ABSTRACT:
The book is about the beliefs or ideology of the Maryland Catholic laboring people during the period of the English Civil War. The center of their belief was that the world should be taken seriously. This contrasted with the thinking of many English Catholic gentry and their clergy who looked upon earthly existence as an obstacle to be passively endured in expectation of better things in the next life. The laboring Catholics' thinking is studied by looking at four themes: their belief about the value of labor, political independence, the role of the clergy, and the nature of market relations. Their beliefs were not derived from but often in opposition to the crown, Parliament, Maryland proprietor, London merchants, clergy, and papacy. In being a law unto themselves, they resembled the Protestant antinomians (literally "those against the law"), who were challenging the established order in church and state throughout the period. Anti-Catholicism and anti-Protestantism were a relatively unimportant aspect of their existence.
The study is ambitious. It is about Maryland Catholic belief or mentalité, but the theoretical framework it follows makes it applicable beyond its particular geographic or time limitations. The theoretical framework involves identifying what is "official" belief based on the universal acceptance of such belief among Catholics. The dissertation is also ambitious in including labor, economic, intellectual, legal, Indian, and women's history. Related developments in England, Europe, Latin America, and Africa are addressed. The history of liberation theology and the Reformation are touched upon. The sources for the study are the "Career Files of the Seventeenth-Century Lower Western Shore Residents," which contains biographical information on 2,000 migrants. Also made use of are seventeenth-century Maryland letters, legislation, court cases, and some 700 pamphlets published by Catholics during the period.
