St. Mary’s City, MD – When it comes to separation of church and state, the concept has nothing on Historic St. Mary’s City.
As the state prepares to celebrate Maryland Day March 25, here’s a little nugget of history illustrating how the state can uphold the church—and still does.
The cornerstone of Lord Baltimore’s New World colony in 1634 was religious toleration. When Cecilius Calvert issued his instructions to the colonists in November 1633, the concept was at the forefront of his directive. He wrote:
“His Lopp (Lordship) requires his said Governor and Commissioners that in their voyage to Mary Land they be very careful to preserve unity and peace amongst all the passengers on Shipp-board, and that they suffer no scandall nor offence to be given to any of the Protestants, whereby any just complaint may hereafter be made, by them, in Virginia or in England, and that for that end, they cause all Acts of Romane Catholique Religion to be done as privately as may be, and that they instruct all the Romane Catholiques to be silent upon all occasions of discourse concerning matters of Religion; and that the said Governor and Commissioners treate the Protestants with as much mildness and favor as Justice will permit. And this to be observed at Land as well as at Sea.”
– Narratives of Early Maryland
Father Andrew White, the Jesuit whose “Brief Relations” gives historians a detailed account of the voyage from the Isle of Wight to the New World, pretty much ignored Lord Baltimore’s instructions and celebrated a Catholic Mass as soon as they reached land, on St. Clements Island. Yet, for the most part, both sides heeded Lord Baltimore’s decree and were able to work together.
It was the concept of religious toleration that saved the Lord Proprietor’s new colony when Puritan pirates invaded in 1645, setting many of the colony’s earliest records to the torch and hauling the Jesuit White off in chains to England. This occurred when the Mother Country was enveloped in Civil War, culminating in the beheading of King Charles I. When Charles II was restored to the throne, it was Calvert’s fairness in allowing those of differing faiths to worship as they would that weighed in his favor and his colony was returned to the Palatinate.
Calvert’s colony became a place of refuge for many. When Quakers found avarice in Virginia in the mid-17th century, Lord Baltimore welcomed them to Maryland, where they settled happily in Calvert County.
St. Mary’s City today, which in case you don’t know, is one of four English roots to America (there was Jamestown, Plymouth, Boston and St. Mary’s City) is the best preserved of early colonial sites, and still offers physical examples of the church and state principle.
People come to St. Mary’s City all the time and ask “where is the city?” The simple answer is, it’s all underground about a foot and a half down. For the past four decades, archaeologists have labored in the fields of St. Mary’s City to unearth the city and have done so, revealing a unique layout for a colonial town.
For most visitors who come to the historic site, the galvanizing edifice is the reconstructed state house placed on a hill overlooking the St. Mary’s River in 1934 during Maryland’s 300th anniversary celebration.
The original state house, however, can still be seen in a rather ironic example of the state upholding the church. In the cemetery of Trinity Episcopal Church heading toward Church Point, there are markers designating the original site of the state house. What is the most fascinating aspect of the former state house is that when it fell into ruin after the capital of Maryland was relocated to Annapolis, Episcopalians looking to build a new church retooled the salvageable bricks from the structure in constructing their church in the early 1700s.
“As far as we can determine, about the first five to seven feet of the walls for the church were built using bricks from the old state house,” Dr. Henry Miller, director of interpretation for Historic St. Mary’s City said.
This was what my old history professor, Dr. Fred Fausz, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland used to call, “The state literally upholding the church.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com