in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of
conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate,
unless, under color of religion, any man disturb the peace,
the happiness, or the safety of society; and that it is the
mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love,
and charity towards each other."[251]

The historic significance of this stately assertion of religious
liberty in Virginia can be felt only by those who remember that, at
that time, the Church of England was the established church of
Virginia, and that the laws of Virginia then restrained the exercise
there of every form of religious dissent, unless compliance had been
made with the conditions of the toleration act of the first year of
William and Mary. At the very moment, probably, when the committee
were engaged in considering the tremendous innovation contained in
this article, "sundry persons of the Baptist church in the county of
Prince William" were putting their names to a petition earnestly
imploring the convention, "That they be allowed to worship God in
their own way, without interruption; that they be permitted to
maintain their own ministers and none others; that they may be
married, buried, and the like, without paying the clergy of other
denominations;" and that, by the concession to them of such religious
freedom, they be enabled to "unite with their brethren, and to the
utmost of their ability promote the common cause" of political
freedom.[252] Of course the adoption of the sixteenth article
virtually carried with it every privilege which these people asked
for. The author of that article, whether it was George Mason or
Patrick Henry, was a devout communicant of the established church of
Virginia; and thus, the first great legislative act for the reform of
the civil constitution of that church, and for its deliverance from
the traditional duty and curse of persecution, was an act which came
from within the church itself.

On Monday, the 24th of June, the committee, through Archibald Cary,
submitted to the convention their plan of a constitution for the new
State of Virginia; and on Saturday, the 29th of June, this plan passed
its third reading, and was unanimously adopted. A glance at the
document will show that in the sharp struggle between the aristocratic
and the democratic forces in the convention, the latter had signally
triumphed. It provided for a lower House of Assembly, who