This week in Christian history: Maryland bans blasphemy; Pope Leo IX dies; Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati born
Maryland bans blasphemy – April 21, 1649
This week marks the anniversary of when lawmakers in colonial Maryland passed a measure that made it a capital offense to take the name of Jesus Christ in vain.
Known as “An Act Concerning Religion,” the law is best known for granting religious tolerance for all Christian denominations, at a time when interdenominational persecution was common in Western civilization.
The act stated that anyone who would “blaspheme God,” “deny our Saviour Jesus Christ” or “deny the Holy Trinity” will “be punished with death and confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her lands and goods to the Lord Proprietary and his heires.”
The act also required criminal punishments for anyone who would “utter any reproachful words or speeches concerning the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Saviour, or the holy Apostles or Evangelists.”
“Maryland nullified this law from 1654 to 1661 and from 1692 to the end of the Revolutionary period, indicating that Maryland was not always a model of religious toleration during this period,” explained The Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
“This law appears to have been the first in America to refer specifically to ‘the free exercise’ of religion … the term later used to protect religious freedom in the First Amendment.”
