Prior to the Revolutionary War, Catholics were persecuted in every colony. They could not vote or hold public office anywhere—not even in Maryland, which was founded as a haven for Catholics, or in famously tolerant Rhode Island, where even atheists had rights. Massachusetts made it a capital offense for priests to proselytize or say Mass. The colonists’ special concern with Catholics was as much political as spiritual. It stemmed in part from Protestant England’s long warfare with Catholic France and the widespread Protestant perception that all Catholics obeyed the pope and his worldwide
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