One of the thirteen originalUnited States of America. The Commonwealth ofMassachusetts covers part of the territory originally granted to the PlymouthCompany of England. It grew out of the consolidation (in 1692) of the two original colonies, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. The settlement at Plymouthbegan with the landing of thePilgrims, 22 December 1620; the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was established underJohn Endicott at Salem in 1628. The royal provincecreated by this consolidation included also the District ofMaine and so remained until the present state of Mainewas set off fromMassachusetts by Congress, 3 March 1820. No authenticand complete survey of theState of Massachusetts exists, but it is generallybelieved to include an area of about 8040 square miles, with a population of rather more than three millions. Of this number 1,373,752 areCatholics, distributed among the three Dioceses of Boston(the Archdiocese), Fall River, and Springfield, which are the actual ecclesiasticaldivisions of the state.Classified by nationalities, this Catholic population comprises more than 7000Germans, 50,000Portuguese, 100,000 Italians150,000 French Canadians, 10,000 Lituanians, 3000Syrians, 25,000 Poles, 1000Negroes, 81 Chinese, 3000Bravas, the remainder--more than 1,000,000--being principally Irish or of Irishparentage.
Colonial history
Settlement
The explorations and settlements of the Northmenupon the shores ofMassachusetts, the voyages of the Cabots, the temporary settlement (1602) of theGosnold party on one of the Elizabeth Islands of Buzzard's Bay, and the explorations and the mapping of the New England coast by Captain John Smithare usually passed over as more or less conjectural. The undisputed history ofMassachusetts begins with the arrival of the "Mayflower" in December, 1620. Nevertheless the due appreciation of these precious events gives a ready and logicalexplanation of many acts, customs and laws of the founders of this commonwealth which, in general, are imperfectly understood. The early maps (1582) mark the present territory of New England under the name "Norumbega", and show that the coast had been visited byChristian mariners--whether by fishermen in search of the fisheries set forth by Cabot, or by the daring Drakes, Frosibers, and Hawkinses of Elizabeth's reign, does not seem clear. It is an accepted fact that, when Gosnold set out in 1602, there was not a single English settlement on the Continent. France did not acknowledge the claim ofEngland over the whole territory. A French colony had been established where now is northern Virginia, under the name of "New France." This was after Verazzano's expedition made by order of Francis I. AFrench explorer, too, theHuguenot Sieur de Monts, had been to Canada, andknew much about the resources of that country, especially the fur trade of theIndian tribes. Henry IV had given De Monts a patent to all the country now included in New England, also amonopoly of the fur trade. All this is important, because it entered into the conditionsof the early permanent settlement here.
For a quarter of a century prior to the coming of thePilgrims, the French and theDutch resented the encroachments of theEnglish. "The Great Patentfor New England", of 1620, granted to Gorges and his forty associates, has been called a "despotic as well as a gigantic commercialmonopoly." This grant included the New Netherlands of the Dutch, the French Acadia and indeed, nearly all the present inhabited Britishpossessions in North America, besides all New England, the State of New York, half of New Jersey, nearly all of Pennsylvania, and the country to the west--in short, all the territory from the fortieth degree of north latitude to the forty-eighth and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The Englishincreased the enmity of theFrench by destroying theCatholic settlements of St.-Croix and at Port-Royal, and had aroused the suspicion and hostility of the Indiansby the treachery of Hunt, anact described by Mather as "one which constrained theEnglish to suspend their trade and abandon their prospects of a settlement in New England."
