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40 HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
Statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation or Restraint heretofore had made published
ordained or provided, or any other thing cause or matter whatsoever to the contrary
thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
XX. In witnesso whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made patents. Wit-
nesse ourself at Westminister the seventh day of Aprill in the one and twentith yeare of our
Raigne of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the sixe and flfteth.
This grant was apparently in direct repugnance, not only to that pre-
viously made by the king in 1610 to the Earl of Northampton and others,
as before mentioned, but also to the grant then recently made to the Duke of
Lennox and others in 1620, under the denomination of New England; which
latter grant, extending as high up as the forty-eighth degree of north lati-
tude, must have comprehended the whole of Sir George Calvert's province, of
Avalon. As the settlement attempted by Guy under the first mentioned
patent of 1610 totally failed, and the patentees had, to all appearance,
entirely relinquished their intention of making any further use of their
patent, Sir George might perhaps see no impropriety in accepting a re-grant
of the same territory. Whether the collision between his grant arid that of
New England in 1620 produced any dispute, we are not informed. The sur-
render of the New England patent in the year 1635 must have relieved him
from such interference. Notwithstanding these prior grants, Sir George
prepared to execute the purposes and intention of his patent.1
Up to this period Calvert had been a member of the established Church
of England, in which faith he had been baptized.8 But early in 1624 he
announced to the king that he had joined the Roman Catholic communion,
and therefore resigned his office of Secretary of State, which he could no
longer conscientiously • hold. This change of religion, however, wrought no
change in the confidence .and regard of his royal master. James, though far
from liberal in religious matters, was a man of warm personal attachments,
and his friendship for Calvert was not diminished, nor did his marks of
favor cease. He retained him in the Privy Council, and in 1625 raised
him to the Irish peerage as Baron of Baltimore in the county of Longford,
Ireland. His release from his secretaryship, Sir George "obtained from the
King with some difficulty, His Majesty having a particular affection to him
by reason of his great abilities and integrity."3
After the death of King James, which occurred on the 27th of March,
1625, King Charles I. "desired his lordship to be continued a Privy Coun-
sellor to him, resolving to dispense with him taking the oath of supremacy,
but, at his request, gave him leave, at length, to retire from Court."4
Thus we see that while high in favor at the court of James and Charles,
holding the station of Secretary of State, and respected and trusted above all
others, he resigned an office of great importance and large emoluments, and
with it his brilliant hopes of higher political distinction, in obedience to the
1 Bozman. 3 MS. Maryland Historical Society.
2 Andersen, Colonial C/lurch, i., p. 326. * Ibid.
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