The Virginians were most concerned not by the apparent violation of Virginia's territorial integrity, but by the fact that the new settlement was being established and settled by Roman Catholics. The Virginians were less tolerant than the King in wishing success to Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, and his fellow religionists, in establishing a colony on their northern border. The Virginia Council wrote Charles in 1629 thanking him for "the freedome of our Religion which wee have enjoyed," and asserting proudly that "noe papists have beene suffered to settle amongst us." They insisted upon tendering the oaths of supremacy and allegiance to Lord Baltimore when he arrived in Virginia in October 1629 to consider a possible settlement, and reported to the King that he had refused to take those oaths. Charles I had married a Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France, and, like his father, James I, was not disposed to allow too rigorous penalties against those who professed religious allegiance to Rome. But the Parliament, and the people in general, feared and hated Catholics, believing their religious beliefs to be incompatible with loyalty to a Protestant state.
By means of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy Catholics were required to recognize the English sovereign as their rightful ruler in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as well as temporal, to repudiate the papal claim to depose heretical princes, to promise to fight for the King in case of rebellion caused by a papal sentence of deposition, and to denounce the doctrine that princes, being excommunicated, could be deposed or murdered, or that subjects could be absolved from their oath of allegiance. The oaths were based on a real fear which identified Roman Catholicism with treason. Protestants felt that Catholics owed their highest allegiance to a foreign power, and hence were not good Englishmen. The problem was a complicated one, and much debated at the time and since. Now it is generally accepted that one can owe spiritual allegiance to Rome while remaining a faithful subject of a non-Catholic state. In England in the seventeenth century, however, the Church of Rome was too closely identified with England's mortal enemies to allow her freely to tolerate Catholics in her midst. For a long period England had feared Spain as the greatest threat to her existence. Even after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 this fear persisted and to a certain extent was transferred to France, another Catholic power. The measures taken against the Catholics in England were similar to those taken against Communists in this country today, and they were taken for the same reason: the fear that the followers of a universal ideology would turn against their local allegiance if the two ever came in conflict.
Eventually Charles's easy attitude towards Catholics helped bring about his downfall. In a similar way Harvey's compliance with the King's instructions to aid and respect Baltimore's colonists weakened his popularity in Virginia.
As the locus of power in England shifted from the King and his lords towards the Parliament and the people, a stronger Protestant and democratic policy became necessary. The eventual result of this shift in power became evident with the beheading of Charles I in 1649 and, later, with the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and the crowning of William and Mary as constitutional symbols of the power of the English nation.
So great was the popular feeling in Virginia against the "Papists" in Maryland that many, in casual conversation, exclaimed that they would rather knock their cattle on the head than sell them to Maryland. To accommodate the needs of the new settlers in Maryland, Harvey sent them some cows of his own and did his best to ease their early struggles, in accordance with the King's commands. He could not do all he wished, however, because he was frequently outvoted at the Council meetings on anything that had to do with Maryland.
The deposition of Governor Harvey had its origin on April 27, 1635, in a mutinous gathering held in the York River area, Virginia's first frontier settlement outside the James River. The ring-leader seems to have been Francis Pott, brother of Doctor Pott, who harangued the meeting about the alleged injustice of Governor Harvey, and about the Governor's toleration for Indians, which he said would bring on another massacre. Francis Pott had formerly been commander of the fort at Point Comfort but had a short time before been discharged by Harvey for misbehavior.
Harvey ordered the principals in the York meeting arrested, and called the Council together to consider what action should be taken against them. The Council opposed Harvey's desire to proceed against them by martial law, and began to excuse the dissidents on the grounds of the many complaints the people had about the government. Harvey thereupon demanded opinions in writing on what should be done with the mutineers. George Menefie, the first Councilor of whom Harvey demanded such a written statement, said he was but a young lawyer and dared not give a sudden opinion. A violent debate ensued. The rest of the Council also refused to put their opinions in writing. At the next meeting of the Council, Menefie began to recount the grievances of the country, naming Harvey's detention of the Assembly's letter to the King as the principal one. The original of this letter, refusing the King's propositions concerning a tobacco contract, Harvey had retained, as likely to infuriate the monarch and do the country no good. Instead he had sent a copy of the letter to the Secretary of State. At Menefie's words, Harvey, in a rage, brought his hand down sharply on the Councilor's shoulder and said, "Do you say so? I arrest you on suspicion of treason to his Majesty." Then Capt. John Utie and Capt. Samuel Mathews seized Harvey and said, "And we you upon suspicion of treason to his Majesty." Secretary Richard Kemp immediately stepped between the men and told Utie and Mathews that Harvey was the King's Lieutenant and that they had done more than they could answer for. Mathews and Utie released their hold on the Governor but demanded that he go to England to answer the people's complaints. To emphasize their demand Dr. John Pott signaled forty soldiers who had been concealed outside the Governor's house (where the meeting was held) to march up to the door, apparently as a form of threat, although the mutineers protested that the guard was for the Governor's safety. More days of negotiations passed. The rebellious Council called an Assembly to hear charges against Harvey, and chose Capt. John West to be Governor until His Majesty's pleasure might be known. Finally Harvey agreed to return to England. Francis Pott went on the same ship home.
In England the Privy Council heard the charges against Harvey and his defense. None of the accusations stood up, and he was able to show why the Council had private reasons to desire his removal. The King directed him to return to his government with increased power, and ordered the Councilors who had been instrumental in deposing him to be sent to England for trial. Harvey was able to collect some of his back pay and to obtain the King's agreement that he should return in a ship of war. Unfortunately, an old and unseaworthy prize ship was provided him which had to turn back shortly after its departure, and Harvey was forced to take passage on an ordinary merchant ship which arrived in Virginia January 18, 1637. Harvey suffered great losses because of the unseaworthiness of the prize ship, and petitioned the King for recompense. He was, however, ordered to pay out of his own pocket all the losses he had sustained by the affair, although he was authorized to collect an equivalent amount from the estates of the mutinous Councilors should they be convicted.
The sending of the mutinous Councilors—Capt. John West, Samuel Mathews, John Utie, and William Pierce—as prisoners to England, strangely enough allowed them to accomplish what they had been unable to do in Virginia. So many and so powerful were their friends, so wealthy were they themselves, and so many were the charges that they contrived against Harvey now that he was back in the colony and unable to answer them, that the King soon reversed himself and ordered Harvey relieved of his post. The King's action illustrates one of the little appreciated factors in American colonial history: the role played by petitions to the King. Three thousand miles of ocean, and months, even years, in time, separated the assertion from the proof, encouraged the most exaggerated charges, and contributed to the unjustified sympathy extended by the King to many petitioners who did not deserve such consideration. Some of the "crimes" charged against Harvey were even discovered to have their origin in the King's own commands or in earlier acts of Assembly. Yet they contributed to clouding the atmosphere and blinding the lords of England to the true worth of their representative in Virginia.
On the basis of unjustified or unsupported charges concerning Harvey's alleged misappropriation of the mutinous Councilors' estates, which had been seized for the King pending their trial, the King, on May 25, 1637, ordered these estates returned to their owners. Harvey complied immediately as far as four of the Councilors were concerned, but he had already allowed legal action to be directed against Mathews' estate by those who had claims against Mathews, and judgments had been made in favor of the plaintiffs. When the English government heard he had not turned back Mathews' property, it promptly ordered that he do so without delay, which order Harvey then tried to put into effect as best he could. The damage had been done, however, and the impression created that he had willfully misappropriated Mathews' property and disobeyed the King's commands.