Religion Practiced in Colonial Maryland
Catholics were rarely harassed in England but the English law didn't allow Catholics from holding office. Catholics were not allowed to worship in public and they had to pay 10% of their earnings to the Church of England. This behavior was bearable but it was still discrimination. But the few Catholics that settled in Colonial Maryland were publicly harassed. Even though the colony started off as a Catholic community, most colonist were Protestant. Between Protestants and the Catholics, religious conflict grew; the Protestants were openly prejudice against the Catholics. The Colonial Maryland governor, Lord Baltimore created the Maryland Religious Tolerance Act of 1649 to try to get the people of Maryland to get along with each other. The act enforced fines and physical punishment to any one who would discriminate for religious reasons, whether they were Catholic or Protestant. The Religious Toleration act failed because the people of Colonial Maryland didn't want to tolerate each other.