142 A Century of Science 



the Episcopal folk had it all their own way. But 

 about 1720 began the wholesale immigration of 

 Presbyterians and Lutherans into the Shenandoah 

 Valley, and after the middle of the century trouble 

 began when the tide-water Cavaliers tried to im- 

 pose taxes upon these people for the support of 

 the Established Church. The most numerous and 

 powerful opponents of this narrow policy were the 

 Presbyterians; and inasmuch as these had come, 

 not from Scotland where their own church was es- 

 tablished, but from Ireland where it was persecuted, 

 their experience had led them to approve the 

 separation of church from state. Their political 

 notions were also strongly democratic, and with the 

 aid of their votes Jefferson's party not only abol- 

 ished primogeniture and entail and other old Eng- 

 lish customs, but also carried the disestablishment 

 of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. Madison's 

 Religious Freedom Act of 1785, which not only 

 effected this, but likewise did away with all reli- 

 gious tests, is a very important event in the history 

 of the United States. The statute, which declared 

 that " opinion in matters of religion shall in no 

 wise diminish, enlarge, or affect civil capacities," 

 attracted attention far and wide ; it was translated 

 into several European languages, and published 

 with admiring comments ; and in the course of the 



