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Michal J. Rozbicki, English and Catholic: The Lords Baltimore in the Seventeenth Century, Journal of American History, Volume 93, Issue 1, June 2006, Page 180, https://doi.org/10.2307/4486077
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To be Catholic in seventeenth-century England was to steer one's course in an unblushingly anti-Catholic culture and to have one's loyalty to the country inevitably held in suspicion. In his new book, John D. Krugler sets out to examine the experiences of Catholic Lords Baltimore as successful politicians and colonizers in that inimical environment. Much of the study is devoted to a careful and well-documented reconstruction of the life of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, and of his son Cecil's four decades-long proprietorship of Maryland. Charles, the third Lord Baltimore, who did not rise to the challenge of his predecessors and witnessed the demise of his proprietorship in 1689, receives a relatively brief treatment.
The whole narrative is adroitly woven around a central theme of opposing polarities of religion and politics, state and church, conformity and dissent. The author seeks to correct two models of interpretation recurring in the literature of the subject. One is that Maryland was designed as a feudal utopia of sorts and was essentially a haven for feeing Catholics. The second is that the Calverts were predominantly driven by economic motives. Krugler claims both approaches are excessively reductionist and do not capture the nature of their successes and failures. He suggests instead that the Calverts should be viewed as pragmatic visionaries who boldly went against prevailing odds and succeeded despite their faith. In this, they provided a positive model for their co-religionists in England by demonstrating that Catholicism was not unpatriotic. The author argues convincingly that it was this mix of astute practicality and dedicated Catholicism that accounted for their accomplishments. They were therefore neither escapist nor merely materialist. The pursuit of material gain (especially important to George, who started his career without independent means) assuredly explains the boldness and persistence of their endeavors. A desire for economic success, manifestly predicated on social peace, may be seen as the inspiration behind the colony's manorial system as well as its attempts to ensure liberty of conscience. But Krugler argues that the “Maryland designe” for religious freedom demonstrated much more, namely innovative thinking that integrated the Calverts' private economic ambitions with their profound desire to reconcile religion and state. At the time it was a highly unusual political response to the objective fact of religious pluralism in England.
