m Parliament in February, 1645.
Chaotic times ensued, during which Catholics were made victims of the
cruel prejudices of the Protestants. The two Jesuit priests, Father
Andrew White and Father Philip Fisher, were arrested, loaded with
irons,[18] and sent prisoners into England, while Leonard Calvert
himself was driven from Maryland into Virginia.[19]

During these tumults so many persons went over from Virginia to
Maryland that the Virginia assembly sent Captain Edward Hill and
Captain Thomas Willoughby to compel the return of the absentees,[20]
with curious result. As the province was without a governor, some of
the council of Maryland issued, in the name of the refugee Calvert, a
commission to Hill to act as governor of Maryland. The revolutionists
flattered themselves that a stable government under a Protestant
governor was now at hand. But the unexpected came to pass, when, in
December, 1646, Governor Calvert suddenly appeared with a strong body
of soldiers furnished by Sir William Berkeley and re-established his
authority by capturing both Hill and the Protestant assembly then
sitting at St. Mary's.

These two years of civil war in Maryland are called the "plundering
time." Claiborne again appears, though there is no evidence that he
had any part in Ingle's spoliations.[21] He did visit Kent Island
about Christmas, 1645, and put Captain Brent, to whom Governor Calvert
had assigned his house and property, in a terrible fright. One year
later he visited the island a second time, when he offered to aid the
Kent Islanders in marching upon St. Mary's with a view of reinstating
Hill. When the men of Kent declined to take the risk, Claiborne
returned to Virginia, and Kent Island fell once more under the
government of Lord Baltimore.[22] On this visit Claiborne, instead of
posing as a friend of the Parliament, showed a commission and letter
from the king, by whom he appears to have stood till the king's death
in 1649. Charles I., in his turn, who deposed Lord Baltimore as a
"notorious parliamentarian," appointed Claiborne, in 1642, treasurer
of Virginia;[23] and Charles II. included his name among the list of
councillors in the commission issued by Sir William Berkeley in
1650.[24]

While Maryland was thus convulsed with civil war an ordinance settling
the Maryland government in Protestant hands passed the House of Lords.
Before the Commons could concur, Lord Baltimore appeared and asked for
time to inquire into the c