The religious conditionswere no less ominous for thePilgrims. At the opening of the sixteenth century, allChristian Europe, with slight exceptions, was Catholic and loyal to the papacy; at the close of that centuryEngland herself was the mother of three antipapacysects: the State Church and its two divisions; theNonconformists, or Puritans; and the Separatists, orPilgrims. At the time of the sailing of the "Mayflower", the Puritans had become as fully disenfranchised by theAnglican Church as thePilgrims had estranged themselves from both; each distrusted the others; all three hated the Church ofRome. Gorges and his associated had found theFrench and their Jesuitmissionaries a stumbling-block in the way of securing fur-trading privileges from the Indians. The alleged gold and copper mines of Smithand of Gosnold were now regarded as myths; unless something could be done at once, the opportunitiesoffered by their chartermonopoly would be worthless. A permanentEnglish settlement inAmerica was the only sure way of preventing the Frenchand the Dutch from acquiring the Virginiaterritory. The Gorges company knew of the cherished hopes of thePilgrims to find a home away from their Englishpersecutors, and, after much chicanery on the part of the promoters, the company agreed to found a home for the Pilgrims in the new world. The articles of agreement were wholly commercial, and the "Mayflower" sailed forVirginia. History differs in its interpretation of the end of that voyage, but all agree that the Pilgrims, in landing at Plymouth, 22 December, 1620, were outside anyjurisdiction of their patrons, the Virginia Company. ThePilgrims themselves recognized their difficulty, and the famous "Compact" was adopted, before landing, as a basis of government by mutual agreement. Gorges protected his company'sinvestment by obtaining from James I the new charter of 1620 which controlled, on a commercial basis, all religiouscolonization in America. The struggle of race against, race, tribe against tribe, neighbour against neighbour were all encouraged so long as the warfare brought gain to the mercenary adventurers at home. ThePilgrims, finding themselvesdeserted by the instigators of this ill-feeling, were forced by the law of self-preservation to continuereligious intolerance and the extermination of the Indians. Thus it is that we find thelaws the customs and the manners of these firstEnglish settlers so interwoven with the religio-commercial principle. The coming of the Puritans, in 1629-30, added the factor of politics, which resulted in establishing in America the very thing against which these "Purists" had fought at home, namely, the union ofChurch and State. Here, again, at Puritan Salem, Gorges and Mason cloakedtheir commercialism underreligion, as the accounts of La Tour and Winslow attest, and so effective were their machinations that, as early as 1635, Endicott's zeal had not left a set of the king's colours intact with the redcross thereon — that relic ofpopery insufferable in aPuritan community.
Colonial legislation
The legality of the early actsof the colonists depends, to a great degree, on whether the charters granted to the two colonies were for the purpose of instituting acorporation for trading purposes, or whether they are regarded as constitutions and foundations of a government. This much-controversial point has never been settled satisfactorily. The repeated demands from the king, often with threat of prosecution, for the return of the charters were ignored, so that, until 1684, the colony was practically a free state, independent of England, and professing little, if any, loyalty. Judging from the correspondence, it is more than probable that theintention of the Crown in granting the charter was that the corporation should have a local habitation in England, and it is equally evident that the colony did not possess the right to make its ownlaws. It is plainly stated, in the patent granted to thePuritans, who the governor and other officials of the colony should be, showing thereby that the Crownretained the right of governing. A new charter was granted in 1692 covering Massachusetts,Plymouth, Maine, Nova Scotia, and the intervening territory, entitled "The Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England"; nevertheless it was not until the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, that the proceedings on the part of the home Government, to assert theCrown's rights, abated notably. During the half-century in which the Puritansignored the terms of their charter, and made laws in accordance with their own selfish interests, many of those acts occurred whichhistory has since condemned. At the first meeting of the general Courtheld 30 August, 1630, it was voted to build a house for theminister and maintain it at the state's expense--an act of described by Benedict, in hisHistory of the Baptists, as the first dangerous actperformed by the rulers of this incipient government which led to innumerableevils, hardships, and privations to all who had the misfortune to dissent from the ruling power in after times.--The Viper in Embryo; here was an importation and establishment, in the outset of the settlement, of the odious doctrine of Church and State which had thrown empires into convulsions, had caused rivers of blood to be shed, had crowdedprisons with innocent victims, and had driven thePilgrims (he means Puritans) themselves who were now engaged in the mistaken legislation, from all that was dear in their native homes. This union of Church and State controlled the electorate and citizenship of the colony, made the schoola synonym of both, excludedCatholic priests and prohibited the entrance ofJesuits, condemned witchesto death, banished Roger Williams and the Quakers, established the pillory, and in other ways left to posterity many chapters ofuncharitablenessintolerance, and cruelty. After the War of Independence, the old colonial government took a definite constitutional formunder the Union, in 1780, and the first General Court of the sovereign State of Massachusetts convened in October of that year. This constitution was revised in 1820.
Catholic colonization
The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies were composed principally of English. Near the close of the reign of Charles I, however, the forced emigration of the Irishbrought many of that race to these shores; their number is hard to estimate, first, because the law made itobligatory that all sailings must take place from Englishports, so that there are no records of those who came from Ireland with Englishsailing registry; secondly, because the law, under heavy penalties, obliged allIrishmen in certain towns ofIreland to take Englishsurnames--the names of some small town, of a colour, of a particular trade or office, or of a certain art or craft. Children in Irelandwere separated forcibly from their parents and under new names sent into the colonies. Men and women, from Cork and its vicinity, were openly sold into slaveryfor America. Connaught, which was nine-tenthsCatholic, was depopulated. The frequently published statement in justification of Cromwell's persecution, that the victimes of this white slave-traffic were criminals, finds no corroboration in theexistence of a single penalcolony in this country. In 1634 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay also granted land for an Irishsettlement on the banks of the Merrimac River. (SeeARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON;IRISH IN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN IRELAND.)
