principal articles of faith; and repentance of his sins being excited, he received his confession; then, elevating his soul with hope and confidence in God, he recited the Gospel which is appointed to be read for the sick, as also the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and told him to commend himself to her most holy intercessions, and to call unceasingly upon the most sacred name of Jesus. Then the Father, applying the most sacred relics of the most holy cross, which he carried in a casket hung to his neck, but had now taken off, to the wound on each side, before his departure directed the bystanders, when he should breathe his last, to carry him to the chapel for the purpose of burial.

It was now noon when the father departed; and the following day, at the same hour, when by chance he was borne along in his boat, he saw two Indians propelling a boat with oars toward him; and when they had come alongside, one of them put his foot into the boat, in which the father was sitting. Whilst he gazed on the man with fixed eyes, being in doubt, for in a measure he recognized him by his features who he was, but in part recollecting in what state he had left him the day before, when the man, on a sudden, having thrown open his cloak, and having disclosed the cicatrices

of the wounds, or rather a red spot on each side, as a trace of the wound, immediately removed all doubts from him. Moreover, in language with great exultation he exclaims, 'that he is entirely well, nor from that hour at which the father had left yesterday, had he ceased to invoke the most holy name of Jesus, to whom he attributed his recovered health.'" 12

But side by side with these efforts, not always tactful, to persuade men to accept the dogmas of the Roman Church, coupled with their remarkable claims to the possession of divine power, went overt deeds of persecution by the Jesuits. As early as 1638 there was an instance of the kind in St. Mary's. This was the act 13 of William Lewis, who forbade two of his servants to read in his house a book of sermons written by an English clergyman. It was a particularly bad feature of the case that Lewis was Father Copley's, agent and we may therefore see Copley's hand in this piece of intolerance. Lewis' language about the book and its author, and indeed the Anglican clergy generally, was such that all the Churchmen in the colony were up in arms about it. In their eyes Lewis was

12 Ibid, P. 87-88.

13 Md. Hist. Soc., F. P., No. 9, Streeter, P. 232.

14 Rev. Henry Smith, Sermons, (published in 1592.)

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a traitor, who should be severely dealt with. There was even some talk of appealing for redress to the Governor of Virginia. This, however, was not necessary; a crisis had arisen, but it was not a greater one than the Government of Maryland was able to settle. It was just an unfortunate dispute of this sort which Lord Baltimore had feared as dangerous to his province, and Governor Calvert knew his brother's mind. A lenient sentence would have been mis-timed clemency. Accordingly Lewis was fined five hundred pounds of tobacco, and was bound over to good behaviour, giving security therefor in three thousand pounds sterling.

15

It was not until 1642 that any similar act of intolerance is met with. In that year, Mr. Thomas Gerard, the lord of St. Clement's Manor, took away the keys and books of the Church at St. Mary's." Mr. Gerard was heard in his own defence, but he also was mulcted in a fine of five hundred pounds of tobacco-the same to be paid towards the support of the first minister who should arrive. Again the fine was out of proportion to the offense in ordinary times, but in the Maryland colony the times were not ordinary by any means. At any

15 Md. Toleration, Allen, P. 44; also Neill, Founders of Maryland, P. 100.

moment a conflagration might occur, and those who under such circumstances were found playing with fire deserved punishment.16

16 Commenting on these cases a Roman Catholic author says: 'Faithfully did Cecilius, the Proprietary, execute the pledge he had given to the members of the English Church. How intoxicating is the taste of power! How apt are we to forget the obligation we owe to those whom we command! How easy was it for the Proprietary, in an obscure and remote part of the world, beyond the immediate eye of the Crown, to commit acts of petty cruelty and oppression towards those who differed with him on points of faith, not only by excluding them from civil offices, but also in many other respects. The singular fidelity with which the second Baron of Baltimore kept his pledge, presents one of the best examples upon record, one of the purest lessons of history, one of the strongest claims to the gratitude of Maryland and to the admiration of the world." Davis, The Day Star, P. 34. Indeed! With Virginia, watching with lynxlike eyes the course of the Maryland government, ready to accuse it of the least unfaithfulness to its Charter, and he himself, detained in England as a pledge of his government's good behaviour, he was not apt to become intoxicated with the taste of power, nor to be found starting on a crusade of persecution. His own co-religionists accused Cecilius Calvert of being inimical to their interests, and indifferent to the claims of his Church. But no one ever accused him of lacking a proper regard for his temporal welfare.

CHAPTER XIII.

WORKING THE LEGISLATURE.

1637.

Keep leets and law days.

-SHAKESPEARE.

The first Legislative Assembly ever held in Maryland, of which we have any record, began its sessions at St. Mary's on the 25th of January, 1637, under the presidency of Leonard Calvert. All the freemen of the province had been summoned to appear, and a complete list is extant of those who were present and of those who were absent. Absentees, represented by proxy, were excused; the others, with three notable exceptions, were amerced for non-appearance. These exceptions were the three Jesuit priests, "Mr. Thomas Copley, Esq., Mr. Andrew White, Gent., Mr. John Altham, Gent," all residents in St. Mary's hundred. Like the laymen, they had been summoned to take their places as legislators. On the assembling of the House, however, Robert Clarke, described as 'gent'

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1 Archives of Maryland, Assembly, Page 63.