Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Honors Projects Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice Winter 2013 The irV ginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Revolutionary and Forgotten Ross L. Argir Grand Valley State University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects Recommended Citation Argir, Ross L., "The irV ginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Revolutionary and Forgotten" (2013). Honors Projects. 189. http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/189 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Revolutionary and Forgotten Ross L. Argir Frederik Meijer Honors College-Grand Valley State University HNR 499 Winter 2013 Advisor: Dr. Brent A. Smith Argir 1 Universal religious toleration and the separation of Church and State are two principles that many consider integral to the United States of America. However, few know the history behind these protections or their original intent, to protect religion from the state, or of the first law in which they were present, The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Virginia Legislature in 1786. This paper will examine the history behind the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, paying close attention to both the history of American Church and State relations prior to the Statute, and to the motives that its author and main proponent, Thomas Jefferson, had for drafting it. Then the actual Statute will be analyzed, as will be the consequences of the Statute, both legal and historical, and its lasting effect and importance in America will be demonstrated. Part I To understand early American Church and State relations, one must look much further back in history than the founding of the British Colonies in the New World. It can be argued that the beginning of “modern” Church and State relations occurred when toleration was granted to Christianity in the Roman Empire, in 313 with the Edict of Milan. Emperor Constantine claimed that he had seen the sign of Christ before the Battle of the Melvin Bridge, and after his victory there, adopted Christianity as his own religion. 1 In that moment, a faith that had been persecuted, and its members martyred, for the last three hundred years became aligned with the state that once persecuted it. It is 1 Chapman, Alice. "Pope vs King." HST 495, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, February/March 2013. Argir 2 here that modern Church and State relations begun between Christianity and the West, relations that would have a major impact on world history. Here the Christian idea of "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21) came into fruition, and two spheres of influence developed, the Church and the State, though neither were independent of one another, setting the stage for a new relationship between Church and State. By the Middle Ages of Europe, the once persecuted Church had grown to one of, if not the, largest and most powerful institutions on the continent. The papacy held great prestige, and there were certainly times where the Pope was the most powerful figure in Europe, the pontificate of Innocent III and the crowing of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800 by Pope Leo III coming to mind.2 However, the secular and religious powers were often in conflict over issues such as taxation of clergy, lay investiture (the practice of the secular ruler appointing bishops), and marital disputes among the secular rulers. The Church became inseparably tangled with the secular powers of the day, and in doing so lost much of its credibility, something that helped lead to the Protestant and Anglican reformations. The Anglican reformation is the most relevant to the subject of this work. In response to a Church/State conflict with the Pope, the King of England broke away from the traditional Catholic Church forming the Church of England, or the Anglican Church, with the English Monarch as the head of the Church. 3 It was from this Church that some of the earliest American settlers came, specifically the Puritans of New England. These 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. Argir 3 Puritans viewed the secular controlled Church of England as being too corrupt, and felt that they could not practice their “correct” religion freely within England. 4 For John Winthrop, founder and famed governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the freedom to practice his Puritan religion was very much on his mind when he came to the New World. 5 Winthrop viewed the Church of England as too corrupt to be reformed from the inside, but he believed it could be reformed from the outside, with the new settlements in North America showing England an example of what a religious state should look like. 6 He sought to carve out a new Christian holy land in America, and in doing so, create a haven of true religiosity. After arriving in Massachusetts, the once persecuted Puritans quickly became the dominant power. In history, it is always amazing how fast the oppressed, when given a little power, can become the oppressors. The early Puritan settlers were no exception to this. After escaping religious persecution by coming to the New World, they quickly clamped down on any religious dissenters in the Massachusetts Colony. This was due to the strict control of beliefs that the secular government and Church held over the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The secular government enforced this strict set of beliefs because John Winthrop and many of the other secular leaders felt that any disagreement over religious beliefs would tear the fragile colony apart at its seams. 7 This view led to the harsh treatment of many religious dissenters in the colony, most famously Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. The colonial governments disagreement with Roger 4 Morgan, Edmund S. The Puritan Dilemma; the Story of John Winthrop. Boston: Little, Brown, 1958, 84. 5 Ibid, 85. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid, 343. Argir 4 Williams stemmed out of his convictions both that the colonial Church was not “pure” enough because of its ties with the Church of England and that the colonial charters that brought the Colony into existence were invalid due to his extensive study of the First Nation Americans. 8 For his dissent, Williams was banished from the colony, and went on to found the colony of Rhode Island, where, in one of the great paradoxes of history, this intolerant zealot would become the father of American religious toleration. Anne Hutchinson, the wife of a wealthy settler in the colony, would later become at odds with the colonial government and Church and suffer much the same fate as Williams. Her disagreement with the established Church over several important theological points, and her growing influence in the colony, led to her imprisonment and subsequent banishment in 1638. 9 Hutchinson and many of her followers were convinced by Roger Williams to come and settle in his colony of Rhode Island, were for the first time in the New World, religious toleration, to a point, was found. If one were to pick the most unlikely leader in the colonies to be religiously tolerant, Roger Williams would have to be close to the top of this list. Born in 1603, this feverently religious man came to the New World in 1631 seeking escape from what he perceived to be as the horrid corruption of the English Church. 10 Williams saw religious corruption everywhere, often claiming that the leaders of the Church of England were in league with the Pope, possibly the worst accusation he bestow upon them.11 After his 8 Ibid, 345. 9 Ibid, 344. 10 Ibid, 345. 11 Ibid, 346. Argir 5 banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 he obtained a charter from Cromwell’s government to form the colony of Rhode Island. 12 Rhode Island, and Williams himself, would go down in American history as the first great example of American religious toleration. However true this may be, there are certainly some facts that some light needs to be shed upon. Roger Williams was not, in the least, a religiously tolerant man. He was an outspoken critic of many religions, and condemned everyone from Catholics to the Puritans and was particularly enraged by George Fox’s Quakers (especially their long hair), even often making derogatory puns using Fox’s name. It was said of Williams that he believed that no one, not even his wife, was pure enough to pray with him. 13 Supposedly he could not say grace before a meal, unless he was eating alone, lest he pray with religious inferiors. 14 How did this man, so intolerant and critical, become a symbol of toleration? Some argue that he did not have some sort of epiphany that led him to become religiously tolerant, but instead he realized that it was logistically impossible for him to be intolerant as a governor. Williams is quoted as saying that if he persecuted and executed witches, he would have to do the same to Catholics, then Quakers, and then everyone else. 15 These scholars claim that in Williams’ mind, everyone was equally in error, and it was since it was simply logistically impossible to persecute everyone, he decided to persecute no one. However, there is much in Williams’ understanding of religion that would lead him to be tolerant. Williams’ believed that all of human kind was fallible and in error, due to 12 Montagna, Douglas.