Modern Massachusetts
Statistics of population
In 1630 the population ofPlymouth andMassachusetts Colonies was estimated at 8000 white people; in 1650, at 16,000; in 1700, at 70,000; while in 1750 it was placed at 220,000. In 1790 the population of the State ofMassacusetts was 378, 787; in 1905 it was 3,003,680. The density of population increased from 47 to the square mile, in 1790, to 373, in 1905. In 1790 over nine-tenths of the population lived in rural communities, while in 1905 less than one-fourth (22.26 per cent) of the total population lived in communities of 8000 or less. The great tide of Irishimmigration began in 1847. This has since conspicuously modified the population ofMassachusetts. In 1905 the ratio of increase in the native and in the foreign-born of the population was 6.46 per cent and 8.47 per cent respectively; the number of native-born in the total population being 2, 085,636, and that of the foreign-born being 918,044, an increase of the latter of 459.7 per cent since 1850. This foreign-born population is mostly (83.91 per cent) in cities and towns with populations of more than 8000. Ireland has furnished 25.75 per cent of the total foreign-born.Canada (exclusive of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and prince Edward Island) is second, with a population of 12.88 per cent of the total foreign-born population. At present Russia supplies the largest increase in foreign-born, having risen from one-half of one per cent, in 1885, to 6.43 per cent, in 1905.Italy's contribution in the same period rose from 76 per cent to 5.51 per cent. Almost sixty per cent of the entire population ofMassachusetts is now of foreign parentage. In the cities of Fall River andLawrence it runs as high as four-fifths of the entire population, while in Holyoke, Lowell, and Chicopee it is more than three-fourths. InBoston the population of foreign parentage forms60.03 per cent, while at New Bedford it rises to 72.34 per cent, at Worcester to 65.64 percent, at Cambridge to 65.16 per cent, at Woburn to 63.63 per cent, and at Salemto 61.10 per cent. TheGreeks have increased inMassachusetts 1242.7 per cent since 1895, a greater rapidity of increase than all peoples of foreign parentagein the population. Austriacomes next, and Italy is third. In the city of Boston, Irishparentage gives 174,770 out of a total census of 410,960persons of foreignparentage, and this nationality predominates in every ward except the eighth, where Russian parentagestands first. The transformation in the racialand national population inMassachusetts has likewise changed the religiousprominence of the variousdenominations. The present order of denominations in this state is: Catholics, 69.2 per cent; Congregationalist, 7.6 per cent, Baptists, 5.2 per cent; Methodists, 4.2 per cent; Protestant Episcopalians, 3.3 per cent.
Economic conditions
Massachusetts was not favoured by nature for an agricultural centre. The soil is sandy in the level areas and clayey in the hill sections. The valleys of the streams are rich in soil favourable to vegetable- and fruit-production. The early industries were cod and mackerel fisheries. At the outbreak of the Revolution, commerce was the most profitable occupation, and after the declaration of peace, Massachusetts sent its ships to all parts of the world. The European warshelped this commerce greatly until the War of 1812, with its embargo and non-intercourse laws which forced the American vessels to stay at home. It had its recompense however, in the birth of manufactures, an industry attempted as early as 1631 and 1644 but subsequently suppressed by the mother country. The first cotton mill was established at Beverly in 1787. It was not until 1840, however, that the cotton and leather industries attained permanent leadership. According to the published statistics of 1908,Massachusetts had 6044 manufacturing establishments, with a yearly product valued at $1,172,808,782. The boot and shoe industry was the leading industry of the State, with a yearly production of $213,506,562. This industry produced 18.2 per cent of the product value of the State, and one-half of all the product in this line in theUnited States. The cotton manufactures were 13.51 per cent of the State's total product. The total capital devoted to production in the state was $717,787,955. More than 480,000 wage-earners were employed (323,308 males; 156,826females) in the various manufacturing industries of the State, the two leading industries employing 35.22 per cent of the aggregate average number of all employees. The average yearly earning for each operative is $501.71. TheMassachusetts laws prohibit more than fifty-eight hours weekly employment in mercantile establishments, and limit the day's labour to ten hours. No woman orminor can be employed for purposes of manufacturing between the hours of ten o'clock p.m. and six o'clock a.m.; no minor under eighteen years and nowoman can be employed in any textile factory between six o'clock p.m. and six o'clock a.m.; no child under fourteen years of age can be employed during the hours when the public schools are in session, nor between seven o'clock p.m. and six o'clock a.m. Children under fourteen years, and children over fourteen years and under sixteen years, who cannot read at sight and write legible simplesentences in the Englishlanguage, shall be permitted to work on Saturdays between six o'clock a.m. and seven o'clock p.m. only.Transportation facilities have kept pace with the growth of the industries. Two main railroad systems connect with the West, and, by means of the interstate branches, these connect with all the leading industrial cities. One general railroad system with its subdivisions connects witht he South, viaNew York. The means of transportation by water are no less complete than those by rail, and offer every facility to bring coal and other supplies of the world into connection with the various railroad terminals for distribution.
