PENAL
617
PEKAL
franchise was limited to church members. Men
malting active profession of an alien faith were
banished. The General Court made provision for a
general church tax to be levied and collected by civil
officers. In 1631 came the famous law admitting
only church members to civic freedom. In 1635 the
magistrates were given inquisitional powers over the
churches themselves. Congregationalism became law
and Church and State were identical. Colonists
were compelled to Uve within easy distance of meeting-
houses. Heresy was punished by banishment. Con-
tempt toward ministers merited magisterial reproof,
a fine, or standing placarded on a block. In 1656
denial of the Bible meant whipping or banishment,
and as late as 1697 a law against "Blasphemy and
Atheism" mentions as penalties the pillory, whipping,
and boring the tongue with red-hot irons. Catholics
of course were not suffered to live in the colony, and
Jesuits, if banished, were to be put to death on return.
The latter law was never enforced, though latent
intoler.ance may be detected in such an ordinance as
that of 1659 making the observance of Christmas a
punishable offence. The persecution of Quakers and
the inflicting of the death penalty in four instances
brought about a rebellion within the colony which,
with the endeavour of the Crown to force recognition
of the Anglican Church, worked the initial movement
in undermining the theocracy. With the appoint-
ment of a royal governor the franchise was broadened,
Episcopalianism was established, and it was decreed
in 1691 that "forever hereafter there shall be liberty
of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all
Christians (except Papists)".
In Connecticut , Congregationalism under its famous instrument, the Saybrook Platform, became the State religion. But toleration was unstintingly allowed to every other licensed religion. Even laws against Quakers, apparently unenforced, imposed penalties not upon them but upon the communities that har- boured them; while the universal "except Papists" phrase is significantly lacking, though in 1743 a law allowed dissenters "being Protestants" to apply for relief.
The short-lived attempt of the settlement at New Haven to found a theocratic colony based upon the Mosaic Law is interesting only in its failure. The famous "Blue Laws", now known to be ironic for- geries, were not much more severe than the Mosaic penalties enforced by the New Haven Legislature, according to their own records. The colony was soon incorporated with that of Connecticut, in whose democratic tolerance it was speedily absorbed.
The first settlers of New Hampshire established a broadly tolerant Congregationalism, which allowed civil privileges to be independent of religious belief, but the Puritan establishment was firmly planted throughout the years of the colony's union with Massachusetts. To the influence of this union, per- haps, may be traced the single example of persecution in the colony, that again.st three Quakers in 1659. In 1()79 the union with Massachusetts was dissolved, and a royal governor sought, unsuccessfully, to enforce the establishment of the Anglican Church. The assem- bly of 1680 fixed the Congregational Establishment. The franchise was limited to Protestants, and subse- quent laws, notably those of 1692, 1702, 1714, defined the union of Church and State, allowing the con- stable to collect the church tax — that from dissenters to go to the support of their own ministers. Ilnder the Toleration Act of lfiS9 all <'i1iz('iis were obliged to make a declaration against the pope and the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Changing Establishments. — Under the Duke of York all churches were established with governmental rights, though those of power and induction were placed in the governor's hands. Persecution for conscience's sake seems unrecorded. Much of this
tolerant attitude is due to the older Dutch foundation.
It was renewed in the "Charter of Liberties", passed
by the Assembly in 1683. When the Duke of York
came to the throne a faint attempt was made to
establish the Anglican Church. Later the council
suspended "all Roman Catholics from Command and
Places of Trust", and the franchise was soon confined
to Protestants. This attitude was given universal
royal warrant under the Great Toleration Act, and
a supposititious Established Church existed in New
York to the American Revolution, suffering the same
kind of political opposition that the Establishment
endured in Virginia and the Carolinas. The Estab-
lishment seized church property and banished Mora-
vians, under the belief that they were "disguised
Papists", though its powers began to wane before its
downfall with the American Revolution.
The Palatinate of Maryland under the Baltimores furnishes, with the Colony of Rhode Island, the first example in history of a complete separation of Church and State with religious tolerance. Religious free- dom was proclaimed in the famous "Act for Church Liberties", passed by the assembly and practically carried out. Under this Catholic toleration a Catho- lic was fined for ' ' interfering by opprobious reproaches with two Protestants", and Jesuits were refused the privileges of the canon law. The Toleration Act of 1649 denied toleration only to non-Christians and Unitarians, and imposed upon every resident an oath declaring for liberty of conscience. The outcome of the disgraceful Puritan "Plot" resulted in the voiding of the charter, the erection of Maryland as a royal province, and the Episcopal Establishment in 1692. The majority of the colonists were so overwhelmingly non-episcopal that the legislatures never seem to have insisted upon conformity, though they compelled church support. Against Catholics alone persecution endured. They were deprived of all civil and religious rights — the latter only in private homes; the Law of 1704 laid a tax of twenty shillings on every Irish serv- ant imported; while in 1715 it was enacted that children of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother could, in case of the father's death, be taken from the mother. However, the first Catholic church of Balti- more was erected without opposition in 1763, though the rights of the franchise were not extended to Cath- olics until the American Revolution put an end to all penal enactments.
The Presbyterian and Quaker settlers of the Jerseys, under their proprietors, were granted entire liberty of conscience. But with the assumption of the prov- inces, the Crown seems to have assumed that, per se, the Anglican Church was established, though no specific act to that effect seems to have been passed. At any rate, excepting troubles with Quakers in the French Wars, the annals of New Jersey are free from records of official persecution, though Catholics were disenfranchised when Jersey became a royal province. Georgia with its twoscore years of provincial history excluded "Papists" from its confines. The Anglican Church entered with the Crown and was formally, though unsuccessfully, established by the colonial legislature in 1758, the settlement remaining from the beginning indifferent toward Dissent.
The Free Colonies. — Two colonies, those of Rhode Island and Pennsylvania (with its offspring, Delaware) proclaimed absolute separation of Church and State. The former laboured for long under the accusation of denying citizenship to Catholics, but this charge is prohalily based on an error of the committee that prepared the revi.sed statutes for the public printer; while the Pennsylvania commonwealth departs from the principles of Rhode Island in rest ricting the right to hold office to Christians and those who believe in the existence of God. In spite of the protest of Penn, that part of the Test Oath required under the great Toleration Act, excluding Catholics from civil rights,
