21 April 1649 AD: Rev. Francis Mackemie, Oliver Cromwell, and Maryland’s Toleration Law
21 April 1649 AD: Rev. Francis Mackemie, Oliver Cromwell, and Maryland’s Toleration Law The PCA historians tell the story at: http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/04/april-21-3/ April 21: Rev. Francis Makemie Maryland Toleration Law Opens up Colony for Reformed Preaching April 21 was an important date in 1649 for the Reformed faith in the colony of Maryland. Originally, Maryland was a colony established as a refuge for English Catholics. But as more non-Catholics came into the colony, and indeed it became a Protestant colony, the Maryland Assembly on this date established the Maryland Toleration Law, or as it is sometimes known as The Act Concerning Religion. What it did was to mandate religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. That adjective “trinitarian” is important. If a citizen of the colony denied the deity of Jesus Christ, for example, then the punishment was seizure of their land, and even death....