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 27
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The Anabaptists, properly so called, are numerous in almost every state in the union. They are said to be " chiefly upon the Calvinistic plan as to doc- trines, and independents in regard to church-government. . Horse's Geography, artic. Pennsylvania. If we could place any confidence in an allegation made in a law of Massachusetts against them, in the year 1644, which must have been shortly after their first emigration to America, to wit : that " they denied the lawfulness of magistrates," it would seem, that they had not then relinquish- ed all their dangerous tenets. But this allegation might have been made merely to cover the persecution against them. See the law in Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 538.
NOTE (M) p. 181.
The reader, it is hoped, will not be displeased with the insertion here of a description of the execution of Servetns, extracted from a MS. history of him, cited in a note on the same subject in Roscoe's Pontificate of Leo X, chi. 19. " Impositus est Servetus trunco ad terram posito, pedibus ad terram pertin- gentibus, capiti imposita est corona, straminea vel frondea, et ea sulphure conspersa, corpus palo alligatum ferrea catena, collum autem tunc fune crasso quadruplici aut quintuplici laxo; liber femori alligatus; ipse carnificem roga- vit, ne se diu torqueret. Interea caruifex ignem in cjus conspectum, et deinde in orbem admovit. Homo, viso igue, ita horrendum exclamavit ut universum populum perterre fecerit. Cum diu langueret, fuerunt ex populo, qui fasci-
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culos confertim conjecerunt. Ipse horrenda voce clamans, Jem, Fili Dei Eter- ni, miserere mei. Post dimidiæ circiter hora cruciatum expiravit." On this Roscoe remarks, that Calvin, who was apprehensive that the death of Ser- vetus might entitle him to the rank of a martyr, thought it necessary to defame his memory, by asserting that he had no religion; and inhumanly at- tributed the natural expression of his feelings, on the approach of his horrible fate, to what he calls a brutal stupidity. " Ceterum ne male feriati nebulones, recordi hominis pervicacia quasi martyris glorientur, in ejus morte apparuit belluina stupiditas, unde judicium facere liceret, nihil unquam serio in reli- gionem ipsum egisse. Ex quo.mors ei denunciata est, nunc attonito similis hærere, nunc alta suspiria edere, nunc instar lymphatici ejulare, Quod pos- tremum tandem sic invaluit, ut tantum, hispanico more, reboaret, Misericor- dia, Misericordia." Calvini Opus. p. 101 .- Was not this making a cruel scoff at the sufferings of this unfortunate man ? And are we not as much surprised at the opinion expressed on Servetus's execution by a celebrated cotemporary reformer-Melanchton ? " Miratus sum esse qui severitatem illam impro- bent." -- But we find the principle of these intolerant sentiments recorded in Calvin's "Christian Institution "-" Si penes singulos jus et arbitrium erit judicandi nihil unquam certi constitui poterit, quin potius tota vacillabit reli- gio." Calv. Inst. Lib. 4, p. 10. sect. 31 .- But we are told, that the followers of these reformers have left off these things, particularly in America; and that the excellent constitution of the United States gives unbounded freedom in matters of religion .- Vain deception !- The constitution of the United States, it is true, provides, in one of its amendments, that " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."-It is possible, that instances may occur, where this amendment to the constitution may be of some use ; as appears from two recent cases in the Inte session (in 1810-11,) where the president thought it proper to interpose bis disapprobation of two bills deemed by him unconstitutional under this clause. But as congress seldom have occasion to legislate on subjects of re- ligion, the oppression of individuals in the enjoyment of their religious as well as civil rights, is most generally to be apprehended from the state go- vernments. In most of the states the penalties of the common law, in matters ofreligion, still subsist. The bloody statutes also, of some of them, only sleep. Not being repealed they are liable to be called up into action at any moment when either superstition or fanaticism shall perceive a convenient time for it. What Jew, Socinian, or Deist, possessing a sound mind, would venture, in the state of Maryland for instance, to open his lips even in defence of his own re- » ligion ?- Alas ! (as Roscoe observes on this subject,) "The human mind, a slave in all ages, has rather changed its master, than freed itself from its ser- "itude."
