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had it's minister, and the services of the
Prayer Book were regularly used. Rev.
Robert Hunt was the chaplain at James-
town, Va. A rude church was built, and
in that humble temple this godly priest
celebrated the Holy Communion, for the
first time, on the 21st of June, 1607. As the
Virginia colony increased in numbers, other
clergymen were sent from the mother
country to minister to the settlers, and
to convert the Indians. Collections were
taken in many English parishes for the
Church in Virginia. Bibles, Prayer Books,
and Communion plate were sent over by
friends at home. The early clergy were
pious and enthusiastic missionaries. At a
later period not a few of the clergy in the
American colonies were mere adventurers,
but the founders of the church we men
of whom we may well be proud. In 1619
one year before the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, the first elective assembly of the
new world met at Jamestown. *"It was
opened by prayer. It's first enactment was
to protect the Indians from oppression. Its
next was to found a university." This was
the beginning of popular government in
America and it was the work of the Curch-
men. I am not surprised that New Eng-
landers try to claim this honor, along with
so many others, for their Puritan ancestors,
but I am surprised that Churchmen calmly
allow their forefathers to be robbed
of this distinction which rightly belongs
to them.
Now let us come home. The Province
of Maryland was settled in 1634. A colo-
ny had indeed come from Virginia to
Kent Island in 1632, accompanied by their

pastor, Rev. Richard James, but most of
them were driven off, and their lands con-
fiscated, by the proprietary governor of
Maryland. + Of Lord Baltimore's first
company, which consisted of "twenty
gentlemen and between two and three
hundred laboring men and handicrafs-
men," a majority were probably Roman
Catholics, although a very large minority
were certainly Protestants. It is recorded
that no religious nor political tests were
required, beyond allegiance to the King,
fidelity to the Proprietary and obedience
to the law. No provision was made for
any services other than those of the Ro-
man Church, two Jesuit priests accom-
panying the expedition as chaplains. The
colony grew slowly, but most of those who
did come over, from time to time, were
Protestants, and after the Puritan settlers
came to Providence (now Annapolis), the
predominance of Protestants was so great
that Lord Baltimore thought it advisable
to appoint William Stone, a pronounced
Protestant; as Governor, and he re-con-
structed the Council so that the Protestants
had a majority. Doubtless he was led
thereto partly by the fact that the Puritans
were in complete control in England, and
the Puritans regarded the Roman Catholics
as beyond the pale of Christianity. A
Protestant Governor was, therefore, the
only alternative at that time. In 1649 was
passed by the Assembly the celebrated
"Act of Toleration". ++ Whatever credit ac-
crues to any party for that act, belongs to
the Protestants in Maryland as they certain-
ly had a majority in the Assembly. Up to
the Puritan ascendancy Maryland was free

* See the Bishop of Minnesota's Sermon before the General Convention,1889. + Rev. B. F. Browne, in his interesting pamphlet, Early Religious History of Maryland _Maryland Not a Roman Catholic Colony, defends Claiborne and the other leaders of the Kent Island Colony from the attacks made upon them by historians, and contends that they were treated with very great harshness by the representatives of Lord Baltimore, He calls attention to the fact that in 1642 King Charles I, after he had made a deliberate review of the quarrel between Claiborne and Baltimore, "appointed William Claiborne King's Treasurer for life in the colony of Virginia." Mr. Brown is of the opinion that a majority of the Maryland colonists were Protestants from the start, and gives a quotation from Father White's Journal in which the good priest tells us that of the twelve who died from the effects of Christmas festivities on the journey out, two only were Roman Catholics.
++ Much has been said and written about religious toleration in Maryland. A few words only are needed to put the matter in its right light. The Charter of the Province was granted by Charles I, a Protestant King,to Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic subject. Toleration was thus secured from the very start. The Proprietary could not have persecuted Protestants had he wished. All England would have been aflame. Churchman and Puritan alike would have been roused and the Maryland Colony would have been swept from off the face of the earth. There is no reason however to suppose that the Calverts ever wished to persecute anyone for his religious opinions. They seem to have been sensible and liberal minded men as Dr. McConnell has remarked, they were "Catholics rather than Romanists." The Proprietary always forbade and discouraged contentions on the subject of religion. Probably he hoped that the Jesuit fathers being the only ministers of religion, might convert the Protestants. That Father White worked among the Protestants with this end in view, we learn from the Reports which he sent to his superiors at Rome. But Baltimore would allow no special favors to be shown even to the priests, and when the chaplains showed a disposition to hold themselves amenable to cannon law and ecclesiastical tribunals (according to the old medieval custom) the Proprietary