Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/73

 possibly hope to erect a purely Catholic community in Maryland. Indeed, his charter, strictly interpreted, contemplated the migration of no Catholics at all, for even their existence in England was without the sanction of law. Yet, being loyal to Rome, Lord Baltimore could hardly close his dominions to his own brethren; on the contrary, his first appeal for emigrants among the gentry seems to have been made mainly to persons of his own creed.

Nevertheless, discretion appears to have been the rule for all the Baltimores; only by the exercise of ingenuity could they expect to hold their property in the midst of the religious disputes that rent the English nation at home and filled with turmoil the colonies in the New World. In the original charter, drawn by the hand of the first Lord Baltimore, it was expressly provided that churches built in the colony were to be consecrated "according to the ecclesiastical laws of England"; thus, in form at least, the Protestant religion of the Established Church was to be the lawful religion of Maryland.

The successors of the original Lord Baltimore were equally circumspect. The son and heir in his instructions to the first governor and commissioners warned them that on the expedition over the sea they should suffer no offense or scandal to be given to any of the Protestants. By way of precaution, he ordered them to "cause all acts of Roman Catholic Religion to be done as privately as may be," and to "instruct all the Roman Catholics to be silent upon all occasions of discourse concerning matters of religion." Sensing troubles ahead, he told them that, in opening their ticklish dealings with Anglican Virginia, they should choose as their messenger "one as is conformable to the Church of England."

When, in 1642, the arbitrary personal government of Charles I had come to an end and England had launched upon the course of revolution, Lord Baltimore was quick to discover a storm blowing in his direction; so he wrote to his governor in Maryland, "that no ecclesiastic in the