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April 10, 1912 ] THE P
by the Assemblies in the first years of Maryland 'a
existence as a colony had the binding force of
law except with the approval of Lord Baltimore,
and both Lord Baltimore and Lewger are considered
by the Jesuit writer as Protestant rather
than Catholic, and both really proceeded in accordance
with Protestant principles or as the
Jesuit is wont to say, "both were under Protestant
influence or prejudice."
But is it true that there ever was in colonial
times any Catholic majority of Freemen in the
Assemblies of Maryland? Americans have heard
.so many times 01 me uatnonc uoiony of Alaryland,"
of "Maryland a Catholic Colony," etc.,
and this has been repeated in so many ways that
my words may be considered almost a historical
error when I say that there is not a particle of
truth in the statement that there were three
Catholics to every Protestant in the colony. I
realize the gravity of what I say and I never
would have expressed myself in such emphatic
words if I did not have incontrovertible facts
and entirely convincing arguments to base my
.statements upon. I know also the importance
of my affirmation.
If I prove that these Assemblies were made
up of large Protestant majorities instead of
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Catholic Church bases her glory vanishes away
in thin air and many statements and accounts
in American encyclopedias, histories, reference
books, etc., ought to be revised and corrected.
The Jesuit writer well knows the tremendous
importance of such a fact and he displays the
most adroit shrewdness in concealing the truth.
He knows that to grant the achievement of
religious tolerance to Lord Baltimore, as Cardinal
Gibbons and so many American writers do,
is to build an edifice without Catholic foundation
; in other words, to build on the strongest
Protestant foundation and therefore to give to
Protestantism the credit and glory of religious
freedom in the Maryland colony.
rne Jesuit writer endeavored to the best of
his ability to find in the Charter itself the germ
of religious tolerance, but he is aware of the
uncertainty, weakness and inconsistency of his
position and when the Assemblies of Freemen
come into existence he uses his consummate
Jesuitic skill to mislead his readers. "Without
giving any precise account of the number of
Catholics and Protestants, he mentions four or
five Catholic names; he says here and there
the Catholic Gentry and the reader who hears
only Catholics mentioned, though the individ
uals mentioned may not be more than eight or
ten, gets the impression that either Catholics
constituted the majority or at least they constituted
the more important element since they
and not Protestants are named. It is necessary
to have been trained in Jesuitic cunning in
order to understand the Jesuitical ways of doing
and saying things. Some of my readers may be
surprised, or at least amused, to know that I
expect to make the Jesuit speak out and tell
the truth in spite of himself. But I must do
the work by gathering up the scattered fragments
of truth as an attorney sometimes obtains
the truth from a crafty criminal by cross-examining
him and comparing his conflicting statements.
Since part of the Avalon colony went to Maryland,
my readers are to know first something
of the supposed Catholic majority there.
To begin with page 181: "Fra Simon Hock
writes to the secretary of the Sacred Congregation,
Dr. Francis, in July, 1623." Page 184:
"The three colonies are of fifty, twenty and
fifteen, and only tvco are Catholics. And the
Protestants who are there make no show of being
obliging in the face of a Catholic invasion."
"In 1628," says the same Fra Simon Hock,
L
RESBYTEE1AN OF THE SO
"the Catholics art about twenty." "In 1631
almost all Catholics have returned except three
women and the heretics are thirty." Page 196 '
Fra Simon says: "Calvert took with him not
only Protesting Out some Catholics."
That is a very effective and convincing way
of saying that Protestants were in the majority,
since uathohcs were compared with Protestants
by the expression "but some."
But Catholics may say we grant that in Avalon
Protestants largely outnumbered Catholics, but
it does not prove anything against a Catholic
majority in Maryland. We have no precise information
as to the exact number of Catholics
and Protestants, but we have such very significant
indications that we can say conservatively
that Protestants far outnumbered Catholics from
the very beginning of the colony. Let my readers
examine with me the statistics in regard to
this matter. In the first volume of the Documents,
page 98, the Jesuit Father White relates
that some pestiferous disease vexed them and
his account says, "Thirty contracted the disease
and hl'plvp dipd unH nii/11 #!! /? uroon PoilmllAo "
... V UUM vrt?i^ * ivi/ HOlt VUIUUIJU3.
On page 340 of the history the Jesuit says,
"Already, 1638, some live years alter the expedition
tirst started from England, we come to a
pass in Maryland history when a whole section
of the population, which had enjoyed no jjolitical
status or consideration before, started up
into the full franchise of appearing in the Assembly,
of voting and being voted for, of enacting
laws; and this, as Protestants present on
subjects intimately concerning the Catholic
priests who were absent." On page 380 of the
history we learn that in the Assembly of 1638,
"Twenty Freemen were admitted." And in
the first volume of the Documents, Document 19,
we learn from the words of the Provincial of
the Jesuits to the Papal Nuncio, Mgr. Rosetti
1641, that freemen of this kind were both heretic
and plebeian, "cisque heteredosis ut plurimuni
plebeiis hominibus qui post pracstitum dominis
suis conservitium per certos annos in colonia
fuerat liberati ac jure civitatis donantur."
