g case in 1638. In that year
a certain _Catholic_, named William Lewis, was arraigned before the
Governor, Secretary, &c., for _abusive language to Protestants_. Lewis
confessed, that, coming into a room where Francis Gray and Robert
Sedgrave, servants of Captain Cornwaleys, were reading, he heard them
recite passages so that he should hear them, that were reproachful to
his religion, "viz: that the Pope was anti-Christ, and the Jesuits
anti-Christian Ministers, &c: he told them it was a falsehood and came
from the devil, and that he that writ it was an instrument of the devil,
and so he would approve it!" The court found the culprit "guilty of a
very offensive speech in calling the Protestant ministers, the ministers
of the devil," and of "exceeding his rights, in forbidding them to read
a lawful book." In consequence of this "offensive language," and other
"unreasonable disputations, in point of religion, tending to the
disturbance of the peace and quiet of the Colony, committed by him,
_against a public proclamation set forth to prohibit all such
disputes_," Lewis was fined and remanded into custody until he gave
security for future good behaviour.[19]

Thus, four years, only, after the settlement, the liberty of conscience
was vindicated by a recorded judicial sentence, and "unreasonable
disputations in point of religion," rebuked by a Catholic Governor in
the person of a Catholic offender. There could scarcely be a clearer
evidence of impartial and tolerant sincerity. The decision, moreover, is
confirmatory of the fact that the Governor had taken such an oath as
Chalmers cites, in the previous year, 1637; especially as there had
_already been a "proclamation to prohibit disputes_!"

VI: 1638.--At the _first efficient_ General Assembly of the Colony,
which was held in this year, only two Acts were passed, though
thirty-six other bills were twice read and engrossed, but not finally
ripened into laws. The second of the two acts that were passed,
contains a section asserting that "Holy Church, _within this province_,
shall have all her rights and liberties;" thus securing the rights of
Catholics;--while the first of the thirty-six incomplete acts was one,
which we know only by _title_, as "An act for _Church liberties_." It
was to continue in force until the end of the next General Assembly, and
then, with the Lord Proprietary's consent, to be perpetual. Although we
have no means of knowing the extent of the proposed