. The Pennsylvania-German in the settlement of Maryland . CHAPTER IX. The Religious Life. MITH the exception ofVirginia, the Englishcolonies planted in Americaduring the seventeenth cen-tury were founded for thepurpose of escaping religiouspersecution. The ruling pow-ers having determined thatthe established church shouldbe paramount, allowed nomiddle ground, and laws ofthe greatest severity wereput into force against theRoman Catholics, Puritans, Dissenters, etc. The colonyof Maryland was founded by Roman Catholics and untilthe beginning of the eighteenth century the members ofthat denominati
. The Pennsylvania-German in the settlement of Maryland . CHAPTER IX. The Religious Life. MITH the exception ofVirginia, the Englishcolonies planted in Americaduring the seventeenth cen-tury were founded for thepurpose of escaping religiouspersecution. The ruling pow-ers having determined thatthe established church shouldbe paramount, allowed nomiddle ground, and laws ofthe greatest severity wereput into force against theRoman Catholics, Puritans, Dissenters, etc. The colonyof Maryland was founded by Roman Catholics and untilthe beginning of the eighteenth century the members ofthat denomination were in the majority, yet a spirit ofreligious toleration prevailed such as was scarcely to befound in any other colony.^^ This is the more remark- 61 The excellent character which Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, is said tohave always borne, would prompt us to impute this proceeding to the 89. 9© The Pennsylvania-German Society. able considering the attitude of the Roman Catholics inthe mother country, particularly during the reign of QueenMary, and it is a curious side-light on the mutations ofhuman affairs that the only religious persecution that oc-curred in the colony was directed against the Roman Cath-olics, following the Puritan Revolution. At some time previous to 1638 the governor of theprovince had issued a proclamation prohibiting all un-seasonable disputations in point of religion, tending to thedisturbance of public peace and quiet of the colony, andthe opening of faction in religion, but when this wasissued is not known, for, as Bozman states, the proclama-tion does not appear in the records. In 1648, in commis-sioning William Stone as governor. Lord Baltimore in-cluded in the oath of office to be taken by the governor aprovision that he would not molest or discountenance forhis religion any person professing to believe in Jesus Christand, in particular, no R
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