Church of England

South Carolina Constitution of 1778

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

South Carolina January 1, 1778 Section XXI. And whereas the ministers of the gospel are by their profession dedicated to the service of God and the cure of souls, and ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their function, therefore no minister of the gospel or public preacher of any religious persuasion, while he continues in the exercise of his pastoral function, and for two years after, shall be eligible either as governor, lieutenant-governor, a member of…

Diary of John Adams, February 21, 1765

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams February 21, 1765 Found in his diary, this was a draft of a longer essay on cannon and feudal law. It was a Resolution formed by a sensible People almost in despair. [The Puritans’ decision to leave England and settle in America.] They Puritans had become intelligent in general, and some of them learned but they had been galled, and fretted, and whipped and cropped, and hanged and burned. In short they had been so worried by Plagues…

A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law by John Adams, 1765

May 27, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive Comments 0 Comment

John Adams 1765 Patriots equated the practices of the Church of England with that of the Catholic Church. On August 12, 1765, the Boston Gazette published an essay again linking both churches to each other, and to tyranny. The essay argued that religious canon law – “extensive and astonishing” — was created by the “the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order.” Church law enslaved people by “reducing their minds to a state of sordid ignorance and staring timidity” and…