Religious Toleration in Maryland Law

By Travis Clatterbuck, Outreach Specialist

The charter for the colony of Maryland was granted by King Charles I in 1632 to George Calvert (Muzzey, 1925, p. 45).  Calvert was a strong Catholic believer in a deeply protestant England which displayed very little tolerance (Stewart, 1875, p. 59).  Catholics in particular were subjected to harsh persecution in England.  They were fined for not attending the official Anglican Church, owning weapons, and trying to convert protestants to Catholicism (Bassett, 1932, p. 53-54).  Catholics were also forced to pay additional fees if they wished their children to attend or be taught in Catholicism as they were forced to either hire private schoolmasters or send their children overseas for their education at their own cost.  Catholics were also barred from being married by their own clergy, acting as executors, or being buried in their Catholic church yards.  King James I, who was even a Catholic sympathizer, collected thirty-six thousand pounds annually through Catholic fines.  The conditions in England caused George Calvert to seek a colony of his own where Catholics would be treated fairly (Stewart, 1875, p. 59-60).

Calvert First attempted to settle a colony in Newfoundland but failed due to the poor climate, which made planting crops difficult.  Next, Calvert set his sights on settling in Virginia, but he quickly changed his mind upon a visit to Jamestown in 1628 where he learned that Catholics were no more welcome there than in England.  Finally, George Calvert was issued the Charter for a colony in the New World in 1632 from King Charles I.  He named his new colony Maryland after the Queen of England, Henrietta Maria.  However, George Calvert died before the charter patent was issued and it fell to his son Cecil Calvert.  Cecil Calvert sent his brother, Leonard Calvert, to settle the new colony in October 1633 in two ships: the Ark and the Dove (Bassett, 1932, p. 53).  The ships carried about twenty gentlemen and two hundred laborers.  Leonard Calvert and the gentlemen were primarily Catholics, while the laborers were mostly protestant.  The settlers arrived in the Chesapeake Bay in early 1634 and established St. Mary’s, the first colony in Maryland, on March 27, 1634. 

         Maryland was a colony like no other from the very beginning.  Maryland’s charter specified that the laws were to be made only with, “the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen of the said Province, or the greater part of them, or of their delegates or deputies.”  The Calverts held ownership of the land and were the head of the administrative, judicial, and military powers.  However, the ability to create laws fell to the Maryland Assembly.  The General Assembly was originally composed of every freeman, regardless of age, color, or property ownership (Papenfuse, Jr, 1999).  Property requirements were eventually added and in 1649 it was decided that the freemen would elect delegates to represent them in the General Assembly.  From the 1649 Maryland General Assembly came a religious tolerance law called, An Act Concerning Religion, now more commonly known as the Act of Religious Toleration.  The Act granted all Christians the liberty to freely worship as they chose (Stewart, 1875, p. 60-61).  The Act was limited in its tolerance as it only extended to Christianity.  However, despite its limitations, the Act was the first of its kind in the new colonies that granted religious tolerance.  Only Rhode Island, which was founded by Roger Williams on the principle of religious freedom, provided further religious toleration in the colonies at the time of the Act (Muzzey, 1925, p. 46-47). 

The Calverts had several reasons to extend toleration towards other groups of Christians in their colony.  Before the passage of the Act of Religious Toleration, the Calverts had clearly marked that religious strife amongst Christian denominations would not be tolerated in their new colony (Papenfuse, Jr, 1999).  At Maryland’s founding, the Calverts were willing to provide religious tolerance as the prospects for Catholics in England were beginning to look better with the death of King James I (Bassett, 1932, p. 54).  The new king, Charles I, was more likely to lean towards Catholicism and his wife Henrietta Maria was an open Catholic.  George Calvin’s plan to have Maryland be a safe haven for Catholics was impeded as many Catholics chose to remain in England and see how Charles I’s reign would impact them.  Thus, the Calverts were willing to offer tolerance for all Christian groups to increase immigration to the colony.  However, when the Act of Religious Tolerance was passed there was much turmoil in England (Papenfuse, Jr, 1999).  King Charles I had recently been executed by Parliament just two months earlier in part due to his religious tendencies towards Catholicism and his marriage to a Catholic.  These tendencies and marriage left many English protestants fearing the King’s children’s religious beliefs.  This could be another reason the Act was put on paper as there was fear of a similar conflict occurring in Maryland over religious differences.  Finally, by 1649 Maryland was primarily inhabited by protestants (Brown, 1876, p. 31).  This majority and a protestant governor were yet more reasons for the Calverts to support a Religious Toleration Act as it would have protected Catholics from persecution in the colony.  Regardless of the reasons behind the Calverts promoting the Act of Religious Tolerance it was well ahead of its time and made Maryland a colony where all Christian groups could seek asylum (Papenfuse, Jr, 1999).  

