equired to recognize the English sovereign as their rightful ruler in
matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as well as temporal, to repudiate
the papal claim to depose heretical princes, to promise to fight for the
King in case of rebellion caused by a papal sentence of deposition, and
to denounce the doctrine that princes, being excommunicated, could be
deposed or murdered, or that subjects could be absolved from their oath
of allegiance. The oaths were based on a real fear which identified
Roman Catholicism with treason. Protestants felt that Catholics owed
their highest allegiance to a foreign power, and hence were not good
Englishmen. The problem was a complicated one, and much debated at the
time and since. Now it is generally accepted that one can owe spiritual
allegiance to Rome while remaining a faithful subject of a non-Catholic
state. In England in the seventeenth century, however, the Church of
Rome was too closely identified with England's mortal enemies to allow
her freely to tolerate Catholics in her midst. For a long period England
had feared Spain as the greatest threat to her existence. Even after the
defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 this fear persisted and to a
certain extent was transferred to France, another Catholic power. The
measures taken against the Catholics in England were similar to those
taken against Communists in this country today, and they were taken for
the same reason: the fear that the followers of a universal ideology
would turn against their local allegiance if the two ever came in
conflict.

Eventually Charles's easy attitude towards Catholics helped bring about
his downfall. In a similar way Harvey's compliance with the King's
instructions to aid and respect Baltimore's colonists weakened his
popularity in Virginia.

As the locus of power in England shifted from the King and his lords
towards the Parliament and the people, a stronger Protestant and
democratic policy became necessary. The eventual result of this shift in
power became evident with the beheading of Charles I in 1649 and, later,
with the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and the crowning of William and
Mary as constitutional symbols of the power of the English nation.

So great was the popular feeling in Virginia against the "Papists" in
Maryland that many, in casual conversation, exclaimed that they would
rather knock their cattle on the head than sell them to Maryland. To
accommodate the needs of the new settlers in