1. The Settlers of North America—Martyrs for the Rights of Religious Conscience. Religious Exclusivity and Intolerance of the Puritans. Their Relation to Quakers and Catholics. The State Character of Religion. Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The Disabilities of the Latter. Anti-Catholic Legislation. The Proclamation of Freedom in Maryland and its Consequences. The Religious Intolerance of Congress. (Cont.)

The spirit of religious intolerance prevailed throughout the entire colonial era not only in the Puritan population, marked by its severe outlook, but also in all other colonies, with few exceptions. This spirit was given juridical expression in the fact that the majority of the colonies before the beginning of the struggle for independence had an established state religion. The Anglican Church held the primary position in this regard, being recognized by law in many colonies. “The clergy in America,” says an English author of the last century, “do not receive tithes, but in most colonies before the civil war (excepting New England, where Independents predominated) it was enacted that the colony should be divided into parishes and religious profession established there according to the rites and ceremonies of the Anglican Church, and that an annual salary should be collected for the maintenance of each parish clergyman”[1]. This law had particular force in Virginia, where the Anglican episcopal church was by statute of 1662 recognized as thoroughly state religion. “Although,” says the historian, “there was not clergy in more than one-fifth of the parishes, nevertheless the laws required strict conformity, and everyone was obligated to make contributions for its support. To collect parish taxes, twelve men were chosen in each parish with authority to fill all vacancies in the society. Control of church affairs passed from the parish to a special corporation, which the parish could thereafter not change and had no power over. No nonconformist could teach, even privately, under penalty of banishment; no reader could present the catechism or Holy Scripture. The weakened severity of Queen Elizabeth’s laws was renewed against the Quakers; for absence from church they were punished by a fine of twenty pounds sterling”[2]. In like manner, the Anglican Church was “established” in the states of Georgia and North and South Carolina, as may be judged from the fact that in their constitutions, drawn up after the proclamation of independence, they abolished the “establishment” of the church. The North Carolina Constitution of 1776, for example, prohibits the levying of a tax “for the purchase of land, or for the building of a house of worship, or for the support of any priest or clergy”[3]. In Georgia, the Anglican Church was directly established by colonial statute of 1758[4]. These colonies were mostly populated by English settlers of episcopal faith, and therefore the establishment of the Anglican Church in them is not surprising, since it was these colonies where the law of the establishment of this church, which operated in England itself, would most likely find application. Much more remarkable is the fact that similar establishments existed also in other colonies, populated by various nonconformists, although here the establishment was not limited to the Anglican Church but extended to all Protestant denominations. Thus the charter of New Hampshire decreed that “freedom of conscience must be granted to all Protestants, but especially should be approved and protected that religion which will be more in accord with the rites of the Anglican Church,” and such a decree remained in force in this colony until the very revolution[3]. The Puritans in their colonies hastened to establish their own confession as the state church. “In Connecticut, all persons were obligated to pay both for the support of the church and the community. Congregationalist churches were adopted and established by law”[5]. In Massachusetts, a colonial statute of 1716 enacted compulsory religious establishment, by which the assembly took care to supply every settlement with “a priest, legally qualified,” namely, “able, learned, of sound faith, of good behavior,” and made taxes for his support. Of all the original thirteen colonies that constituted the United States, only in four was there no more or less established church by law[6]. In all the others, religion was strictly a state matter; the clergy was appointed by the government, as was directly enacted by the Massachusetts statute; obligatory taxes were levied for the support of churches, and in general the law favored one confession and oppressed others.