Tlie Jesuit writer is so well aware of the predominance
of the Protestant element that he
expresses it in the cunning and at the same time
correct way just given.
Mere numbers were on the Protestant side,
all the quality on the Catholic side. On page
168 of the Documents, volume I, we read: "The
local parliament made up of almost wholly new
men?non-Catholic in religion." On page 461
of the history we see this statement: "The one
hundred Catholics among the four hundred
whites of the colcny."
On page 392 of the history this statement
4 4 H f - I* ?- rt ? *
occurs: men 01 receni emrancnisement wno
were willing to sign away anything by a concordat."
The Jesuit writer would certainly ne^tr have
used such language when speaking of an Assembly
made up largely of Catholics.
I believe I have fulfilled my promise by making
the Jesuit historian speak out the truth fully
and plainly in spite of himself, but if there be
any of my readers not entirely convinced or
reluctant to believe that Catholics were in the
minority and a negligible factor as far as religious
tolerance in Maryland was concerned,
I desire to give excerpts from two additional
documents of such historical value and importance
that they alone can settle the whole question
entirely in favor of the Protestant majority
in the colony.
TUa - ? *
>uu uLainuciiia IUUIIU Hi lilt} l U (J UUCUIULTl v*
referred to above will be placed before my readers
in the next articfe of this series.
Cheerful givers are not always hasty givers.
The best givers take time to think.
U T H (415) 1
THE PROBLEMS OF TODAY
BY "ADDISON."
Tliere are unquestionably great dangers and
problems that confront the Christians of the
United States today. There are dangers to our
religious life. There is the Sabbath problem;
people do not observe the Sabbath as carefully
as they did fifty years ago. There is the Mormon
problem; the black-coated emissaries of the
Utah abomination are traveling all Darts of our
country aud Europe, and are drawing away
disciples after them. There is the Catholic problem;
hordes of immigrants from the Latin nations
of Europe have been for the last 30 years
pouring into the United States, and by their
aid the Romish hierarchy is becoming a danger
to our national life. There is the Christian
Science problem; under the leadership of the
now defunct Mrs. Alary Baker Glover Eddy this
cult has risen to wide activity and has overturned
the faith of some. There is the heathen
problem; not only are the ungodly, but the heathen
are within our doors. In various cities of
our laud there are actually built or building
temples to the heathen gods of India, China and
Japan. Under the name of theosophy these cults
are appealing to foolish and unstable people of
our land. Shall our Christian land be polluted
with such abominations?
There are the social problems. "What to do
with the saloon? "What to do with the white
slave traffic? What to do with "submerged"
and vicious elements of our city population?
What to do with the relations of capital and
labor? What to do with municipal corruption?
What to do with- Socialism,
Then there are the political problems. Whether
government "of the people, for the people,
by the people," can be maintained in our midst?
Whether our people have enough vigilance and
patriotism and courage to protect, as the heritage
of our race, freedom of speech, freedom of
the press, and religious liberty, in the face of
foes that assail our institutions? Whether our
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yuupie siiun eonunue to iove ana guard consti
tutional government, or shall become apes of the
customs and institutions of the monarchies of
Europe?
And there are the domestic problems. There is
the problem of the training of children. It is
said that in the modern home life parental authority
has largely passed away. If so, it is with
grave danger to the moral character of the children.
It is said that the family altar is very
much neglected in the busy rush of modern life.
If so, it is with grave danger to the religious
character of the rising generation! There is the
danger to home that comes from the unprincipled
carelessness of the idle and luxurious life
of people who, having leisure and money and
sasp. act. to nlonsp tliPmsolvoo pa(-Vini< + Vian On<1
?y ?MVM?wvft f VO * U tllUU UUU.
These and many other problems, bold and insistent,
confront the Christians of this country
today. After so many ages of agony and conflict,
when every problem has been answered
and its solution offered, behold the same problems
still arise in threatening array and confront
Christian life!
What does it meant It means that the devil
is not dead, but alive and militant It means
that the human heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked! It means that
every life presents the same problems and questionings
generation after generation, and that
even though an answer be found, the annlientinn
of that answer must be personal! It meaas that
each Christian life is a warfare, and that the
conflict against evil must go on.in one form or
another until the end. The battlefield is not a
place of ease and quietness and pleasure, but
a place of heroic service and stern fighting.
(Continued on Page ft.)