and Mary upon the throne of England, the government of the Province was assumed by the crown. The royal government continued from 1692 until 1715, when the Proprietary's rightful authority was restored to him by George I.
The interval between the suppression of the Ingle insurrection and the arrival of Cromwell's Commissioners, (1651,) short as it was, was long enough to be signalized by an event that has made illustrious the colonial history of Maryland, and which to this day is looked back upon with pride. In 1648 Lord Baltimore prescribed a new oath of office to be taken by the Lieutenant-General of the Province; and in that age, when religious toleration, as now understood, was unknown in Europe, that officer was made to bind himself by this oath that he would not "directly or indirectly trouble, molest or discountenance any person whatsoever in the Province professing to believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of his or her religion," or the free exercise thereof; and that he would not "make any difference of persons in conferring of offices, rewards or favors for or in respect of their said religion;" and further that if any officer or person should molest or disturb any person within this Province on account of his religion, he would protect the person molested and punish the offender. At the session of the Assembly the same year, "an act concerning religion" was passed, by which these principles were embodied in the statute law, and their observance enforced under penalties.
In consequence of this wise and liberal policy of religious toleration, Maryland, under the auspices of a Roman Catholic Proprietary, became the common refuge for all who were suffering religious persecution. Members of the Church of England, Quakers and others, resorted thither from among the Puritans of New England, and Puritans came from Virginia to escape the requirements of the Established Church there; while Protestants from France and Portugal and the Netherlands, fled thither from the persecutions in those countries. So that this policy was in its effect as beneficial to the Province, by the valuable additions secured to the population, as in its conception, it was honorable to the Proprietary.[1]
As the population gradually increased, new and more extended settlement began to be made. Baltimore County was created in 1659, and in 1683, at a session of the Assembly held at the Ridge in Anne Arundel County, among several new towns that were created, two were situated in that county. Indeed there seems to have existed at that time a mania for making towns, no less than thirty-three having been created by the Assembly in the space of
- ↑ Of the Proprietary who thus stands before us as a m an far in advance of the ideas of the age in which he lived, it may be said, that his life which lasted until 1675, was continually devoted to the best interests of the Province Of him it was written, "never did a people enjoy more happiness than the inhabitants of Maryland under Cecilius, the founder of the Province." (Ramsay—Hist. Rev. War.) The condition of religious equality which he established continued until 1692, when under the royal government which temporarily supplanted the Proprietary, there was for the first time an ecclesiastical establishment in Maryland.