The Act of Religious Tolerance was temporarily removed in 1654, just five years after it was enacted.  The political and religious tension in England resulted in a civil war which ended in King Charles I being beheaded and Oliver Cromwell, a noted Puritan, coming to power as Lord Protector.  The turmoil in England caused reactions throughout the English Empire.  In Maryland, Puritans revoked the Act of Religious Toleration, removing the rights of Catholics, Jews, Quakers, Atheists, and all dissenters to openly practice their religions.  However, after the death of Cromwell in 1661 the Maryland General Assembly restored the laws that the Puritan majority had withdrawn.  The Act then remained for another thirty-one years, until 1692 when Maryland became a Royal Colony under King William and Queen Mary.

Nationally, the right to religious freedom was protected in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1791.  However, Maryland’s State Constitution would not catch up until 1867.  The Maryland Constitution of 1776 only protected the rights of Christians and excluded all non-Christians from holding public office.  It was not until 1826 when Thomas Kennedy, a Scottish Presbyterian, fought to extend the law to include those of the Jewish religion.  The new law extended public office holding to religions that believed in a “future state of rewards and punishments.”  The wording was used again in the Maryland Constitution of 1851 but was officially removed in the 1867 State Constitution.  The Maryland Constitution of 1867 is still the official state constitution to this day and legally protects the rights of all no matter their religious beliefs.  Although the fight for religious tolerance is always being fought in many different capacities, Maryland has historically been a colony and state that strove to legally provide and protect religious freedom.            

References

Bassett, J. S. (1932). Chapter III: The First English Settlements in the South. In A Short History of the United States (pp. 53–54). essay, The Macmillan Company. Retrieved 2025, from https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofun0000john/page/53/mode/1up.

Brown, B. F. (1876). In Early Religious History of Maryland: Maryland not a Roman Catholic Colony, Religious Toleration not an Act of Roman Catholic Legislation.  Being the Substance of a Lecture Delivered before the Guild of “All Saints Church,” Baltimore (pp. 31). essay, Innes & Co. Retrieved 2025, from https://www.loc.gov/item/07023790/.   

Muzzey, D. S. (1925). Chapter II: The Old English Colonies.  In An American History: Revised Addition.  (pp. 45-47).  Ginn and Company.  January 15, 2025, urn:lcp:americanhistory0000davi_l5j0:epub:f67f11b5-6f96-4abf-b256-261e3c5c8375.   

Papenfuse, E. C. (1999, March). An Act Concerning Religion, April 21, 1649: An Interpretation and Tribute To The Citizen Legislators of Maryland. Maryland State Archive. https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc2200/sc2221/000025/html/toleration.html.  

Stewart, J. A. (1875). Chapter IV: The Southern Colonies – Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In Butler’s Pictorial History of the United States (pp. 59-61). essay, J.H. Butler & Co. Retrieved January 2025, from https://www.loc.gov/item/02005174/.   

Additional Sources

Davis, G. L. & Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. (1855) The day-star of American freedom; or, The birth and early growth of toleration in the province of Maryland. New York: C. Scribner ; Baltimore: J. Murphy & Co. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01003417/.

Russell, W. T. (1907) Maryland; the Land of Sanctuary. Baltimore, J. H. Furst company. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/08000316/.

The Charter of Maryland: 1632. Yale University: Lillian Goldman Law Library: The Aviation Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. (2008). https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ma01.asp.  U.S. Constitution – First Amendment | Resources | Constitution Annotated | congress.gov | Library of Congress. Constitution Annotated: Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. (2025, January 5). https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/.