When intelligence of the grant of Maryland reached Virginia the planters were moved to sign a petition to the King, in which they remonstrated against the grant of a portion of the lands of the colony which would cause a “general disheartening” to them. The petition was referred to the Privy Council, which, after hearing both parties, decided, in July, 1633, that Lord Baltimore should be left to his patent and the Virginians to the course of law; and that, in the mean time, the two colonies should “assist each other on all occasions as becometh fellow-subjects.”
There can be no doubt that, from the outset, Lord Baltimore intended that Maryland should be a place of refuge for the English Catholics, who had as much reason as the Puritans to flee from persecution. The political and religious hatred with which the mass of the English people regarded the Church of Rome was increasing in bitterness, and the Parliament of 1625 had besought the King to enforce more strictly the penal statutes against recusants. Soon after the grant of his charter Lord Baltimore treated with the Provincial of the Society of Jesus, in England, for his assistance in establishing a mission in the new colony. At the same time he wrote to the General of the Order asking him to designate certain priests to accompany the first emigration, whose duty it should be to confirm the Catholics in their faith, convert the Protestant colonists, and propagate the Roman faith among the savages. These requests were granted, and the first expedition was accompanied by two Jesuits.
But Maryland was to be something more than a Catholic colony. Lord Baltimore had already determined that it should be a “free soil for Christianity.” When the charter was granted, it was well known that Baltimore purposed to settle Maryland with Catholics. How came it to pass that, under these circumstances, a Protestant king made a grant of such large powers to a Catholic nobleman? Different views have been taken of the clauses of the charter relating to religion. One view is that by the patent the Church of England was established, and any other form of worship was unlawful; another that the glory of Maryland toleration is due to the charter, and under it no persecution of Christians was lawful; while a third view is that the charter left the whole matter vague and undetermined, and therefore within the control of the Proprietary and his colonists. The only references to religion in the charter that need be considered are two: the first, in the fourth section, giving the Proprietary the advowsons of all churches which might happen to be built, together with the liberty of erecting churches and causing the same to be consecrated according to the ecclesiastical laws of England; the second, in the twenty-second section, providing that no law should be made prejudicial to God’s holy and true Christian religion.
These are the exact phrases used in the Avalon patent, which was issued to Sir George Calvert while still a member of the Church of England. In that case they probably operated as an establishment of that church. But these phrases were not retained in the charter granted to a Roman Catholic without good reason. The fourth section merely empowered the Proprietary to dedicate the churches which might be built; it did not compel him to build them: and the fact of being a Catholic did not then disable one from presenting to Anglican churches. There is, moreover, nothing in this section disabling the Proprietary from building churches of other faiths. The proviso in the twenty-second section was conveniently vague. It cannot be held either to establish the Church of England or to prohibit the exercise of any other worship. No such construction was ever placed upon it by the Crown, or the Proprietary, or the people. It is certain that Baltimore would not have accepted a charter requiring the establishment of a church from which he and those whom he intended to be his colonists dissented. It is still more certain that he would not have accepted a charter prohibiting the exercise of the Catholic worship.
The most plausible view of these provisions is that they covered a secret understanding between the Proprietary and the King, to the effect that both Catholics and members of the Established Church should enjoy the same religious rights in Maryland.[867] The opinion entertained by some that the charter itself enforced toleration is altogether untenable. These provisions did not prevent the Church of England from being afterwards established in Maryland nor avert disabilities from Catholics and Dissenters. Apart from the supposed agreement between Baltimore and the King, any persecution of Conformists in the Province would have been extremely impolitic; it would have resulted in the speedy loss of the patent. But Baltimore could without danger have prohibited the immigration of Puritans, and could have discouraged in many ways the settlement even of Conformists. Not only did he not do any of these things, but he invited Christians of every name to settle in Maryland. It is the glory of Lord Baltimore and of the Province that, from the first, perfect freedom of Christian worship was guaranteed to all comers. Because the event proved that this magnanimity was the truest wisdom and resulted in populating the Province, there have not been wanting those who declare that it was not magnanimity at all, but only enlightened self-interest.
By the decision of the Privy Council in July, 1633, upon the petition of the Virginia planters, Lord Baltimore achieved his first victory in the long struggle he was destined to wage with the enemies of his colony. Regarding his title to the territory as unquestionable, he now hastened his preparations for its colonization. He had purposed to lead the colonists in person, but, finding it necessary to abandon this intention, he confided the expedition to the care of his brother, Leonard Calvert, whom he commissioned as Lieut.-General. Jerome Hawley and Thomas Cornwallis were associated as councillors, and George Calvert, another brother of the Proprietary, was one of the emigrants. Lord Baltimore provided two vessels,—the “Ark,” of about three hundred and fifty tons burden, and the “Dove,” a pinnace of about fifty tons. In October, 1633, the colonists,—“gentlemen adventurers and their servants,”—to the number of about two hundred, embarked at Gravesend. The vessels stopped at the Isle of Wight, where Fathers White and Altham (the Jesuits who had been designated for the service) and some other emigrants were received on board. They finally set sail from Cowes on the twenty-second day of November, 1633, and took the old route by the Azores and West Indies.
Soon after their departure Lord Baltimore wrote to his own and his father’s friend, the Earl of Strafford, that, after having overcome many difficulties, he had sent a hopeful colony to Maryland with a fair expectation of success. “There are two of my brothers gone,” he added, “with very near twenty other gentlemen of very good fashion, and three hundred laboring men well provided in all things.”