NOTE (N) p. 191.
In Tindal's edition of Rapin's ilist. of Engl. (vol. 7. p. 528,) it is suggested, that "the severities, which from this time" (to wit, that of making the sta-
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tute of 35 Eliz. ch. 1.)," began to be exercised in England upon the nonconfor- mists, were probably occasioned by the disturbances caused by Hacket an i some other enthusiasts." This William Hacket, (according to the account of him given by Bayle, in his Hist. Dict. art. Hacket, which account seems to have been extracted principally from Camden's Annals,) was originally a servant to one Mr. Hussey in Northamptonshire. It was a practice with him to attend the sermons of the Puritan ministers, for the purpose of repeating them again to his acquaintance, and though illiterate, yet having a most retentive memory, he would over his cups with his companions, amuse them with a mock recital of their sermons. Being much addicted to drunkenness and debauchery, to support his expenses in that way he turned a highwayman. At last he set up for a prophet, and prophesied famine, pestilence, and war to England, unless it established the consistorial (or Calvinistic) discipline. He began to pro- phesy at York and Lincoln, for which, it seems, he was publicly whipped ; pro- bably on a prosecution against him at common law, as an impostor in religion ; (for which see 1 Hawk. ch. 5, sect. 3.) Having a wonderful fluency in extempo. rary prayer, he made the people believe, that it proceeded from an extraordi- nary gift of the Holy Ghost. He pretended to have a very great confidence in these prayers, for he said, that if all England should pray for rain, and he "should pray to the contrary, it would not rain. He had the address to per- suade two persons of some learning, Edmund Coppinger and Henry Arthing- ton, to join him. Coppinger assumed the title of the prophet of mercy, and Arthington that of the prophet of judgment. They gave out, that they had an extraordinary mission, and that next to Jesus Christ none upon earth had greater power than William Hacket. They declared that he was the sole monarch of Europe. They would have proceeded to the ceremony of unctior, but he would not suffer them, being already anointed, he said, by the Holy Ghost, in heaven. They asked him at last, what he had to command them, and protested they would pay an obedience without reserve. He ordered them to go and pro- claim through all the streets of London, that Jesus Christ was come to judge the world. They immediately obeyed him. They drew together, by their bawling, such a concourse of people, that being come to Cheapside, they could go no further, nor be heard; but finding an empty cart, they mounted upon it and discoursed of the important mission of William Hacket. They said, that he partook of the nature of glorified bodies, and was to convert all Europe to the consistorial discipline; and that the power of judgment was committed to him. They prophesied, that all who refused to obey this king of all Europe, should kill one another, and that the queen should be dethroned .- Having thus, as faithful missionaries, propagated the doctrines of their lord and master, they returned to the inn where he lodged. As soon as Arthington approached his presence, he turned round to the people, who had followed them, and cried out, " Behold the king of the earth!" They were afterwards arrested, prosecuted, and tried for high treason; (it being plainly within the statute of 13 Elix. ch. 1, at that time in force ; see 1 Hak's Hist. Pl. Cr. 819.) When
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they were on their trial, they refused to take their hats off before the judges, saying, they were above the magistrates. Hacket also, at the same time, ex- pressed to the judges the most virulent invectives against the queen, and added, that his design was to rob her of her crown and life, and change the whole form of the government. Hacket was executed in pursuance of his sen- tence, which was, to be hanged and quartered. Coppinger starved himself to death in prison; and Arthington was pardoned. These disturbances in the streets of London occurred, (according to Bayle, as before-cited,) on the six- teenth of July, 1592, which was about six months prior to the making the statute of 35 Eliz. ch. 1 .- It must be acknowledged, that these scenes too strongly indicated a renovation in England of the then recent excesses of the Anabaptists at Munster. When religion will thus forcibly mingle itself with the political proceedings of the government, reason pronounces the necessity of applying some curb to it. The happiness of the people, the supreme law, in such case demands it.
NOTE (O) p. 202.
