Roger Williams, William Penn, the Maryland Assembly and Liberty Conscie

Roger Williams, William Penn, the Maryland Assembly and Liberty ConscienceThe New England colonies of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland Pa. and Md.are non in New England were founded with the express purpose of dispensing of with a statechurch not exactly. Rhode Island was put together. Maryland did not have a single statechurch, but the Calverts did not intend to dispense with state support of a church. In this theydeviated not only from the other British coloes in the New World but also from their Motherlandand indeed all the civilizations of western Christendom to date. Before the founding of RhodeIsland, Pennsylvania, and Maryland these three colonies, a state without an official state churchwas inconceivable. As the Church of England evolved in Britain, the other British colonies inNorth America espouse either Congregationalism, Anglicanism, or Presbyterianism never a statechurch in the colonies as their own state church. The idea of a state without a state church wasu nprecedented (Cohen 9/30).In place of the usual state church, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland adopted anew concept liberty of conscience. Here, liberty is synonymous with freedom. Byconscience our forefathers meant ones personal religious persuasion and its duties, as RogerWilliams explained to Governor John Endicott ... I speake of Conscience, a perswasion fixed inthe minde and heart of a man, which inforceth him to judge (as Paul said of himself apersecutour) and to doe so and so, with respect to God, his worship, etc. (Williams 340) To thefirst citizens of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, civil freedom of conscience wasthe ability to sojourn freely as a member of ones religion-that is, to perform such reli... ...es and theology as a Quaker came to influence state organization. And in Maryland, aCatholic Assembly hold minimal ? Christianity in order to please its Protestantconstituents. Whether three hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, or today, freedom ofreligion can easily pop off used in the interests of those in power.Works CitedCohen, Charles L. Lectures for History 451 earlyish American Religious History. Fall 1999.Frost, J. William. Chapter 1 The Creation of Religious Liberty in Early Pennsylvania, from A PerfectFreedom.Hall, Timothy L. Separating Church and State Roger Williams and Religious Liberty. University of IllinoisPress, Chicago 1998,Maryland Assembly. Act Concerning Religion 1649.Penn, William. The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience 1670.Williams, Roger. To Governor John Endicott, ca. August-September 1651