish, and which in the seventeenth
century could have been felt by very few. To Baltimore and the Assembly of
Maryland belongs, not the glory of inaugurating an era of wide toleration
for men and women of all beliefs or disbeliefs, whether Christian or not,
but the real though lesser glory of establishing entire toleration among
the divisions within the Christian circle itself. According to the Act:
| Whatsoever person or persons within this
Province and the Islands thereunto belonging, shall from
henceforth blaspheme God, that is curse him, or deny our
Saviour Jesus Christ to bee the sonne of God, or shall deny
the holy Trinity, . . . or the Godhead of any of the said
three persons of the Trinity, or the unity of the Godhead, or
shall use or utter any reproachful speeches, words or language
concerning the said Holy Trinity, or any of the said three
persons thereof, shall be punished with death and confiscation
or forfeiture of all his or her lands and goods to the Lord
Proprietary and his heires . . . . Whatsoever person or
persons shall from henceforth use or utter any reproachfull
words, or speeches, concerning the blessed Virgin Mary, the
Mother of our Saviour, or the holy Apostles or Evangelists, or
any of them, shall in such case for the first offence forfeit
to the said Lord Proprietary and his heires the sum of five
pound sterling . . . . Whatsoever person shall henceforth upon
any occasion. . . declare, call, or denominate any person or
persons whatsoever inhabiting, residing, traffiqueing, trading
or comerceing within this Province, or within any of the
Ports, Harbors, Creeks or Havens to the same belonging, an
heritick, Scismatick, Idolator, puritan, Independant,
Presbiterian, popish priest, Jesuite, Jesuited papist,
Lutheran, Calvenist, Anabaptist, Brownist, Antinomian,
Barrowist, Roundhead, Sepatist, or any other name or term in a
reproachful manner relating to matter of Religion, shall for
every such Offence forfeit . . . the sum of tenne shillings
sterling . . . . Whereas the inforceing of the conscience in matters of Religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous Consequence in those commonwealths where it hath been practised, . . . be it therefore also by the Lord Proprietary with the advice and consent of this Assembly, ordeyned and enacted . . . that no person or persons whatsoever within this Province . ..professing to beleive in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth bee any waies troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof . . . nor anyway compelled to the beleif or exercise of any other Religion against his or her consent, soe as they be not unfaithfull to the Lord Proprietary or molest or conspire against the civill Government . . .
Archives of Maryland, Proceedings and Acts of
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