Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/136

 96 the proprietary. In 1649 an act was passed, punishing blasphemy, or denying the Holy Trinity, with death and confiscation of goods and lands; and, strangely enough after such a provision, in the same act, after a preamble, reciting that the confining of conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence, it is enacted, that no person "professing to believe in Jesus Christ," shall be molested for or in respect to his religion, or the free exercise thereof, nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any other religion. It seems not to have been even imagined, that a belief in the divine mission of Jesus Christ could, in the eyes of any sect of Christians, be quite consistent with the denial of the Trinity. This act was confirmed among the perpetual laws in 1676.

§ 108. The legislation of Maryland does not, indeed, appear to have afforded an uniform protection in respect to religion, such as the original policy of the founder would seem to indicate. Under the protectorate of Cromwell, Roman Catholics were expressly denied any protection in the province; and all others, "who profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, though differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or discipline publicly held forth," were not to be restrained from the exercise of their religion. In 1696 the Church of England was established in the province; and in 1702, the liturgy and rites, and ceremonies of the Church of England were required to be pursued in all the churches, with such