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Catholic reaction which had been going on for many CHAPTER years on the Continent under the influence of the Jesuits, resulting at last in a war which threatened the Protestant princes of Germany with extinction; the probability that the English Catholics might receive aid from the Continent to re-establish their religion by force; more than all, the evident inclination of James and Charles, in common with most of the Protestant sovereigns of that age, to moderate the severity of the penal laws against the Catholics, as one step toward some sort of arrangement or understanding with the pope-all these causes combined to inflame the minds of the Puritans, and while they cried out against the exacting tyranny of the bishops, they cried out not less loudly for the strict enforcement of the penal laws against the Catholics. So far as persecution was concerned, the Catholics had even stronger inducements to emigrate than the Puritans.

About the beginning of James's reign, George Calvert, 1604. a gentleman of Yorkshire, a graduate of Oxford, had been appointed, by the favor of Sir Robert Cecil, to a subordinate office in the state department. After years of serv ice, he was knighted, and made clerk of the Privy Coun- 1619. cil; and, finally, he rose to the office of Secretary of State. Calvert was originally a secret Catholic, or he gradually became one; but, so long as he remained in office, it was necessary to conceal his opinions. A member, from the beginning, of the Virginia Company, he was early interested in American colonization. Presently he resolved to try an experiment of his own, and for that purpose obtained the grant of Avalon, on the southeast coast of the island of Newfoundland, where, a year or two after the 1622. settlement of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, he began a little colony called Ferryland.

With the rapid growth of the Puritan party, the cry

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CHAPTER against the Catholics became louder and louder. Calvert presently resigned his office, and, with a frankness which must be taken as proof of his sincerity, he avowed his adherence to the Catholic faith. But this avowal did 1625. not destroy his favor at court; for, soon after, in reward of his past services, he was created an Irish peer, with the title of Lord Baltimore. Calvert twice visited his colony in Newfoundland; but that region, cold and sterile, was not only liable to the opposing claims of the French and Spanish, whose fishing vessels, for a century, had frequented that coast, but there was even danger of collision with the English fishermen, who insisted on the free use of all the shores and harbors, and regarded with hostile eyes all pretensions to exclusive possession.

Having found out, by inspection and residence, the disadvantages of his Newfoundland province, Lord Balti1628. more, about the time of Endicott's settlement at Salem, paid a visit to Virginia, where, however, he was not very hospitably received. Under a standing law of the colony, the Oath of Supremacy was tendered to him—an oath purposely so contrived that no conscientious Catholic could take it. Nor did he even escape personal insult. The Protestant feeling was evidently too strong in Virginia to make it a desirable residence for Catholic immigrants. But there was a large, unoccupied region north of the Potomac, and Baltimore easily obtained from Charles I. the grant of a province, to which, in honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria, he gave the name of MARYLAND.

The Potomac, with a line due east from its mouth, across Chesapeake Bay and the peninsula called the eastern shore, formed the southern boundary of this new province; on the east it had the ocean and Delaware Bay; on the north, the fortieth degree of latitude, the southern boundary of the great New England patent; and, on

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the west, a line due north from the westernmost head of CHAPTER the Potomac. Before the patent had passed all the necessary formalities, Lord Baltimore died; but the charter 1632. was issued, in the terms previously agreed upon, to his son and heir Cecilius, whọ zealously devoted himself to July 20. carry out his father's plans. This charter, carefully drawn under the inspection of the first Lord Baltimore, became a model, in most respects, for all American charters subsequently granted. It created the grantee and his heirs "true and absolute lords and proprietors" of the province, with all the rights of a separate, though subordinate jurisdiction, appertaining, under the English law, to a County Palatine. The proprietary had "free, full, and absolute power" to enact all necessary laws, not, however, without "the advice, consent, and approbation of the freemen of the province," or their representatives convoked in general assembly-the first provision in any American patent for securing to the colonists a share in legislation. No similar clause was found in either the Virginia, the New England, or the Massachusetts charters. All laws thus to be made must, however, be "consonant to reason, and not repugnant or contrary, but, so far as conveniently might be, consonant to the laws of England"

-an important restriction upon local legislation, imposed alike upon all the colonies. Of his own mere authority the proprietary might establish "fit and wholesome ordinances," provided they conformed to English law, and did not extend to life or member, nor affect any interest in freehold, goods, or chattels a limitation which restricted this power within very narrow limits. He was authorized, also, to establish necessary tribunals, civil and criminal, and had the patronage and advowson of all churches, the right of erecting places of worship, to be consecrated according to the "ecclesiastical law of En

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CHAPTER gland," and power, also, to incorporate cities, and grant titles of honor. The right of emigrating to the province, 1632. and the enjoyment there, by them and their posterity, of all the privileges of native-born Englishmen, were secured to all English subjects, "except such to whom it shall be expressly forbidden." Whatever might have been the intentions of Lord Baltimore, or the favorable disposition of the king, there was no guarantee in the charter, nor, indeed, the least hint of any toleration in religion not authorized by the law of England. The introduction of such a provision, especially in favor of the hated Catholics, would have been altogether too abhorrent to English prejudices.

1633.

Origin

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Even as it was, this charter encountered a warm opposition, at the head of which was William Clayborne, secretary, and one of the Council of Virginia. ally a land surveyor, Clayborne had been employed in the exploration of Chesapeake Bay, and had thus been led into speculations for trade with the Indians. had induced some persons of influence in England to join him, and by their aid had obtained a royal license for "trading in all those parts for which patents of sole trade had not already been granted." Under this license he had established a post on the Isle of Kent, in the Chesapeake, and another at the mouth of the Susquehanna, both within the chartered limits of Maryland. Clayborne and his associates questioned the legality of a grant thus likely to interfere with their license, On this point they obtained a hearing before the Privy Council, which decided, however, to leave Lord Baltimore to his patent, and the complainants to the course of law. Orders at the same time were sent to Virginia for a good understanding between the two colonies, and that neither should entertain fugitives from the other.

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Feb. 24.

Under the leadership of Leonard Calvert, a natural son CHAPTER of the first Lord Baltimore, several Catholic gentlemen, with their indented servants, embarked for Maryland, in 1633. two ships, the Ark and Dove. Like the first settlers of Virginia, they proceeded by way of the West Indies, and spent the winter at Barbadoes and St. Christopher's, then recently occupied by English colonists. Early in the following year they arrived in the Chesapeake, where 1634. they met a courteous reception from Harvey, the governor of Virginia. On the northern shore of the Potomac, not far from its mouth, Calvert found, on the banks of a little tributary stream, an Indian village, which the inhabitants, through fear of their enemies the Susquehannas, were about to desert. By an arrangement made with these Indians, the newly-arrived colonists at once occupied the town, to which they piously gave the name of St. Mary's, and on the old Indian fields they raised that same season an abundant crop of corn.

The Dove was presently dispatched to Massachusetts August. with a cargo of this corn, to exchange for fish. She carried a friendly letter from Calvert, and another from Harvey; but the magistrates were rather suspicious of a people who "did set up mass openly." Some of the crew were accused of reviling the inhabitants of Massachusetts as "holy brethren," "the members," &c., and, just as the ship was about to sail, the supercargo, happening on shore, was arrested, in order to compel the master to give up the culprits. The proof failed, and the vessel was suffered to depart, but not without a special charge to the master "to bring no more such disordered persons."

Meanwhile the quarrel with Clayborne was coming to a head. He was accused of spreading reports among the Indians unfavorable to the new colony, and he even carried his hostility so far as to fit out a pinnace, under color

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