At first, when diverse colonists lived in separate settlements, the civil establishment of the church was limited to one strictly defined confession, with the exclusion of all others, even if they were in principle kindred to each other. But later, as emigration increased, changes and relaxations in the principle of establishment became necessary. Diverse colonists became so intermingled that the dominance of any one confession over all the others became inconvenient and impossible. The consequence was that particular sectarian differences began to smooth out, civil legislation broadened its scope, and in the “establishment” of the church it had in view not the particular sectarian but the general confessional principle, so that several sects which in their particular differences were akin in their basic principle could fall under it. Gradually this principle expanded to the point where legislation came to divide all confessions into two categories—Protestantism and Catholicism, as two opposite and incompatible principles. This was already a considerable step toward religious freedom of conscience; but it could be beneficial only to one side or the other—the Protestant or Catholic. The resolution of the question of which side should prove to be in the position of dominance depended entirely on their relative numerical strength; and since the predominant majority of the population was Protestant, Protestantism naturally became the established religion. Catholicism thereby found itself outside the “establishment” and did not receive rights of religious conscience. And indeed, the charters which determined the confessional relations of the colonists limited laws on freedom of conscience to Protestants alone, with Catholics either passed over in silence or directly excluded. The New Hampshire charter provided “freedom of conscience for all Protestants.” The Massachusetts charter states: “For the greater convenience and encouragement of our living subjects, inhabiting the provinces of the Massachusetts Bay, and those who shall settle there hereafter, we ordain that forever hereafter freedom of conscience be allowed in the worship of God to all Christians, excepting papists, inhabiting or to inhabit the said province or territory.” The Georgia charter, which was in effect until 1752, commands “that freedom of conscience be allowed in the worship of God to all persons inhabiting or to inhabit the said province, and that all such persons, excepting papists, shall have free profession of religion”[7]. Most remarkable in the sense of the relation of Protestantism to Catholicism is the Rhode Island charter. It was granted to the colony as a result of a special petition in which the petitioners “freely declared that they heartily desired, if permitted, to make a living experiment that civil society can exist and flourish in its greatest perfection with full liberty in religious concerns.” The charter indeed provided “that all and each shall be free and fully possessed of his own judgment and conscience in matters of religious concern throughout the lands named, conducting themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this freedom for licentiousness and impiety, nor for civil injury or disturbance of others.” The meaning of this law grants full freedom of conscience without any restriction by confessional differences, but the colonial government, guided by the prevailing view, interpreted it in the sense of granting freedom of conscience to Protestants alone, with the exclusion of Roman Catholics[8]. A historian of the last century says: “Since the time of this charter, the form of government underwent very little change. In 1663 it was enacted that all men of sufficient means and good behavior who profess Christianity, with the exception of Roman Catholics, should be recognized as free”[9].

Thus the population gradually came to be divided juridically into two categories, encompassing two opposite religious principles—Protestantism and Catholicism. As mutually exclusive, they could not meet at any point, struggle between them was inevitable, and it now began with all the greater fierceness because Protestantism, without weakening itself through the divisions of particular sects, concentrated all its energy on suppressing Catholicism, which was already weak in numbers. And so in almost all the colonies there came a time of strict laws subjecting Catholics to merciless criminal prosecution. In New York, which was notable for comparative religious tolerance and which by the census of 1696 had only seven papists, or by the largest reckoning seven Catholic families, in the year 1700 an ordinance was issued which in its very opening characteristically expresses the spirit of Protestant relation toward Catholics. It begins with the words: “Whereas diverse Jesuits, priests, and papal missionaries have of late come and had residence in remote parts of this province and other neighboring his majesty’s colonies, and by their wicked and subtle insinuations have endeavored to disturb, seduce, and draw off the Indians from their due obedience to his most sacred majesty, excite and bring them to seditious rebellion and open hostility against the government,” it is therefore ordained “that any pastor coming into this province after November 1, 1700, or remaining therein after this date, shall be deemed a disturber and violator of public peace and safety, an enemy of true Christian religion, and shall be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; if he escapes from prison and is again taken, he shall be punished with death; any one who has harbored a pastor shall be fined two hundred pounds sterling and stand three days at the pillory”[10]. In 1701 a law was enacted by which Catholics were excluded from holding public office and deprived of voting rights[11]. In the following year, Queen Anne granted freedom of conscience to all inhabitants of New York, “excepting papists”[12]. These laws were not a dead letter; they found their counterpart in the relation of the Protestant population toward Catholics, which was extraordinarily hostile to them, as proven by facts of barbarous violence. In 1741 the people of New York were seized with panic on account of frequent fires. A rumor swept the city that Negroes had formed a conspiracy to burn the city and exterminate the population. The people fell into a fury, several Negroes were seized and hanged, but no conspiracy was discovered on their part. Then suspicion turned toward Catholics. “At first,” declared the governor of the province, “we thought only Negroes were involved, but now it is clear that the hand of Popery is here”[13]. And then a furious outcry arose against papists, the people sought someone to satisfy their bloodthirsty instincts, and finally fixed upon a certain John Ury as the chief culprit of all the troubles and disturbances. Suspecting him to be a Catholic priest, they seized him, brought him to trial, condemned him to death, and executed him in a barbarous manner[14]. Yet to this day his guilt has not been proved, and it has not even been proved that he was a Catholic priest or a Catholic at all, although he was accused and tried chiefly as a Catholic priest[15].