Friday, April 21, 2023

It is the 21st of April 2023 Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Let’s talk about the Reformation and religious toleration and its history in the proprietary colony of Maryland- today a state known for Blue Crabs, Old Bay Seasoning, and a flag that is, well… something else.

For background, let’s consider the implications of the Protestant Reformation for religious toleration in the West. While religious toleration has become a hallmark for many Western countries, and while the Reformation was a step towards that, we shouldn’t leap too fast between the early modern era and complete religious toleration. After all, Luther wanted freedom of conscience for his own views but not for others (and this has, in part, to do with his view of religion and the state- but that’s for another time). The so-called “pilgrims” who came to Massachusetts Bay first went to the Netherlands, where the tolerance was a little *too* tolerant, and so they made their way to the New World, where we see them banishing dissenters like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.

And as we move into the 17th century in Europe, we have the 30 Years' War and the English Civil Wars to prove that dissent among Christians was alive and well. But perhaps land could solve the problem. England would establish proprietary colonies in North America for the distinct purpose of experimenting with religious freedom of a sort- one of these was the famous experiment of William Penn and his colony, and the other was the colony of Maryland and the Calvert family.

George Calvert had been the secretary of state under King James I in the early 1600s. When he converted to Catholicism, he wasn’t arrested or killed but rather made Baron Baltimore in Ireland. He was granted the colony of Newfoundland off the coast of Canada, but its harsh climate wasn’t suitable for English colonists (who, to be fair, were never very good at cultivating the land in the New World). He petitioned James for land down south but the king was wary of upsetting the Virginia Colonists with issues both financial and religious.

But James’ son Charles wouldn’t have the same reservations and be granted a proprietary charter (that is, it wasn’t a corporation nor run by the crown but instead granted to a person and his descendants). George Calvert would die, but his son, Cecil Calvert, would receive the charter and name the colony after King Charles's wife- the French Catholic Henrietta Maria- hence “Maryland.”

From the beginning, it would be a mixed community of Catholics and Protestants, and the Calverts were clear that none of the religious strife from the old world was to come into the new. And it was relatively successful. While Catholics tended to be the wealthier landowners, many Protestants took up positions in the Government. It was the Protestant governor William Stone who sought to keep the religious strife back home and come to this flourishing colony in the Mid-Atlantic.

It was in 1649- a year after the 30 years War ended, but amidst the English Civil War that the freeman of Maryland met to discuss the foundation for an official legal code. The Assembly would receive 16 bills and affirm twelve of them on this, the 21st of April in 1649. One of them, arguably the most important, was the Act Concerning Religion- also called the Toleration Act. It was the first of its kind in the colonies in that it afforded religious freedom for all Trinitarian Christians- an interesting delineation in the era that straddled the Reformation and Enlightenment.

Unfortunately, with the ascension of Oliver Cromwell and a rush of Protestants to the new world, the bill for religious toleration was overturned. After the ascension of Protestant monarchs William and Mary in England in 1689, the colony was put under direct royal control. Nevertheless, when the Bill of Rights was taken up in the following century, it was the language of the Act of Toleration that found its way into the first Amendment- the “free exercise of religion” language approved on this, the 21st of April in 1649 was established for all in the First Amendment to the American Constitution.

  

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- from Psalm 116. Let’s go to the Scottish Metrical Psalter for this one:

9  I in the land of those that live

       will walk the Lord before.

10  I did believe, therefore I spake:

       I was afflicted sore.

 

11  I said, when I was in my haste,

       that all men liars be.

12  What shall I render to the Lord

       for all his gifts to me?

 

13  I'll of salvation take the cup,

       on God's name will I call:

14  I'll pay my vows now to the Lord

       before his people all.

 

15  Dear in God's sight is his saints' death.

16     Thy servant, Lord, am I;

    Thy servant sure, thine handmaid's son:

       my bands thou didst untie.

 

17  Thank off'rings I to thee will give,

       and on God's name will call.

18  I'll pay my vows now to the Lord

       before his people all;

 

19  Within the courts of God's own house,

       within the midst of thee,

    O city of Jerusalem.

       Praise to the Lord give ye.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 21st of April 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite Marylanders include Tom Clancy, H.L. Mencken, David Hasselhoff, and JC Chasez from ‘Nsync Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man whose favorite Marylanders are Stringer Bell, D’Angelo Barksdale, Bubbles, and Omar (let those with hears hear…) I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.