USA > Maryland > A sketch of the history of Maryland during the three first years after its settlement : to which is prefixed, a copious introduction > Part 16
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1603. On the death of Elizabeth, and on the accession Theircon- of James to the throne, the English Catholics, as e cion the acces- before observed, had cherished ardent hopes, that he mon of would restore them to their lost influence and power. Disappointed in these expectations, and surprised and enraged, to find James on all occasions, express . his intention of strictly executing the laws already enacted against them, and moreover actually giving his royal assent to further rigorous statutes against them,t a few of the most zealous among them be- gan to revolve in their minds some means of libe- rating themselves from the persecution they expe- rienced. In the fury of these sentiments, they medi- tated that horrible contrivance usually denominated
* Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 7, p. 446. Hume's Hist. ch. 41.
+ See note (Q) at the end of the volume.
* See the statutes of ! Jac. I, ch. 4 and 25.
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the Gunpowder Plot : "an event," as Hume ob- serves, "one of the most memorable that history has conveyed to posterity, and containing at once a 1603. singular proof both of the strength and weakness of the human mind ; its widest departure from morals, and most steady attachment to religious prejudices ; a fact as certain, as it appears incredible." As this scheme consisted in blowing up by gunpowder, the two houses of parliament, while the king was deli- vering his speech to them from the throne, the ex- cellence of it, as boasted of by them, was, that by a sort of retributive justice, it would destroy at one blow, the authors of their sufferings, and bury their principal enemies in one common ruin. " They flattered themselves with the vindictive pleasure of beholding those sacrilegious walls, in which were passed the edicts for proscribing their church, tossed into a thousand fragments." Their scheme, how- ever, was discovered in a very extraordinary man- ner, within a few days prior to its intended execu- tion, and consequently became abortive.
The parliament met in safety, and notwithstand- 1605-6. ing the king's speech to them contained a softening The causes of apology for the Catholics, they proceeded to enact additional laws, not only for the attainder of such offenders in against statutes the late plot, as had made their escape out of the them. kingdom, but " for the better discovering and re- pressing of popish recusants," and " to prevent and avoid dangers" arising from such recusants .* By these statutes, additional disabilities, restraints, pe- nalties and forfeitures, were imposed upon the Eng -.
· See the statutes of 3 Jac. 1. ch. 4 and 5.
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SECT. IX. fish Catholics beyond what they had been before liable to. And thus, by an intemperate zeal and 1606. injudicious conduct, not comporting with any sound principles of morality, however consistent it might be with their religious tenets, they brought on them- selves a greater degree of intolerance from the Pro- testants towards them, than they would otherwise have experienced.
It does not appear that any other statutes against Catholics were enacted during the remainder of James's reign. Those already mentioned, both of this and the preceding reigns, contained severities enough to keep them in all due subjection, had those laws been executed on all occasions with the utmost rigour. But it seems to have been one of the greatest anxieties of James's life, to exculpate himself in the eyes of the rest of Europe, from the charge of being a persecutor of the Catholics, though he heartily joined in the suppression of the Puri- tans. He accordingly, therefore, pardoned popish recusant convicts, or remitted their forfeitures, as often as the clamour of his Protestant subjects would permit him to do it with any seeming propriety. As the house of commons during his reign, was com- posed entirely of members professing to be of the established Protestant Church, among whom were many strongly tinctured with Puritanism, and as the administration of justice and the execution of the laws, would necessarily be intrusted to many zealous Protestants, it soon became impossible for the Catholics to live in the kingdom, and at the . same time openly profess their religion. When- wer, therefore, any great incident occurred relative
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to persons of that persuasion, the nation seemed to feel an uncommon alarm. The assassination of Henry IV, of France, which happened not long af- terwards, had such an effect upon the English na- tion, that James, instigated in all probability not a little by a sense of his own personal danger, was under a necessity of issuing his proclamation, com- manding all jesuits and priests to depart the king- dom, and that no recusants should come within ten miles of the court. This tragical event in France, so roused the antipathy of the Protestants to the Catholics, that the laws began now to be executed against them with increased rigour and severity. The king's absurd obstinacy, in persisting in his endeavours to marry his son Charles to a princess of the royal family of Spain, was another constant source of uneasiness to his Protestant subjects. They dreaded the consequences of such a union, to their party in England ; and as the increased in- fluence and power of the house of commons, be- came obviously discernible towards the latter part of his reign, insomuch that larger strides towards that political liberty, which they afterwards, in Charles's reign, more boldly assumed, were for the first time manifested by that body, in a remon- strance to the king, on the then state of affairs. Jealous of the extraordinary propensity of James to favour the Catholics, they urged to him in a bolder tone than any house of commons had ever before used towards a sovereign of England, the dangers which they apprehended to the Protestant religion. Among the many causes of those great and grow- ing mischiefs which they apprehended, they repre.
