exempting religious
property from taxation. This unquestionably traces back to the idea
expressed in the Northwest Ordnance that Government has an interest in
religion as such.

FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION: DIMENSIONS

The First Amendment "was intended to allow every one under the
jurisdiction of the United States to entertain such notions respecting
his relations to his Maker and the duties they impose as may be approved
by his judgment and conscience, and to exhibit his sentiments in such
form of worship as he may think proper, not injurious to the equal
rights of others, and to prohibit legislation for the support of any
religious tenets, or the modes of worship of any sect. The oppressive
measures adopted, and the cruelties and punishments inflicted, by the
governments of Europe for many ages, to compel parties to conform, in
their religious beliefs and modes of worship, to the views of the most
numerous sect, and the folly of attempting in that way to control the
mental operations of persons, and enforce an outward conformity to a
prescribed standard, led to the adoption of (this) amendment."[40] "The
constitutional inhibition of legislation on the subject of religion has
a double aspect. On the one hand, it forestalls compulsion by law of the
acceptance of any creed or the practice of any form of worship. Freedom
of conscience and freedom to adhere to such religious organization or
form of worship as the individual may choose cannot be restricted by
law. On the other hand, it safeguards the free exercise of the chosen
form of religion. Thus the Amendment embraces two concepts,--freedom to
believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of
things, the second cannot be."[41]

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS

The Society of Sisters, an Oregon corporation, was empowered by its
charter to care for orphans and to establish and maintain schools and
academies for the education of the youth. Systematic instruction and
moral training according to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church was
given in its establishments along with education in the secular
branches. By an Oregon statute, effective September 1, 1926, it was
required that every parent, or other person having control or charge or
custody of a child between eight and sixteen years send him "to a public
school for the period of time a public school shall be held during the
current year" in the district where the child resides; and failure so to
do was