sure, incidents of religious friction under
the Calverts, during the first 50 years
of the colony, were isolated ones; but
an undercurrent of low-key animosity
and tension, perhaps engendered by the
still rather close control exercised by the
mother country or perhaps only carried
over by a hard core of the settlers, was
ever-present. The flame was not to be
lit until the Protestant Revolution of
1688, but the combustible elements
were there. When Establishment did
take its placej there was as much intol-
erance and persecution in Maryland as
in any of the colonies.
The foundation built by the Calverts,
however frayed from the outside, rested
on strong underpinnings and remains
important and valuable in any mean-
ingful interpretation of the First Amend-
ment.
The theory upon which Maryland
was founded, that of a state whose gov-
ernment was truly tolerant and whose
citizens enjoyed equal rights for all, did
not originate with George Calvert. In-
deed the idea was prevalent among
many political philosophers of the era.
Thomas More's Utopia spoke of a law
made —
"that every man might be of what
religion he pleased, and might
endeavor to draw others to it by
the force of argument and by
amicable and modest ways, but
without bitterness against those of
other opinions; but that he ought
to use no other force than that of
persuasion, and was neither to mix
it with reproaches or violence."18
It remained for Cecil Calvert, upon
the death of his father, to forge the ideal
18 Quoted in Andrews, Separation of
Church and State in Maryland 170 (1934).
18
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into a reality. Fortunately the second
Lord Baltimore was of much the same
mold as the first. He too was deter-
mined to "provide a refuge for English
Catholics, and . . . create a fair domain
for himself and his posterity," and
"realized that in the age of suspicion
and distrust in which his venture had
its inception the Catholics alone would
never be permitted ... to build a suc-
cessful colony."19 He recognized the
necessity for Protestants working hand
in hand with Catholics, and to prevent
discord between the factions, he sought
to do away with all factions through a
strict policy of religious liberty.20
Most of the early settlers of Maryland
were Protestant,21 and Cecil Calvert
realized that only the fairest treatment
of the colonists upon their arrival in the
new land would keep the province in
his hands.22 Religious tolerance was
maintained vigorously,23 but both Cecil
and his brother Leonard (who was to
become the colony's first governor while
the Proprietor remained in England)
went far beyond what they had to do to
save their charter or preserve their
rights, in order to protect the religiously
oppressed.24 This is clearly evidenced
19 Wroth, The First Sixty Years of the
Church of England in Maryland 1632-1692,
11 md. hist. mag. 6-7 (1916).
20 Inventory of the Church Archives of
Maryland / Protestant Episcopal: Diocese of
Maryland 7 (1940). See also G. petrie,
church and state in early maryland 12
(1892); and B. browne, george and
cecilius calvert 98 (1890).
21 allen, supra note 17 at 18-19.
22 skirven, supra note 17 at 7.
23 petrie, supra note 20 at 15. See also
1 J. scharf, history of maryland 151-82
(1879).
24 ives, supra note 7 at 146.
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