. Mr. Holmes, in his Annals, (in Note 5, at the end of his first volume,) has expressed considerable dissatisfaction with an American historian, for endea. vouring to represent, that the Puritans removed from Leyden to America, be- cause they were "obscure and unpersecuted." He seems to allude to an ex- pression of Mr. Marshall, in his Life of Washington, Vol. 1, p. 90, who says, that "their obscure situation at Leyden became irksome to them," and "with- ont persecution they made no converts." But it is to be observed, that Mar- shall has on this occasion, only copied the expressions and observations used . by Dr. Robertson in his History of New England, who could not be suspected of being an " advocate for the English hierarchy." Besides, as it is in vain to deny, that the eclat attending the foundation of any religious sect, which shall Imappen to make a noise in the world, has considerable operation in the minds of the founders, whether they are sincere in their belief or not, there cannot be much impropriety in saying, that the dread of having their schemes to prove abortive, and their names to sink into obscurity, would not a little mingle with other considerations, however laudable or virtuous. It is equally in vain also, to deny, that persecution has, in many instances, contributed much to promote the growth of religious sects. Robinson's sect being entirely destitute in Hol- land, of the nourishing dew of persecution, it was not too vague an inference, that, through want of this, they made fewer converts than they would other- w se have done. .. Without some of these means, by which a regular accession to their numbers could be made, it was evident, that old age, natural deaths, and the vexatious defection of their youth, so pathetically complained of, would in time work their annihilation.
Mr. Holmes is displeased also, that " the Puritans of Leyden and of New England are, to this day, represented as Brownists." But it seems to be cer- tain, however, from all the best historians of those times, that the first person
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among the Puritans, who set up a separate congregation distinct from the Presbyterian, was Robert Brown. Whether he then introduced the exact church-discipline, afterwards established by Robinson, is immaterial. Brown being the first person who appeared in England at this time, among the Puri- tans, at the head of a visible congregation, of a sect entirely new, would natu- rally induce persons of other sects to give them a name ; which they did, by calling them after their first apparent founder. It ought to be noticed, that it is not always in the power of any sect or religious society of people, to appro- priate to themselves a fixed determinate denomination. Other men will fix it for them. Nor is it in their power to alter it, any more than the language ge- nerally spoken. This is verified by that of the Quakers, who to this day dis- claim that name, it being a term of ridicule ; but call themselves " Friends," a term which few people adopt when they speak of them. A book written by Ro- binson, entitled " A just and necessary apologie of certain Christians no less contumeliously than commonly called Brownists or Barrowists," is cited by Mr. Holmes, to show what were Robinson's principles; in which Robinson pro- fesses that their religion was the same as the Dutch Reformed Church, except- ing something relative to the Apocrypha. That might be, and yet not be va- riant in doctrine from the church founded by Brown. But this citation of the title of Robinson's book is so far unfortunate, as to prove directly, that in the time of Robinson, according to his own acknowledgment, the members of his church were "commonly called Brownists ;" and moreover, that the Brownists and these anonymous "certain Christians," were, according to the confession of the chief or leader of the latter, one and the same sect; which reduces it to the question, whether it was in their own power, or in that of other men, to alter or continue their former denomination. Analogous to this, is the title of a very learned and well-written book, by that great apostle of the Quakers, Ro- bert Barclay : " An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called in scorn, Quakers ;" in which he, in the same manner as Robinson, professes to set forth the principles of the Quakers, and expressly mentions, that " it was a name not of their choosing, but reproachfully cast upon them." But it would be ridiculous for any Quaker, who professed to belong to what they call The Society of Friends, to say, that he was no Quaker. In corroboration of what is here said, it may be proper to subjoin a short extract from No. I, of the Appendix to the second Vol. of Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachusetts: "I shall briefly touch upon their eccle- siastical affairs. I suppose this people were the first who took or received the name of Independents, which in a few years after was the name given to a body of men in England, who assumed the government there. When they first went to Holland, they were known by the name of Brownists. Some of the characteris. tics of Brownism, they afterwards disclaimed, and at the same time disclaim- ed the name, which was generally odious ; the character of the founder of the sect, being at best, problematical. Besides, he renounced his principles, and returned to episcopacy. The Puritans they could not conform to, and there.
