seemed very real. The Protestants in Maryland waited to see what would happen, whether Baltimore would acknowledge William or remain loyal to the deposed King, and the council was eagerly watching for the first sign of official action. Baltimore had promptly dispatched a messenger with instructions to the Council to proclaim William and Mary, but the messenger died on the way and there was a long delay before a second messenger could arrive with his instructions. Meanwhile an "association in arms" had been formed "for the defence of the Protestant Religion, and for asserting the right of King William and Queen Mary to the Province of Maryland and all the English Dominions," and seven hundred men in arms under the leadership of John Goode marched on St. Mary's, the provincial capital. The Council fled without offering resistance, King William brought action to annul Baltimore's charter, and in 1691 sent out Sir Lionel Copley as royal governor of Maryland. In this way Baltimore lost his province, and the palatinate of Maryland no longer existed.

In Virginia the change from Commonwealth to Monarchy had been brought about without bitterness because there were no politico-religious consequences to be feared and liberty was not threatened, but in Maryland the accession of William and Mary gave the Protestants the opportunity they had long sought. They had accepted without enthusiasm a Catholic proprietor, and had

always been jealous of the dominant part played by Catholics in the government of the colony; they had feared it would become catholicized, which would put an end to their hard-won civil and political liberties. So long as Baltimore kept his own religious views in the background they gave him loyal support, but they were ever watchful.

And now the time had come when the Protestants could strike down their enemy, and they struck swiftly and brutally. With that charity and liberality that made churchmen at one time regard creed as more important than the moral observance of the teachings of religion, the Protestants proceeded to show how they despised God when he was not worshipped according to their own narrow little formula. Taxes were levied for the support of the Church of England, persons professing the Catholic religion were prohibited from entering the colony, the public celebration of the mass was forbidden. As the Protestant element came to have a firmer grip upon the government, so they persecuted more shamelessly the Catholics. Two Catholic priests, William Hunter and Robert Brooker, were summoned before the Governor and Council, the one for having consecrated a chapel, the other for having said mass in it; and as this was their first offense they were let off with a reprimand, “which his Excellency was pleased to give," in the following gentle language:—

"It is the unhappy temper of you and all your

tribe to grow insolent upon civility and never to know how to use it, and yet of all people you have the least reason for considering that if the necessary laws that are made were let loose, they are sufficient to crush you, and which (if your arrogant principles have not blinded you) you must need to dread.

"You might, methinks, be contented to live quietly as you may, and let the exercise of your superstitious vanities be confined to yourselves without proclaiming them at public times and in public places, unless you expect, by your gaudy shows and serpentine policy, to amuse the multitude and beguile the unthinking, weakest part of them, an act of deceit well known to be among you." Having warned them that there were means to curb their insolence, this mild-spoken governor continued his admonition: “In plain and few words, gentlemen, if you intend to live here, let me hear no more of these things; for if I do, and they are made good against you, be assured I'll chastise you; and lest you should flatter yourselves that the severity of the laws will be a means to move the pity of your judges, I assure you I do not intend to deal with you so. I'll remove the evil by sending you where you may be dealt with as you deserve. Pray take notice that I am an English Protestant gentleman, and can never equivocate." Whereupon the unfortunate priests were dismissed and the sheriff was ordered to lock up the chapel and keep the key.1

1 Scharf: op. cit., vol. i, p. 368.

The Governor, like many another servant of the people, understood the art of popularity by voicing the sentiment of the majority. So pleased was the House of Burgesses with his reprimand that it adopted an address thanking him for having "generously bent to protect her majesty's Protestant subjects here against insolence and growth of Popery, and we feel cheerfully thankful to you for it." In view of the attitude of Governor and legislature it was not surprising that they should go to still further lengths in their zeal to stamp out Catholicism. In 1704, the year after the reprimand, an act was passed imposing a fine of £50 and imprisonment for six months upon any popish bishop, priest or jesuit who "should endeavor to persuade any of his majesty's liege people of this province to embrace and be reconciled to the Church of Rome"; and any person who said mass, or who being a Catholic, should keep school, or take upon himself the education, government or boarding of youth at any place in the province, upon conviction, was to be transported to England to be dealt with there under the statutes for further preventing the growth of popery. And still the work went on. Catholics were disfranchised unless they took the test oath. When Charles Calvert, the fifth Lord Baltimore, was restored to the proprietorship by George I, Calvert having adjured Catholicism and become a Protestant, even more rigorous laws were enacted, which effectually excluded Catholics from all participation

in the government. They were required to take the oath of allegiance, abhorrency and abjuration, to which no devout Catholic could subscribe; and while they were excluded from any share in the government they were taxed for its support. But although the Catholics were oppressed and subjected to much petty annoyance and vindictive persecution they were preeminently the picked men of the colony, Fiske points out, an opinion which every historian of Maryland must share. They were the backbone of the colony and gave it a character of its own as the Puritan did in Massachusetts and the Cavaliers in Virginia; and the influence of these early Catholic settlers is seen in the Revolution, in the Civil War, and on the Maryland as we know it to-day. The long religious struggle had sown the seeds of discontent, and curiously enough Maryland was ripe for rebellion before Massachusetts or Virginia. Maryland had felt, as no other colony then had, the injustice of being ruled from across the sea, and while the connection with England was advantageous, it was also oppressive. The time had not yet come for any Englishman seriously to propose to sever the tie, but the folly of rulers had prepared men's minds for it; and when they were faced with the alternative of submitting further to injustice or resisting it in arms, the shock was less violent than it would have been had not the quarrels of churchmen paved the way.