been acclaimed far and wide as the first law guaranteeing religious
freedom enacted in the new world. It was, indeed, one of the first laws
of our Christian civilization in which men and women were given
protection to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their con-
sciences. The eminent Maryland author and historian, Gerald W. John-
son, of Baltimore, said of the Religious Toleration Act: "It was a
law made by civilized men who believed that a decent show of respect
for one another is one of the duties of freemen and one of the bul-
warks of a free state. "
As significant as was this single achievement, it is not historically
correct to say that religious toleration began in Maryland with the
passage in 1649 of the "Act Concerning Religion. " "But this Act, " writes
the historian James McSherry, "in its best provisions was only the
solemn recording of that law which had heretofore governed the
province, and which had been laid down by its Catholic founders and
proclaimed for its first settlement. "
The province of Maryland, conceived by George Calvert, the first
Lord Baltimore, but actually founded by his son Cecilius, was estab-
lished by the Calverts, father and son, as a haven for persecuted Catho-
lics. Aboard the Ark and the Dove were Protestants as well as Catho-
lics, and the Calverts welcomed, even sought, Protestant settlers.
Prior to the embarkation of the colonists, the second Lord Baltimore
issued a set of instructions to his brother Leonard, the Governor, and
the Commissioners. In the first paragraph of the instructions, he
warned the Catholic and Protestant colonists that they were not to
give offense one to another in matters of religion, adding that this
instruction was to be obeyed on land as well as at sea. In the fifteen
years between the landing and the enactment of the Act of Religious
Toleration, the colonists obeyed this edict of religious toleration in a
manner that was remarkable for the times. Catholics and Protestants,
as we know, shared a single chapel building in this city. In the book-
let giving a brief history of this church, it is written that "the first
services of the Church of England were held near here in 1634 in a
rude Indian hut, " and "by 1638 a brick chapel was built close by this
site and was shared with our Roman Catholic Brethren. "
Our Maryland records further disclose the extent to which these
religious toleration decrees of Cecilius Calvert were enforced. In 1638,
one William Lewis, a Catholic, was charged by his Protestant servants
of proselyting by force of his authority. He was tried by a predomi-
nantly Catholic court, found guilty and fined 500 pounds of tobacco.
Three years later, Thomas Gerard, also a Catholic was charged with
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