SR.CT. IX.
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1621.
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SECT. sented "the devilish positions and doctrines whereon IX. popery is built, and taught with authority to their 1621. followers, for advancement of their temporal ends.
L
" The expectation of the popish recusants of the match with Spain, and feeding themselves with great hopes of the consequences thereof.
" The interposing of foreign princes, and their agents, in the behalf of popish recusants, for conni- vance and favour unto them.
" Their forfeitures compounded for, at such mean rates, as amounted to less than a toleration.
" The licentious printing and dispersing of po- pish books, even in the time of parliament.
" The swarms of priests and jesuits, the com- mon incendiaries of all Christendom, dispersed in all parts of the kingdom.
" And that the popish religion had such a restless spirit, that if it should once get but a connivance, it would press for a toleration : if that should be ob- tained, they must have an equality ; from thence they would aspire to superiority, and will never rest till they get a subversion of the true religion."
Among a variety of cther remedies for these evils, they pressed his majesty " to put in execution the laws for preventing of dangers by popish recu- sants."*
The ex- cesses of
lics and Puritans, give rise to politi- cal par- Les.
It is at this session of parliament, that historians the Catho- have fixed the era of the rise of the two distinct po- litical parties in England, which have subsisted even to this day, under different denominations. Those who opposed the absolute power, which the
" Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 8, p. 191.
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king now claimed, formed soon afterwards what SECT. was known by the name of the country-party, and IX. received the powerful aid of the Puritans. The 1621. court-party were principally composed of the clergy of the established Church, those also who enjoyed offices under the crown, and the vast body of Ca- tholics, which secretly lurked in the kingdom .* But as, happily for the English nation and their de- scendants in America, those who advocated the rights of the people, as exercised by their represen- tatives in parliament, finally prevailed, so even, throughout the remainder of the reign of James, they found themselves able to maintain that firm position which they had now taken in support of their religious as well as civil and political liberties. For the reasons before suggested, it became neces- sary, in their estimation, that the English Catholics, who certainly were but a minor part of the nation, should yield up their religious rights, when the en- joyment of them became manifestly incompatible with those of a majority of the people. It was in' this state of things, that parliament now pressed the execution of the laws heretofore made against them.
But James was too tenacious of what he deemed his prerogative, to give way so readily. Soon after he had prorogued and dissolved parliament, in order - to please the king of Spain, and to promote the pro- jected match between his son and the infanta, in defiance of the law, as well as the before-mentioned remonstrance of the commons, he issued writs to
* Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 8, p. 182. Hume's Hist. note [ LL] to ch. 48.
boğa الرصاص 0
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SECT. IX. the judges and justices of the peace, to release all the imprisoned recusants. Deeming himself head 1621. of the English Church, and thereby possessed of supreme ecclesiastical power, he wished to have it considered, that the toleration of Catholics was a measure of that nature. But not.only the religious Puritans murmured at this proceeding of the king ; the friends of civil liberty were alarmed at so im- portant an exertion of prerogative : for it does not appear to have been definitively ascertained, at this period of time, whether the king had not a power of dispensing with penal statutes .* This last session of parliament, however, appears to have formed a crisis, from which the declension of the royal pre- rogutive under the English constitution is mani- festly visible. As the Catholics had, prior to this period, by the patronage of the king, gained such an evident ascendancy in their influence in the af- fairs of the nation, as to render the situation of the Puritans so uncomfortable, as to prompt them to cmigration, so now the Puritans, in their turn, through the increased power and privileges of the house of commons ; of which many of them, or at least many of those who inclined much to favour them, were members, began to be enabled to retort upon the Catholics, their own intolerant . system. By their clamours for a vigorous execution of the
* Rapin says, that some stop was put to these dispensing mandates or writs of the king, by the advice of the lord keeper, Williams. Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 8, p. 261. But this was subsequent to the period of time we are now speak- ing of, and at the time of the ratification of the Spanish treaty of marriage, in 1623.
