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By late 1633, Cecilius Calvert was ready to launch his colony. He had expected to lead the expedition himself, but his ships, Ark and Dove, left the Isle of Wight on November 22 without him. Led by his younger brother Leonard, the ships
traveled to the West Indies and then to the Chesapeake. The settlers arrived in the St. Mary's River in March of 1634, in time to plant crops. Maryland had begun. Sir George died in 1632, and the title and charter went to his son, Cecil, who
named the state Maryland, after Henrietta Marion, daughter of Henry IV of France and wife of Charles I.
How did the Maryland religious experiment fare? It lasted longer than the manorial plan did. Cecilius Calvert began with caution, well expressed in his instructions to Governor Leonard Calvert just before the first expedition sailed. Both at
sea and on land, the govenor and commissioners were to avoid offending the Protestants and were to hold religious services "as privately as may be"; and they were to "instruct all the Romane Catholiques to be silent upon all occasions of
discourse concerning matters of Religion." No public statement of policy ever appeared in the early days, but the record shows that Catholics were reprimanded if they criticized Protestants. However, after Ingle's Rebellion and just before the
arrival of the Virginia radical Protestants, Cecilius finally wrote down his policy of toleration for all Christians in the Act for Religion of 1649.
This act expressed the longstanding policy of silence to prevent religious conflict. No one was to reproach anyone for his religion or proselytize for his own, and penalties for violations were severe. This law was the first such legislation in
the American colonies and perhaps in the western world.
This act was abrogated in 1654, when Lord Baltimore lost control of his colony to the Virginia interests that had so long opposed him, but he achieved a settlement in 1657 that restored his government and with it the act. It remained in force
until 1689, when a bloodless revolution overturned Lord Baltimore's rule. The end result was a temporary crown takeover of the Maryland government, although not of the land, until 1715, when a Protestant Lord Baltimore inherited the province. A
royal governor arrived in 1692; and the Maryland assembly, now Protestant only, established the Church of England.
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