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fore considered themselves as a distinct church or by themselves, independent of all other." Who are meant here, "by the Puritans to whom they could not conform," unless they are the English Presbyterians, it is difficult to conceive. However, it shows, that when they first went to Holland, they were known by the name of Brownists ; but that Brown, by his apostacy, having brought the name into discredit, they began to be ashamed of it. To this may be added, that Sir William Temple, in his excellent " Observations on the United Pro- vinces," which he wrote about the year 1670, mentions the Brownists among other sects, "whose names were then almost worn out in all other parts," as a sect then and there existing by that name; which sect must certainly have been, the remains of either Robinson's or Smith's congregations at Amster- dam or Leyden.
, Mr. Holmes also represents Robinson as " a man of learning, of piety, and of Catholicism ;" and in Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachusetts, Vol. 2, Appen- dix, " he is said to have been a man of good learning, and of a benevolent dis- position ." where is mentioned, (we may suppose by way of confirmation of his character for learning,) that he was persuaded by Polyander, one of the divi- nity-professors in the university of Leyden, to dispute publicly with Episco- pius, another divinity-professor in the same university, on the religious tenets of the Armenians, a new sect then lately risen in Holland. When we read and reflect upon the troubles and distresses, which befel the persons who professed the Armenian tenets in Holland about this time, persecuted throughout ail the provinces more inveterately than the Puritans were in England, whatever " honour and respect" Mr. Robinson might have acquired from his disputation with Episcopius, it certainly was no evidence of his "benevolent disposition." The Gormarists, who were Calvinists, like the established Church in England, would tolerate no dissenters from their principles. The Armenians differed from them only with regard to the unintelligible mysteries of predestination, election, justification, and grace. If Robinson had one spark of a " benevolent disposition," he would not have joined the cry of persecution, in hunting down a sect for such differences of opinion, especially when these Armenians could boast, of having then at their head, such men as the patriotic Barnevelt and the learned Grotius.
NOTE (P) p. 217.
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I am well aware, that the Gallican Church, in the latter end of the seven- teenth century, made, under the auspices of Louis XIV, a noble stand against the encroachments of the papal power. Had the four articles, contained in the declaration made by the general assembly of the French clergy, on the 19th of March, 1682, been acknowledged by the pope, and adopted throughout other Catholic countries in Europe, the Roman Catholic church would have been as harmless in its political tenets as any other sect of Christians. The first of those articles was, "That kings and prices are not subject to the ecclesiastical power as to their temporals; and that they cannot be deposed, directly or indirectly,
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by the authority of the keys of the church, nor their subjects absolved from the allegiance and obedience, which they owe them." See Dupin's Hist. of the Church, Cent. XVII, ch. 19. But it is well known, that pope Imocent XI, as soon as he was informed of these proceedings of the French bishops, immedi- ately called a consistory at Rome, in which these four articles or propositions, were formally condemned and ordered to be burnt. See the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 26, p. 479. The Republic of Venice had, indeed, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, made a feeble effort to oppose the power of the pope to interfere in the political affairs of the state, but in the end, were obliged to yield to it. The power of the pope, therefore, in deposing kings, and absolv- ing subjects from their allegiance, was generally acknowledged throughout the greater number of the Catholic states of Europe, until the emperor Napoleon, on the 17th of February, 1810, deprived the Roman pontiff of all temporal power, and obliged him to swear to the observance of the above-mentioned four propositions contained in the declaration of the French clergy, in 1632, as before-mentioned.
NOTE (Q) p. 224.
