Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/76

 of the lower house was composed of Catholics, the assertion has been stoutly questioned on the other side. The truth is that there are no authentic records upon which to settle the dispute; there are no journals of the legislature showing how the members voted; and in any case, there is no reason why any lover of liberty in the abstract should grow excited over the spectacle. It is exercising restraint to say that a general freedom of conscience had not been up to that time a cardinal principle proclaimed by Catholics, Anglicans, or Puritans wherever they were in a position to coerce.

The terms of the Toleration Act itself reflect the nature of the liberty cherished by the parties which placed it on the statute books. It provided that no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ should be in any way molested in the exercise of his religion; while it imposed the sentence of death, accompanied by confiscation of goods, upon any person who "shall deny our Savior Jesus Christ to be the son of God or shall deny the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of the said Three Persons of the Trinity, or the Unity of the Godhead, or shall use or utter any reproachful speeches, words, or language concerning the Holy Trinity or any of the said Three Persons thereof."

Other penalties, fines and public whippings, were prescribed for those who spoke reproachfully of the Virgin Mary or any of the several sects and factions—Puritans, Presbyterians, Independents, Catholics, Jesuits, Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Brownists, Antinomians, Barrowists, Roundheads, or Separatists. Fines and whippings were laid down for all who "prophane the Sabbath or Lords day called Sunday by frequent swearing, drunkenness, or by any uncivil or disorderly recreation or by working on that day when absolute necessity doth not require." Such are the terms of the Act. Such are the circumstances in which it was passed. Such are the facts in the celebrated case, upon which those who feel called upon to make righteous judgments may base their verdict.