236 SPOFFORD 



zealous observ^ers of religious rites. At their first setting foot 

 on the shores of the great Bay of Chesapeake, the pioneers of 

 1607 planted a cross, and baptized the point Cape Henry. 

 Maryland was consecrated to Christ at St. Marys by the plant- 

 ing of a cross, in which Catholics and Protestants participated. 

 On la3dng out the site of Jamestown, one of the earliest 

 buildings to go up was a church. Nearly every vessel from 

 England bore one or more clergymen. When the council that 

 governed the little colony had quarreled and made up their dif- 

 ferences, they partook together of the communion, in token of 

 reconciliation. 



But the laws first adopted for the government of the colony 

 show more clearly what severity of religious zeal pervaded the 

 polity of the time. In the ' Lawes and Orders, Divine, Poli- 

 tique, and Martial, for the Colony in Virginia,' printed in 1612, 

 is this stringent provision : 



"That no man blaspheme God's holy name upon paine of 

 death. That no man speake impiously or maliciously against 

 the holy and blessed Trinitie or against the knowne Articles of 

 the Christian faith, upon paine of death. 



" Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towl- 

 ing of the bell shall upon the working dales repaire unto the 

 church, to hear divine Service, upon pain of losing his or her 

 dayes allowance for the first omission, for the second to be 

 whipt, and for the third to be condemned to the Gallies for six 

 Moneths." 



And even in Maryland, so loudly praised for freedom of opin- 

 ion in religion, this worse than Draconian code was enacted in 

 1649, in ' an Act concerning Religion.' 



"Be it ordered and enacted by the right honorable Cecilius, 

 lord baron of Baltimore, with the advice and consent of this 

 General Assembly, that whatsoever person within this province 

 shall blaspheme God, that is, curse him, or shall deny our 

 Saviour Jesus Christ to be the Sonne of God, or shall deny the 

 Holy Trinity, the father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, or the God- 

 head of any of the said Three persons of the Trinity, or the 

 Unity of the Godhead, or shall utter any reproachfull speeches, 

 words, or language, concerning the said Holy Trinity, or any 



