Religion Under the Barons of Baltimore

Thus documents of the very highest importance to the historian of Maryland, "which have been for more than two hundred and fifty years without the care of an official guardian," have happily been preserved. What hopes may not be founded on such a discovery as this? Other literary treasures may yet be forthcoming. Two large chests marked Calvert Papers seen in the British Museum in 1839, could not be found twenty years later. Probably they were there only temporarily, perhaps offered unsuccessfully for sale. But if so, where was their next resting place? Was it at the country seat, near Windsor, of a descendant of the Calverts, where the recovered papers were actually found, and where a tradition still lingers that a chest full of similar papers had been given to the gardener to be buried? Who shall venture to decide? Meanwhile, although some may still live in hope of seeing that lost chest at a future day, most of us will be thankful for our present possessions, and seek to learn the lessons they teach.

It will, perhaps, be seen that to give an account of religion in the province of Maryland in its early days is a task attended with some special difficulties and no little responsibility, in that it involves the rejection of views as entirely worthless, which

have both enjoyed the support of great names, and attained something like universal assent. This is necessarily an ungrateful duty. Beliefs which have become entwined with the heart's affections, even when destitute of all warrant, cannot but be respected. To any one, however, who may be tempted to resent the publication of views distasteful to him, I would say that they have only been published in the full belief that the facts herein recorded are true, and deserve to be fully known. And I would therefore suggest that ere such an one makes a way for his indignation, it would be well for him to examine the records to see whether these distasteful views are or are not well founded. If he will do this, I shall be fully satisfied; for I am sanguine enough to believe that a thorough examination, and an honest interpretation of the records, will lead him to make the frank confession: I have not conquered the evidence, but the evidence has conquered me.

We may not willingly dwell in darkness. Our fathers thought Galileo guilty of impiety in maintaining the true theory of the universe. They likewise believed in ghosts and burned witches. We neither burn witches, believe in ghosts, nor maintain that the earth stands still in the midst

of the heavens. We walk in the light, and must prove ourselves worthy of the light. And I trust that the time is not far distant when reputable citizens will be found no more willing to talk about Maryland as having been founded as a refuge for men persecuted for conscience sake, and as the seed-plot of religious liberty than they are now to plead for the burning at the stake of some poor, harmless old woman as a witch.

In my endeavors to further the cause of truth I am sure of the approval of the noble-minded everywhere, whatever their sentiments may be, but I trust that no just fault can be found by any with the spirit in which I have discharged my task.