[page 172]

116.

Likewise there are Neo-Calvinists and Old Order Calvinists. Likewise there are many Quakers, Baptists, Dunkers, Seventh Day Baptists, Anabaptists, and Freemasons, whose services are public. When they have a funeral they can be seen going to the church in a great procession, each one with a tool in hand, all with their white aprons at the front[252].

Wiedrum seyn Neue Reformierten, und Alte Refor-mierten. Wiedrum gibt es sehr viele Quacker, Betisten, Duncker, Siebentäger, Wiedertäuffer, Frey-maurer welche ihre Gottesdienst offentlich halten. Wann sie ein Begräbnüß haben kan man sie im grösten Aufzug sehen mit zur Leiche gehen, ein jeder mit seinem Werckzeug in der Hand, und alle weiße Schurtzfelle vor sich hangen etc.

These sects are nevertheless not authorized to have bell towers on their churches, which must have the appearance of houses, but which can be beautifully decorated inside, like the most beautiful of churches. What’s more, on each church belonging to a sect there must be a chimney to give the impression that it is a house.

Was aber diese Seckten anbelangt dürffen sie keine Thürne auf ihre Kirche bauen, sondern nur wie Häus-ser formiert dürffen seyn inwendig aber seyn sie doch recht schön eingerichtet wie die schönste Kirchen. Auch muß sich auf jeder Seckten-Kirch ein Camin befinden, welches die Vorstellung als ein Haus macht.

As for the three normal religions, they can build churches and bell towers as they like[253]. Namely Calvinists, Lutherans, and Catholics, but it must be known that the Calvinists have 2 beautiful churches in the city of Baltimore.

Was aber die drey nathürliche Religionen anbelangt kennen Kirche und Thürne bauen wie sie wollen. Diese seynd Reformierten, Lutheraner, Gatholicken worunder die Reformierten in der Stadt Baldimor 2 schöne Kirche haben.

One of the two, the larger one, is still brand new, and it is a beautiful stone building. At the time when I was there

Eine davon welche die gröste ist, dijenige ist noch gantz neu und ein sehr schönes Gebäute mit Quaterstein gebaut. Damalen als ich da gewessen

[réclame]

noch

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f87/pct:0,0,50,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 172.

[agrandir]

Notes

252. For a slightly longer list of Protestant sects, see the note for journal supra, page 24.

253. The rivalries between established Churches and Protestant sects were imported from Europe and multiplied in the Thirteen Colonies, giving rise to a veritable “kaleidoscope of religions” (B. Van Ruymbeke, L’Amérique avant les Etats-Unis, Paris, Flammarion, 2013, p. 331). This was not entirely new, as in England, starting in the 1640s, the Anglican Church had to grow accustomed to seeing Protestant sects draw more and more believers to private homes and increasingly challenge the established Church. This competition worried parish ministers, as can be seen in the Diary of Ralph Josselin, the vicar of Earls Colne. Each colony had its own legislation for matters of religion, and according to Emile G. Léonard (Histoire générale du protestantisme, Paris, PUF “Quadrige”, 1988, t.III, p.6), it would be simplistic to oppose Europe, still in the grips of religious conflicts, and America as a supposedly new land of freedom and tolerance: for example, Maryland forbade Catholic schools in 1704. The measures were not necessarily applied to the letter, as colonial leaders wanted to avoid colonists fleeing to other, French or Spanish, lands, and they were often transformed into tax increases. Great religious diversity existed in the American colonies, even if three groups of colonies could be made out: the Puritans in Massachusetts and Connecticut dominated the New England colonies; the Quakers in Pennsylvania were also powerful in all the middle colonies; the Anglican Church dominated in New York and in the southern colonies, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, where it sometimes enjoyed the status of an established Church. In some colonies, such as Delaware and New Jersey, there was no prevailing Protestant influence. The most tolerant state was Rhode Island. It was founded on the principles of religious freedom and separation between church and state. Flohr’s statement that Protestant sects did not have the right to fit their places of worship with a bell tower is surprising, and probably reflects the German principle “cujus regio, ejus religio” still in effect in the German states in the eighteenth century. This meant that the Prince’s religion was established as the official religion, favored over all other faiths. Flohr no doubt would have liked to be able to say that Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Catholicism, which he calls “the three normal religions”, were established in America with more legitimacy than other Protestant groups, who did not, by the way, necessarily want to assert their presence through a physical temple endowed with a bell-tower, especially as during the Great Awakening, traveling pastors such as George Whitefield liked to hold their evangelical sermons before several thousand people (15,000 in Philadelphia in 1740 then 6,000 in Boston).