Maryland Toleration Act - Description

Description

The Maryland Toleration Act was an act of tolerance, allowing specific religious groups to practice their religion without being punished, but retaining the ability to revoke that right at any time. It also only granted tolerance to Christians who believed in the Trinity. The law was very explicit in limiting its effects to Christians:

...no person or persons...professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be anyways troubled, Molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof within this Province... —Maryland Toleration Act, 1649

Settlers who blasphemed by denying either the Trinity or the divinity of Jesus Christ could be punished by execution or the seizure of their lands. That meant that Jews, Unitarians, and other dissenters from trinitarian Christianity were practicing their religions at risk to their lives. Any person who insulted the Virgin Mary, the apostles, or the evangelists could be whipped, jailed, or fined. Otherwise, trinitarian Christians' right to worship was protected. The law outlawed the use of "heretic" and other religious insults against them. This attempt to limit the use of religious slurs and insults has been described as the first attempt in the world to limit the use of hate speech.

The law was used in at least one attempt to prosecute a non-Christian. In 1658, a Jew named Jacob Lumbrozo was accused of blasphemy after saying that Jesus was not the son of God and that the miracles described in the New Testament were conjuring tricks. Lumbrozo did not deny having said such things, but argued that he had only been responding to questions asked of him. He was held for trial but the case was later dismissed, and he was given full citizenship as a condition of the restoration of Calvert's rule following the English Civil War.

The law had its detractors, even among groups those protected by it. Puritans were concerned that the act and the proprietary government in general were royalist. They were also concerned that by swearing allegiance to Calvert, who was Catholic, they were being required to submit to the Pope, whom they considered to be the antichrist. Some Anglicans also opposed the law, believing that the Church of England should be the colony's sole established church.