The author, in vindication of those observations he makes on the conduct of the Catholics, begs leave to add a quotation from a work, which he has once or twice before cited, and which has been always held in high estimation by the literati of all Europe. Bayle, in his Historical and Critical Dictionary, art. Elizabeth, makes the following remarks on Moreri's Dictionary, in relation to the same article: " He should not have several times exaggerated the perse- cutions of the Roman Catholics, without mentioning the acts of rebellion which exposed them to that storm. A faithful historian, ought first to have observed their plots against the queen's government, and then the severe punishment she inflicted for those plots. The transposition of these two things, would be great unfaithfulness in a historian. What name then shall be given to Moreri's conduct, who suppresses entirely those plots ?" In another remark on the same article, he observes, " Elizabeth was forced, by reasons of state, to use seve- rity towards Papists. Some lost their lives; a great number of others, either suffered the rigours of imprisonment or inconveniences of exile. The Protes- .. tants of England confess this ; they do not deny the fact; but they maintain, that the wicked attempts of the Papists against the government, and against the queen, deserved such a punishment. You will be sure not to find this ob- servation in the libels of-the English Roman Catholics. You will indeed find the punishments, with all the rhetorical flourishes that can amplify them, but not a word of the seditious enterprizes which preceded, and were the cause of them. There are few relations, in which the order of events is not confounded. This confusion is not always produced by fraud ; a too turbulent zeal, is some- times the cause of it. An il !- conducted zeal, fixes the mind upon the hard- ships of persecuted virtue, and causes the provocation of the persecutors to be forgotten. If these two causes are not sufficient, dishonesty, which alone
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would disorder the events, completes the confusion. However it be, I have observed, that the principal difference between the accounts of Catholics and Protestants, consists in the order of the facts : each party endeavours to give the first place to the injuries they have endured ; they make a long detail of these, and pass over slightly what they have done, by way of reprisals, or what . they have suffered as a just punishment." These remarks of Mr. Bayle, mas bo presumed to have been made with the utmost impartiality. He was by birth a Frenchman, a son of a Huguenot minister in the south of France. For his fine taler. s and learning, he was made professor of moral philosophy and history, in & otestant college of Sedan. But that college being suppressed by Louis ::. , about the time of his revocation of the edict of Nantes, and Mr. Bayle being offered a like professorship in the college of Rotterdam, in Holland, he became a resident of that place, and there passed the remainder of his life. Although he always professed himself a member of the reformed French church, (except during a temporary conversion to the Catholic church, at an early period of his life,) yet his writings gave his enemies some apparent grounds to accuse him of Deism, and some indeed of Atheism. He was cer- tainly, what was called in England about this time, a Free-thinker ; and his writings, particularly his Dictionary, abound with severe sarcasms on the su- perstition and fanaticism of the age in which he lived. For this reason, his character was assailed by the bigots and fanatics, both of the Catholics and the Calvinists; but for the same reason also, his opinions, like those of Mr. Hume, are to be respected as of the most impartial authority, in all historical controversies between these two sects of religion.
NOTE (R) p. 233.
This commission, of July 15th, 1624, has been passed unnoticed by most of the historians of Virginia, possibly on account of the shortness of its duration, though it is probable that the proclamation of king Charles, on the 13th of ' May, 1625, might have been considered as a confirmation of this commission Upon the dissolution of the second and third charters of Virginia, under the · judgment in the court of king's bench, on the Quo Warranto, king James : thought it proper to erect a provincial council for " the management of the bu- 'siness and affairs of Virginia in England," which he did by this commission of July 15th, 1624. On the suggestion of this provincial council, he afterwards ' issued another commission, bearing date the 26th of August, (same year,) di- Frected to Sir Francis Wyat and others, (which see in Hazard's Collection>, , Vol. 1, p. 189,) appointing a governour and council in Virginia. Both these " commissions were intended, (as expressed in the body of them,) to be only tem- porary, until a new charter could, upon " advised consideration and delibera- tion," be passed, or " some other constant and settled course be resolved upon · and established;" and each of them had a clause of limitation of time at the ,"end of them, to wit: " to continue in force until such time as the king, by writing under his signet or privy seal, should signify his pleasure to the con-
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trary." This latter commission to the governour and council in Virginia was not intended to be repugnant to the former commission, to the provisional coun- cil in England, for the former were to act " according to such instructions as they should receive from the king or his commissioners here," (in England,) " to that purpose or intent."
NOTE (S) p. 254, 265.
(Copied from Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 337.)
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