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laws against Papists, it became now necessary for SECT. IX.
them also to look about for a place of refuge.
It was in this situation of things, that Sir George Calvert, who was still one of the principal secreta-
1621.
First scheme of ries of state, and an acknowledged Roman Catho- a colony lic, influenced probably by the then recent previous Catholics, of English example of the Puritans in New England, contem- found- in New- plated a settlement of Catholics in Newfoundland. land, un- der the Standing high in the favour of his sovereign, not patronage of Sir only perhaps from his long services to him as secre- George tary for many years, but from his late zealous exer- . Calvert. tions in promotion of the Spanish match, an event so ardently desired by all the Catholics, they natu- rally looked up to him as one of their ablest pro- tectors. * He easily, therefore, obtained a grant
* These exertions of Sir George do not appear to have been strictly honourable, if what is mentioned by Rapin be true. He is said to have been one of those whom count Gon- demar, the Spanish ambassador, had bribed with presents and pensions, to cherish in the king this vain project of marrying his son to the infanta. It is said also, that the count extend- ed his system of bribery, on this occasion, oven to the very ladies about the court, of which we may be excused for men- tioning a pleasant anecdote. It happened that he had ne- glected to bribe the lady Jacobs, who, upon his passing by her window in his chair, instead of answering his salutation as usual, only gaped with her mouth, which repeating again next day, he sent to know the reason ; she replied, that " she had a mouth to stop as well as other ladies." In justice to Sir George, however, it ought to be observed, that being a zealous Roman Catholic, he might possibly have been active in promoting the matrimonial union between the crowns of England and Spain, not under the influence of a bribe, but through zeal in promoting the interests of his religion .. See Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 8, p. 167. There is a let- ter of Sir George Calvert to secretary Conway, about the Spa-
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SECT. IX. from the king, of that part of the island of New. foundland, which lies between the Bay of Bulls, on 1621. the east coast thereof, and Cape St. Mary's on the south, which was erected into a province, and called Avalon. This grant was, apparently, in direct re: pugnance to that previously made by the king, of the same tract of country, in the year 1610, as be- fore-mentioned, to the earl of Northampton, and others. But, as the expedition under Mr. Guy, for a settlement thereof, had totally failed, and the patentees had, to all appearance, entirely relinquish. ed their intention of making any further use of their patent, Sir George might, with propriety, accept the grant. He accordingly, therefore, prepared to execute the purposes and intention of his patent. Previous, however, to his own embarkation for the country granted to him, he thought it most proper for him to send a small colony thither, under the command of a captain Edward Wynne, as gover- · nour, who seated himself and colonists, at a place called Ferryland, a harbour on the east coast of Newfoundland, between Cape Race and the Bay of Bulls. Here he commenced a settlement, erected granaries and store-houses, and built the largest dwelling-house that had ever been seen on the is- 1622. land. In the following year, (1622,) he set up a salt-work, and had the encouragement, through the interest and means of the proprietor, of receiving a reinforcement to his colony, by the arrival of an addi-
nish match, among the Harleian MSS. in the British mu- seum ; but of the contents of it, we have not on this side of the Atlantic, a convenient opportunity of knowing.
