March 2012 #12-12
Summary:
Maryland was the first
English colony to establish
freedom of religion in
1634. Maryland’s
experience helped pave the
way for Americans to
recognize that freedom of
religion is a right inherent
in the people that should
be protected from
abridgement by law.
Word Count 644
“Historic St. Mary’s
City celebrates the
bold experiment in
freedom that was early
colonial
Maryland….Maryland
was the first to free
the faith of its citizens
from government
control by not
establishing a state
church….”
Religious Freedom in Anglo-America
Began on a Day in March
By Kathryn Hickok
If you have visited Colonial Williamsburg or Jamestown, Virginia, but have never
been to St. Mary’s County, Maryland, it is worth the beautiful drive to Colton’s
Point on the Potomac River to retrace a lesser-known chapter in America’s
founding. A Maryland Historical Society sign on the shore near the St. Clement’s
Island Museum marks the landing of The Ark and The Dove on March 25, 1634,
adding, “Here, on the same day, Father Andrew White, S.J. celebrated the first
Catholic Mass in the British-American colonies.”
That simple event, a Catholic Mass, inaugurated religious freedom in British North
America.
From Colton’s Point you can follow the peninsula southeast to Historic St. Mary’s
City, not far from the mouth of the Potomac. A National Historic Landmark, the
founding site and first capital of 17th century colonial Maryland has been excavated
and recreated with a museum, interpretive exhibits, and reenactors in costume.
Historic St. Mary’s City celebrates the bold experiment in freedom that was early
colonial Maryland. Several colonies in New England were havens for religious
minorities fleeing persecution in England, but Maryland was the first to free the
faith of its citizens from government control by not establishing a state church for
sixty years. Catholics and Protestants founded the colony together.
The practice of Catholicism was illegal in England in the late 16th and 17th
centuries. English Catholics were subject to ruinous fines, imprisonment, and in
many cases death for holding to their faith as it was practiced before the reign of
Elizabeth I. To be a Catholic priest was, in itself, considered a treasonable crime
punishable by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Facing the inability to practice
their faith openly, some Catholics sought to emigrate and create a new life in North
America.
The religious history of early Maryland was complex. Interreligious coexistence
was difficult and largely without precedent in the colonies. Respecting each other’s
rights to practice their faith openly, to serve in government, and to be free of
coercive taxation for the benefit of an established church required constant
vigilance.
The Toleration Act passed by the colonial assembly in 1649 guaranteed that no
Christian should “be any ways troubled molested or discountenanced for…his or her
religion, nor in the free exercise thereof…nor any way compelled to the belief or
exercise of any other Religion against his or her consent.” A midcentury coup
attempted to repeal the Toleration Act, but the principle of religious freedom
survived until 1692, when the Church of England was established in Maryland as in
the mother country.
Despite this setback, Maryland’s experience of six decades helped pave the way for
Americans to recognize that freedom of religion was a right inherent in the people
that should be protected from abridgement by law. When the First Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution prohibited Congress from establishing a religion “or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the Founders prevented the kinds of political
conflicts and abuses of conscience with which their ancestors had struggled for
hundreds of years and upheld human dignity.
We do not have freedom in America today because it is―or ever was―simply
convenient legally or culturally, but because Americans believed that persons are not
subservient to the government. Rather, government is established to protect the
rights and freedoms of the citizens. Government derives its powers solely from the
people, each of whom possesses inherent personal dignity. The Founders restricted
the federal government’s powers, not to protect government from the beliefs and
values of the citizens, but―knowing history―to protect citizens from the tendency
of government to expand its powers at the expense of personal freedom. Respect for
the sacred space of the human heart is the guardian of liberty. The legacy of that
Mass on St. Clement’s Island in March 1634 is that a small group of English
colonists sought to respect that space, and one day a new country succeeded.
Kathryn Hickok is Publications Director at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free
market public policy research organization. A lover of Catholic history, she has
traveled extensively to sites of historical and cultural significance throughout the
U.S., Canada, and Mexico. She is a graduate of the University of Portland and
Kolbe Academy Home School.
“We do not have
freedom in
America today
because it is―or
ever was―simply
convenient legally
or culturally, but
because
Americans
believed that
persons are not
subservient to the
government….
Respect for the
sacred space of the
human heart is the
guardian of
liberty.”
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