CHAPTER XI. SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MARYLAND CHURCH. 1635. Thou art ever present, Power supreme! In wealth, in want, in freedom or in chains, In dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find Thee! -HANNAH MOORE. The parting Instructions of Lord Baltimore betray the existence among the adventurers of diverse interests, the presence of the "little rift within the lute Which, widening more and more, Makes all the music mute." The adventurers were as a house divided against itself; part crying, "I am of Paul," and part, "And I of Cephas." In modern phraseology: "I am of Canterbury;" "And I of Rome." 1 For a time, however, there was far less friction than might have been looked for. This was due 1I Cor., iii, 4. to several causes. In the first place there was evidently the kindest feeling on the part of the Anglican Churchmen towards their Roman Catholic fellow-adventurers. This was entirely natural. Men who had spent months together on an ocean voyage—an experience which always brings people closely together-would not be apt to be extreme to mark what was done amiss where no personal loss or injury was inflicted. It is true that in committing the expedition at the outset to the guardianship of Roman Catholic saints and unknown angels, a wrong key-note had been struck by the priests, and one which made it easier for them, when they sighted land, to pursue a similar course in giving to the headlands they passed, and to the waters over which they sailed, Roman Catholic names. Not that this was in itself any very important matter, but it certainly was a significant one. The strong tower does not show the direction of the wind, but the bending reed does. It was therefore, entirely in a natural way that the Jesuits passed on to celebrating mass in that "ample manner" which had once stirred to its depths the protestantism of the Rev. Erasmus Stourton, in the elder Baltimore's time. Still, though acting entirely contrary to the commands of the lord pro prietary, no offence was probably taken by the Protestants. To them their fellow-voyagers' penchant for naming the various headlands, and points of interest along the coast, after defunct bishops and mythical personages would seem nothing more than an odd fancy, at which there was nothing that even zealous Protestants could be justly scandalized. An evidence of kindly feeling on the part of the Protestants is to be seen in the way in which Captain Fleet showed how absolutely free he was from all sectarian bias and narrow-minded prejudice, for it was by his aid that the missionaries were enabled to preach the Gospel to the Indians. He was their interpreter at a time when they were as powerless to influence for good or for evil the red men of Maryland, as they would have been had they remained in Europe. Witnessing that neighborly act one naturally exclaims: "Behold how good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." It sounds somewhat unkind to read shortly afterwards: "We do not put much confidence in the protestant interpreters."" Mistrust begets mistrust, as love begets love. Whether they trusted this particular Protestant interpreter or not, 2 Relatio Itineris. P. 41. Md. Hist. Soc., F. P., No. 7. he was the one man who had made all their communications with the Indians possible, and to whom alone they owed the beautiful site of their city. Unhappily this was not the only indication of the Jesuits' real sentiments towards their Protestant fellow-countrymen. A little later on they describe one of them, an Anglican named Snow, as an obstinate heretic, his offence being that he was a consistent Churchman, who did all in his power to keep his brethren firm in the faith of their fathers. But as these opinions about their Protestant neighbors were not made public, no illwill resulted. Another cause for the absence of friction was to be found in the character of the first missionaries themselves. They were not men of intemperate zeal, utterly lacking in tact and judgment. Indeed, if all who went out with the first expeditions had been like Fathers White and Altham, there might have been, apart from their antagonism to the instructions of Lord Baltimore, and the inability they labored under, incidental to the Jesuit position, to recognize the Catholicity of their Anglican brethren, little or nothing whatever to find fault with. In their willingness to live and let live; in 3 Neill, Founders of Maryland, P. 99. the sweetness of their lives; and in the constancy of their faith, these first missionaries were an example unto their brethren, who followed them into Maryland. Had the later arrivals been like them, Lord Baltimore would probably never have had occasion to regret their presence in his colony. Good, honest men, according to their light, were those fathers, and full of missionary zeal. To be sure, their zeal sometimes led them into errors of judgment, but nevertheless, even on the part of those who differed from them, it would have been strange if there had not been a feeling of respect towards men so self-denying and self-sacrificing as they were. Alone of all men in Maryland they were not seeking riches for themselves, and they deserve a very high place in Maryland history. When not an English clergyman was found to go out to the colony, although the greater part of the adventurers were members of the English Church, to their honor be it spoken, these men volunteered and went. It would therefore ill become Churchmen to condemn them. Embarking on the same enterprise together, their future was singularly unlike. One was taken, and the other left. On Kent Island Father Altham had soon run his course, and was laid to rest in his grave beside the |