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tional number of colonists and fresh supplies of SECT. stores and provisions. Exaggerated accounts of EX. 1624. the fertility of the soil, and pleasantness of the coun- try, being transmitted to Sir George,* he is said to have determined to remove thither and reside there with his family. Continuing to be one of the principal secretaries of state, and appointed by James one of the provisional council in England, for the co- lony of Virginia, in the commission to Henry Vis- count Mandeville, and others, t issued by that mo- narch shortly after the judgment in the court of king's bench on the quo warranto, to avoid the for- mer charters of Virginia, it is not probable that Sir George put in execution his intention of removing to Ferryland, prior to the death of king James. On this event it seems to have been supposed, that this commission, as well as that to Sir Francis Wyat and others, of the 26th of August (1624,) for the establishing a government in Virginia, were annul- led by the demise of the crown .; On the acces -- sion of Charles to the throne, it appears, that Sir George Calvert ceased to be a secretary of state, for we find that lord Conway and Sir John Cook are mentioned as secretaries of state in August, · 1625, about five months after the death of king James, § and Sir George Calvert is no more men-
1624.
1625.
* Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 250.
t This commission bears date July 15th, 1624, about eight months before the death of king James. See it in Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 183. See note (R) at the end of the volume.
# Holmes's Annals, Vol. I, p. 234. .
§ Rapin's Hist. of Eng. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 8, p. 333 .-
2 G
t
MT ml
Ir
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SECT. tioned in history in that capacity. He was,' for his IX. past services to the crown, created about this time,
1625. (either by king James, a little before his death, vor by Charles, in the first year of his reign,) lord baron of Baltimore, in the kingdom of Ireland .* Disen- gaged from the duties of office, he had now leisure to attend to his project of establishing a colony in America. With this view, it is said, that in the beginning of the reign of Charles he visited in per-
1 son his colony in Newfoundland.t Residing here for a few years, he soon discovered that it was not a country fit, or at least eligible for colonisation. As he had, without doubt, received full information of the flourishing situation of the colony of Virginia, and favourable accounts of the climate and soil of the 1608. Ford Bal- country bordering on the Chesapeake, he was in- timore vi- duced, in the year 1628, to visit that colony, in kits Virgi- search of some more desirable situation for his Ca-
, From the English histories of these times it appears, that there were then usually but two principal secretaries of state, and lord Clarendon (Hist. of the Rebellion, p. 21.) in charac- terising the different personages of young Charles's court, mentions " the two secretaries of state," Sir John Coke and Sir Dudley Carleton, the latter of whom had been re- cently put into the place of lord Conway, removed for age and incapacity. Lord Clarendon also here observes, that " the secretaries of state were not in those days officers of that magnitude they have been since, being only to make despatch- es upon the conclusion of councils, not to govern or preside in those councils."
* He was not created lord Baltimore at the time of the commission of July 15, 1624, being then styled only Sir George Calvert.
+ Chalmers's Annals, Vol. I, p. 201.
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tholic dependents .* Whether a jealousy of his co- SECT. lonial views, or those general prejudices against the IX. papists, which were now more prevalent than ever, 1628. even in the mother country, operated with the Vir- ginians, his visit was received by them most ungra- ciously indeed. What renders this reception of him somewhat more surprising, is, that the colonists of Virginia had not emigrated from England to evade religious persecution, as those of New England are supposed to have done, but seem to have been allu- red to it originally by the prospect of a sudden ac. cumulation of wealth, by means of the discovery of mines as the Spaniards had done, or a shorter route to the Indies. The Church of England was then the established religion in Virginia, and Puritanism had not been hitherto encouraged among them. It is true, that those in England who were denominated high churchmen, as archbishop Laud and others, were accused by the Puritans of being inclined to po- pery; but it is to be remembered, that king Charles constantly professed, and apparently with sincerity, to be alike opposed to popery and Puritanism .; He
* Some writers make his visit to Virginia to have been in 1631; (See Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 261 ;) but Burkjin his late History of Virginia, Vol. 2, p. 25,) places this event In 1628; for which he seems to rely on a MS. copy of " An- cient Records" of Virginia, in his possession, preserved from destruction in the time of the American revolution, by colo- nel Byrd.
