Maryland Toleration Act (1649): Early Religious Freedom Law

The Maryland Toleration Act, formally the Act Concerning Religion, was passed by the assembly of the Province of Maryland on 21 April 1649. It promised that Christians who believed in the Trinity would not be troubled for their faith, making it one of the earliest laws in the English-speaking world to protect freedom of worship. It was also strictly limited, and it was soon swept up in the religious conflicts of the English Civil War era.

Background: a Catholic refuge with a Protestant majority

In 1632 King Charles I granted Maryland to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, a Catholic nobleman, after his father George Calvert died. The Calverts hoped the colony would make money and offer a refuge to English Catholics, who faced heavy fines and legal penalties at home.

The first settlers arrived on the ships Ark and Dove in March 1634 and founded St. Mary’s City. From the start, however, most colonists were Protestants, many of them servants and small farmers. Lord Baltimore instructed his brother, Governor Leonard Calvert, to keep Catholic worship private and to avoid giving offence to Protestants.

Tensions rose during the English Civil War. In 1645–1646 the Protestant sea captain Richard Ingle raided the colony in the name of Parliament, a period remembered as the “Plundering Time”. In 1648 Baltimore appointed a Protestant, William Stone, as governor, requiring him to swear not to disturb anyone, especially Catholics, for their religion. Puritan settlers expelled from Virginia were also invited to settle in Maryland, founding Providence, near present-day Annapolis.

What the act said

The act was based on a draft sent by Lord Baltimore and was adopted with changes by the Maryland assembly. Its main promise was that no person “professing to believe in Jesus Christ” would be troubled, molested or discountenanced in respect of religion or its free exercise, as long as they did not plot against the proprietor’s government.

It also tried to keep the peace between rival groups. Anyone who called another person by an insulting religious name, such as heretic, papist, Jesuit, Puritan, Presbyterian, Anabaptist or Roundhead, could be fined ten shillings. Other clauses punished swearing and the profanation of Sunday.

The limits of toleration

The act’s toleration had clear boundaries. Anyone who blasphemed God or denied the Trinity or the divinity of Jesus could be put to death and lose their lands and goods. Lesser insults to the Virgin Mary, the apostles or the evangelists carried fines, whipping or banishment for repeat offences.

This meant that Jews, Unitarians and non-Christians had no protection. In 1658 Jacob Lumbrozo, a Jewish physician living in Maryland, was charged with blasphemy under the act; he was released when a general pardon was proclaimed later that year. Historians generally describe the law as an act of practical toleration among Christians rather than a statement of universal religious liberty.

Repeal, restoration and decline

The act’s fortunes followed politics in England. After the execution of Charles I and the rise of Parliament’s power, commissioners sent from England removed Governor Stone, and in 1654 a Puritan-dominated assembly repealed the act, extending protection only to Protestants and excluding Catholics. In March 1655 Puritan forces defeated Stone’s men at the Battle of the Severn, near Providence, and several of his supporters were later executed.

Lord Baltimore recovered control by agreement in 1657–1658, and the Toleration Act was restored. Real change came after the Glorious Revolution in England. In 1689 the Protestant Associators overthrew proprietary rule, Maryland became a royal colony, and the Church of England was established by law in 1702. Catholics were barred from public worship and from holding office for most of the 18th century.

Key people

• Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675), proprietor of Maryland, who never visited the colony but shaped its religious policy.
• Leonard Calvert, his brother and the first governor, who died in 1647.
• William Stone, the Protestant governor under whom the act was passed.
• Richard Ingle, the parliamentarian captain whose raids showed how fragile the colony’s peace was.

Timeline

• 1632, June: Charles I grants the Maryland charter to Cecil Calvert.
• 1634, March: The first colonists land and found St. Mary’s City.
• 1645–1646: The “Plundering Time” of Richard Ingle.
• 1648: William Stone becomes governor.
• 1649, 21 April: The assembly passes the Act Concerning Religion.
• 1654: A Puritan assembly repeals the act.
• 1655, 25 March: Battle of the Severn.
• 1658: Lord Baltimore regains control and the act is restored.
• 1689: The Protestant revolution ends proprietary government.

Why it matters

The Maryland Toleration Act was narrow by modern standards, but it was a rare attempt in the 17th century to make religious peace a matter of law rather than of a single established church. Set beside Rhode Island’s wider liberty and later debates after the English Civil War, it is often cited as an early step on the long road to the religious freedom later written into American constitutions.