In order to understand what our forefathers meant by freedom of religion, we have to go back to their history.
We all know that the Puritans, some call them Pilgrims, came here to flee religious persecution.
But what is the story behind that persecution?
It must have been pretty bad for these people to uproot their families, give up everything, and risk their very lives to make the hazardous voyage across the Atlantic to settle in a wilderness half a world away.
Let’s start with Henry VIII (yes of Herman’s Hermit’s fame)
England at the time was a Catholic nation.
Henry had no problems with Catholicism.
What he did have a problem with, was the pope.
Henry wanted to divorce his wife Catherine so he could marry his pregnant girlfriend Anne Boleyn.
Now Henry failed to tell the Pope about the girlfriend. He argued he should be granted the divorce because Catherine failed to provide him a male heir. Pope said that doesn’t cut it.
So Henry throws a fit. and throws all of the Catholic Clergy out of England, seizes all the church land, and forms his own church; The Anglican Church.
The Pope promptly excommunicated him.
Henry appoints himself head of the Anglican Church, makes it the state religion of England, requires it be supported with government taxation, and appoints his own Archbishop of Canterbury to run the day to day operations.
The first official act of the new Archbishop was to grant Henry his divorce and to send his wife Catherine off to the nunnery!
The structural changes Henry made to the English church (now called the Anglican church or the Church of England meant that the ruler of England was now also head of the Church of England, and so every time the ruler changed, there might be a major change in religion.
This is where the turmoil started.
Bear in mind, prior to Henry you were all Catholics living in England.
Henry just threw that out the window and you are now required to follow and support his new religion. People now literally feared for their salvation.
After Henry’s death, Edward (his son) was dominated by advisors who pushed England toward Calvinism (protestants who sprang forth from the teachings of Martin Luther)
When Edward died, Mary (Henry’s daughter by the divorced Catherine) shifted religious policy toward Catholicism.
So you were required by law to be Catholic, then Calvinist, then back to Catholic.
When Mary died, Elizabeth (another of Henry’s daughters) had no patience with any religion, Protestant or Catholic. The result of Henry’s changes created an Anglican/Catholic/Protestant split that eventually led to religious civil war.
Now comes Elizabeth I (1558-1603).
Elizabeth managed to keep religious troubles to a minimum with a policy that included as many people as possible within the church of England, and persecuted any radical opposition on either the Catholic or the Protestant side.
One problem remained. Who would succeed Elizabeth? Elizabeth never married and had no child.
Her advisors partly solved this problem by preparing for a transfer of the crown to a distant cousin of Elizabeth, the Scottish king James I (1603-1625) , who now becomes the first of the Stuart monarchs of England.
He continued exploration and colonization of the New World (our first colony, Jamestown, is named after him).
Now the colonies became a great place to get rid of paupers and religious dissenters.
These folks, who had no economic opportunity in England could have a chance at becoming wealthy in New World. Likewise religious groups (Pilgrims, Puritans, Catholics) could go to new world instead of causing problems at home.
James also tried to continue Elizabeth’s policies in religion. The King James version of the Bible contributed greatly to Christian unity, and, whatever differences English speaking Christians’ might have, for the next three centuries they at least shared a common Bible translation.
James had specifically asked his translators for a version of the Bible all could agree on, and the translators did this by relying on direct, literal translation from Greek and Hebrew rather than resorting to potentially controversial “interpretation” in place of translation.
Unfortunately for James, the religious situation began to get out of hand despite his best efforts. Some Catholics had thought James would attempt to reunite with Roman Catholic church.
When he didn’t, some Catholic extremists were angry and wanted to kill James and the parliamentary leaders who might block a return to Catholicism.
Anti-Catholic sentiment led to the growth of Puritanism, a movement wanting to “purify” the church of England by removing all things associated with Catholic tradition (e.g., Christmas!).
The problems faced by James grew greater under his son and successor Charles I.
When Charles summoned parliament to ask for the authority to collect more tax revenue, parliament refused: they first wanted Charles agreement to what they called the Petition of Right, an agreement from the king that he would not resort to arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, arbitrary taxes, etc.).
Charles refused to grant the petition.
Eventually, Charles in frustration decided to do away with parliament, bringing about the period of his “personal rule,” 1629-1640.
Parliament didn’t meet for more than ten years, and Charles collected taxes without parliamentary authorization. He could now levy a tax on those not going to church.
But Charles made a bad mistake. He now tried to unite the churches of England and Scotland by imposing the Anglican prayer book on the Scots.
The Scots threw a fit, and began a rebellion. Charles didn’t have the resources to deal with problem, so, at long last, he called parliament into session again.
Would parliament agree to increased tax revenue? Not unless the king consented to the Petition of Right!
Members of parliament were now encouraging and supporting the Scottish rebellion. Well, enough is enough.
Charles now sends his soldiers in the parliament building itself with orders to arrest treasonous members of parliament. This was a mistake: Charles angered the London mob by his actions, and touched of riots which drove him out of London.
Once outside London, Charles made preparations for a come-back, gathering sufficient forces to reclaim London and re-establish his authority. Parliament was in trouble, and needed an army of its own.
Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan and a member of Parliament, now gathers together his fellow Puritans and creates an army known as the Roundheads (because of short haircuts).
Cromwell and the roundheads now defeated Charles’ forces, Charles was captured and beheaded. and parliament was in control. (Forefather’s grandparents cut the King’s head off over taxes!)
They now turned to Cromwell, giving him the title Lord Protector.
So England has gone from Catholic, to Anglican, back to Catholic, and now Puritan!
Cromwell died 1658, and everyone wondered what would happen next. Both the army and parliament eventually agreed that the best thing to do was to go back to having a king, and Charles’ son, Charles II, was asked to take the throne.
Most English were glad to have a king again, and glad the Puritans were not in control anymore.
But the religious situation in England was a mess.
Charles II and Parliament now passed the Clarendon code.
It stated that those who would not support the Church of England and its teachings could not hold political office and would suffer other losses of privilege.
Charles’s successor was his brother James. James himself had converted to Catholicism, something parliament found hard to take.
Because his older daughters (Mary and Anne) were good protestants and because James was old, parliament tolerated having a Catholic king for the time being.
Mary was married to one of the leading protestant leaders on the continent (William of Orange), and most were convinced that there would be a protestant leader in short order.
But then James fathered a son who, by English law, took precedence over his sisters. The son was going to be raised Catholic, and this was too much for the anti-Catholics. They had to get rid of James!
So Parliament asks Mary and her husband William to replace James. This led to bloodless coup.
With no support, James fled England and William and Mary took the throne.
You guessed it. The king and Queen of England, who now head the Anglican Church, are Protestant!
It is this background of religious turmoil that drove the Puritans to America.
It is also, this history, which our forefathers carried that inspired them to forever remove a state run religion from our government.