An End of Freedom but Persistence of Faith

An End of Freedom but Persistence of Faith. . When Maryland's governor ordered the chapel door locked in 1704 and the legislature passed the Act to Prevent the Growth of Popery, a new chapter in religion began in the colony. Catholics were barred from holding office and voting, were double taxed, and only permitted to worship in the privacy of their homes. Jesuit priests were outlawed but continued to minister to Catholics., The population grew and in 1776, Maryland had the largest number of Catholics of any of the thirteen colonies. Charles Carroll of Maryland became the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and he provided much financial support to the Revolutionary War effort., "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" , First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution from the Bill of Rights, ratified 1791, After the Revolution, religious freedom returned and the Catholic population in Maryland became the cornerstone of the Catholic Church in the new United States. John Carroll, trained as a Jesuit, and cousin of Charles Carroll, became the first bishop in the United States, with Baltimore the first diocese., In 1806, Bishop Carroll began building an impressive cathedral in Baltimore. This church was the direct descendent of the small brick chapel built at St. Mary's City in the 1660s. In a real sense, St. Mary's is the birthplace of the modern Roman Catholic Church in the United States., Captions: , John Carroll, of Prince George's County, was a Jesuit priest. In 1789, he became the first bishop of the of the Roman Catholic Church in the new United States. His grandfather worshiped in the Brick Chapel after his arrival in Maryland in 1688. Bishop Carroll also founded Georgetown University., Designed by renowned architect Benjamin Latrobe, this elegant classical structure was meant to be the center of the newly established Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Constructed between 1806 and 1821 as the first urban cathedral in the new country, it was, for the time, the most architecturally advanced building in the nation, only superseded by the U. S. Capitol, which also involved Latrobe., [Sidebar:] ,

Whereupon it was ordered by His Excellency, the Governor, that the Sheriff of St. Maries County lock up the said chapel and keep the key thereof. Proceedings of the Upper House of the Assembly, 1704

, When the sheriff locked the chapel door in 1704, he was ordered to keep the key. In 1990, a family in Virginia showed an old key to HSMC archaeologists. Family legend told that it was the key to the earliest church in St. Mary's. Genealogical research suggests that the family is related to John Coode, Jr., the sheriff who locked the door. This key guided the creation of a new lock and key for the chapel., [Caption:] , Newly created key for the chapel, based on the original?