**** As an instance of the determination to preserve peace within his borders, Leonard Calvert issued a proclamation in 1638, to prohibit "all unreasonable disputations in point of religion tending to the disturbance of the public peace and quiet of the colony, and to the opening of faction in religion." A Catholic gentleman (Captain Cornwaleys) had two Protestant servants. They were one day reading aloud, together. Smith's Sermons, and were overheard by Cornwaleys's overseer, a Roman Catholic, while reading a passage in which the pope was called anti-Christ, and the Jesuits anti-Christian ministers. The overseer abused them, and ordered them to read no more. The servants preferred a formal complaint against the overseer, and submitted it to the governor and council. Of the latter, Cornwaleys was one. The parties were heard, and the overseer was fined five hundred pounds of tobacco, and ordered to remain in prison until he should find sureties for his good behavior in future. This case shows the tolerant spirit of a Catholic administration.—Kennedy's Discourse, page 45.
**** The act for religious liberty, passed in 1649, contained a clause authorizing the imposition of a fine of ten shillings for abusive expressions between the parties; such as idolater, popish priest, Jesuit, and Jesuited papist, on the one side, and, on the other, heretic, schismatic, round-head, and similar epithets.—Langford, page 29. The clause for religious freedom in the act of 1649 extended only to Christians. It was introduced by the proviso that, "whatsoever person shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or reproach the Holy Trinity, or any of the three persons thereof, shall be punished with death."
First Legislative Assembly.—Religious Animosity.—Toleration of the Roman Catholics.—Civil Commotions.
during the troubles arising from the refusal of Clayborne, an original settler, to acknowledge the authority of the governor, reigned within its borders until 1642, when petty hostilities were carried on against the Indians. Leonard Calvert was appointed governor * of the province, as the proprietor's lieutenant; and in 1635 the first Legislative Assembly convened at St. Mary's. A representative government was established in 1639, the people being allowed to send as many delegates to the General Assembly as they pleased. At the same time, a declaration of rights was adopted, the powers of the proprietor were defined, and all the privileges enjoyed by English subjects were confirmed to the colonists. The Indian hostilities closed in 1644, and the next year a rebellion under Clayborne involved the province in a civil war. The revolt was suppressed in August the following year.
Religious animosity between the Protestants and Roman Catholics finally became a source of great trouble, and in 1649 the Assembly adopted the Toleration Act. This allayed party strife for a while. At this time Charles the First was beheaded, and Cromwell became the chief magistrate of Great Britain. Lord Baltimore, who was warm in his professions of attachment to the king while his affairs were prosperous, when he saw the downfall of royalty inevitable, was equally loud in proclaiming his attachment to the Republicans. Thomas Green, his governor, who had hastily proclaimed Charles the Second, on hearing of the execution of his father, was removed, and his place was filled by William Stone, a Protestant, who "was always zealously affected to the Parliament."
In 1650, the legislative body was first divided into two branches, an Upper and a Lower House; the former consisting of the governor and his council, appointed by the proprietor, and the latter of the representatives chosen by the people. At that session, all taxes were prohibited except by the consent of the freemen.
In 1651, the Long Parliament, which had established its supremacy in England, appointed commissioners to govern Maryland. Stone, Lord Baltimore's lieutenant, was removed; but, on the dissolution of that Parliament by Cromwell in 1654, he was restored to his full powers. The commissioners, however (who had retired, to Virginia), entered Maryland, and compelled Stone to surrender his warrant into their hands. The Protestants, who acknowledged the authority of Cromwell, and had the power, by majority, in their own hands, questioned the rights and privileges of an hereditary proprietor. They stoutly contended for religious liberty, yet they actually disfranchised those who differed from them in religious opinions. Roman Catholics were excluded from the Assembly; and an act was passed toward the close of 1654, declaring that they were not entitled to the protection of the laws of Maryland!
Early in 1655, Stone, with greater loyalty to his master, the proprietor, than to his religious profession, organized an armed body of Catholics, and seized the provincial records. Civil war raged with fury, and was intensified by the heat of religious acrimony. The Catholics were finally defeated, Stone was made prisoner, and four of the principal men of the province, attached to Baltimore's party, were executed.
Josiah Fendall, who had actively supported Stone, and headed an insurrection, was appointed governor, by Lord Baltimore, in 1656, but he was soon arrested by the Protestant party. He was a man of good address, and finally succeeded in having himself acknowledged as governor. (a) The proprietor was restored to all his rights, but he did not long a 1658 enjoy them, for, on the restoration of Charles the Second, the Assembly, knowing the animosity of the king against Lord Baltimore, dissolved the Upper House, and assumed to
* Clayborne having obtained a royal license in 1631 to traffic with the Indians, had established two settlements, one on the island of Kent, and one other near the mouth of the Susquehanna. Clayborne not only refused to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, but sought to maintain his own claims by force of arms. He was defeated, and fled to Virginia, whence he was sent to England for trial as a traitor. He applied to the king for a redress of grievances, but, after a full hearing, the charter of Lord Baltimore was declared valid, against the earlier license of Clayborne. The latter returned to Maryland, got up a rebellion in 1645, and drove Governor Calvert into Virginia. For a year and a half the insurgents held the reins of government, and the horrors of civil war brooded over the infant colony. Clayborne afterward became one of the commissioners appointed by Parliament, under the Protectorate, to govern Maryland.