t Even Rapin acknowledges, that he did not believe that ei- ther the king or archbishop Laud ever formed the design of restoring the Romish religion, and mentions the circumstance of the archbishop being offered a cardinal's cap, if he would help to do it. Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) Vol. 8, p. 526-7.4
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SECT. I.Y. was evidently less inclined to favour the papists than his father had been. It is clearly perceptible through- 1623. out the early part of his reign, that the churchmen considered themselves as standing upon a ground quite distinct from either the papists or the Puri- tans. Taking the tone from the sovereign, the offi- cers of justice began to put in execution the laws against both more frequently than in the former reign though the emptiness of the royal coffers induced the monarch to connive at the frequent practice of compounding for the penalties. It is not impossible, but that this disposition of the minds of church- men towards the Catholics, had passed by this time across the Atlantic to Virginia.
The con- ductofthe Virgi- nians to- warris hun.
Immediately on the arrival of lord Baltimore in Virginia, the assembly of that province, actuated, as is supposed by a late historian,* by a sense of duty, caused the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to be tendered to him and his followers. He rejected them, proposing, however, at the same time, for himself and his followers a form of oath, which he de- clared himself ready to accept. As particular forms of these oaths were prescribed by particular statutes, it was not in the power of the assembly to dispense with them after being tendered. In this state mat- ters rested, the assembly contenting itself with lay- ing the whole transaction before the privy-council in England.+
Setting aside the want of courtesy and hospitality in this treatment of lord Baltimore, and the ques-
* Burk, 'in his Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 2. p. 25. - *
1 Burk's Hist. Ibid.
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all
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1628.
tionable colonial policy of the measure, as it would appear to us at this day, considerable doubts might arise, as to the legal power of the assembly, in this instance, to tender these oaths to his lordship. No such power appears to have been given by what is called the first charter of Virginia, of 4 Jac. 1. By the second charter of the 7 Jac. 1, power was given (as before-mentioned*) " to the treasurer for the time being, and any three of the council," (that is, any three of the council of Virginia in England,) " to tender and exhibit the said oath" (of suprema- cy,) " to all such persons as shall at any time be sent and employed in the said voyage." By the third charter of Virginia, of the 9 Jac. 1, power is given to the treasurer or his deputy for the time being, " or any two others of the said council, for the said first colony in Virginia, to minister and - give the oath and oaths of supremacy and allegiance, or either of them, to all and every person and persons which shall at any time or times hereafter, go or pass to the said colony of Virginia." But it is evi- dent, that these clauses of dedimus potestatem, in both these charters, vested authority for that purpose in the treasurer and company in England, and not in any of the members of the government in Virginia, and that too must have been necessarily exercised by them before such persons passed into Virginia. But after all, should this reasoning not be thought to be correct, it is certain, that these charters were all annulled by the judgment of the court of king's bench, on the quo warranto before-mentioned, and
* See this clause of this charter before recited in p. 159.
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SECT. the assembly itself was but a self-created body, not IX. authorized by the commission of government to 1628. Mr. John Hervey, of the 26th of March, 1627, the only then existing authority for the government of Virginia. Moreover, if these oaths were tender- ed to him by two justices of the peace, of the pro- vince, the statutes which enabled two justices to do so, expressly excepted noblemen from their ju- risdiction.
It was not to be expected, that such a conscien- Crs Anong the fa ho- tious Catholic, as lord Baltimore is represented to respect to have been, could with propriety have taken the lie ; with the oaths of alle :- giance . and supre- mac). oath of supremacy, which oath at that time was the one prescribed by the statute of 1. Eliz. ch. 1, sec. 19; inasmuch as he must thereby have declared, that the king was the only supreme governour of all his dominions and countries, " as well in all spi- ritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as tempo- ral." This could not consistently be done by one who believed the pope to be the supreme head of the Christian church. It was, probably, then known also by his lordship, being an Irish peer, that pope Urban VIII had but a few years before (in the year 1626) issued his bull to the Irish Catholics, in which " he exhorted them rather to lose their lives, than to take that wicked and pestilent oath of su- premacy, whereby the sceptre of the Catholic church was wrested from the hand of the vicar of God Almighty."* But as to the oath of allegiance, which was that prescribed by the statute of 3 Jac. 1, ch. 4, sect. 15, although it required a denial
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