Education
All education inMassachusetts was at firstreligious. We read of the establishment in 1636 of Harvard College, "lest an illiterate ministry might be left to the churches," and "to provide for the instruction of the people in piety, morality, and learning." The union ofChurch and State was accepted, and the GeneralCourt agreed to give 400 pounds towards the establishment of the college. Six years later it was resolved, "taking into consideration the great neglect of many parents andguardians in training up their children in learning and labor and other employment which may be profitable to the Commonwealth . . . that chosen men in every town are to redress this evil, are to have power to take account of parents, masters, and of their children, especially of their ability to read and understand the principles ofreligion and the capital lawsof the country." This was the origin of compulsoryeducation in Massacusetts. In 1647 every town was ordered, under penalty of a fine, to build and support aschool for the double purpose of religiousinstruction and of citizenship; every large town of one hundred families to build a grammar school to fit the youths for the university. Thus was established the common free school. The union of Church and Statewas as pronounced ineducation as in civic affairs. When the grants from the legislature--colonial, provincial, and state--failed to meet the expenses of salaries and maintenance,lotteries were employed. The last grant to Harvard College from the public treasury was in 1814. Congregationalismhad controlled education and legislation, and thecorporation of Harvard College was limited to state officials and a specified number of Congregationalclergymen. It was not until 1843 that other thanCongregationalists were eligible for election as overseers of the college.
The original system of stateeducation, as outlined above, was uninterrupted until the close of the Revolution. The burdens of the war, with itspoverty and taxation, reduced the "grammarschool" to a very low standard. Men of ability found a more lucrative occupation than teaching.Private schools sprang intoexistence about this time, and the legacies of Dummer,Philips, Williston, and others made their foundations the preparatory schools for Harvard. In 1789 the legislature passed an actsubstituting six months for the constant instruction provided for towns of fiftyfamilies; and the lawrequired a grammar-teacher of determined qualifications for towns of 200 families, instead of the similar requirements for all towns of half that population. In 1797 the Legislature formallyadopted all the incorporatedacademies as public stateschools, and thus denominational educationalmost entirely replaced the grammar schools founded in 1647. The act of 1789 was repealed in 1824. This aided greatly the private denominational schools and gave to them a false and fictious social, intellectual, and moral standing. TheAmerican Institute of Instruction was formed in 1830 at Boston as a protest against the low standard of teaching in the publicschools. Three years prior to this (1827) the Legislature had established the State Board of Education, which remained unchanged in formuntil 1909. That same year was made historic by the Legislature voting to make it unlawful to use the commonschools, or to teach anything in the schools, in order to turn the children to a belief in any particular sect. This was the first show of strengthUnitarianism had manifested in Massachusetts, and it had retained its control of theeducational policy of the state since that date. In 1835 the civil authorities at Lowell authorized the establishment of separate Catholic schoolswith Catholic teachers and with all textbooks subject to the pastor's approval. The municipality paid all the expenses except the rent of rooms. This experiment was a great success. The general wave of religious fanaticism, which swept the country a few years later, was responsible for theacceptance of the referendum vote of 21, May, 1855, which adopted the constitutional amendment that "all moneys thus raised by taxation in town, or appropriated by the state, shall never be appropriated to any religious sect for the maintenance exclusively of its own schools." The Civil War resulted in a saner view of many questions which had been blurred by bypassion and prejudice, and in 1862 (and again in 1880) the statute law was modified so that "Bible reading is required, but without written note or oral comment; a pupil is exempt from taking part in any such exercise if his parent or guardian so wishes; any version is allowed, and no committee may purchase or order to be used in any public schoolbooks calculated to favor the tenets of any particular sectof Christians." This, in brief, is the process by which thesecularization of the publicschools came about, a complete repudiation of thelaw of 1642.
Massachusetts has ten state normal schools with over 2000 pupils and a corps of 130 teachers. In the 17,566 public schools there are 524,319 pupils with an average attendance of 92 per cent. The proportion of teachers is 1281 male and 13, 497 female. The total support of the public schoolsamounts annually to $14, 697,774. There are forty-twoacademies with an enrolment of over 6000 pupils, and 344 privateschools with a registration of 91,772. The local annual tax for school support per chhild between the ages of five to fifteen years is $26. The total valuation of all schoolsfifteen years is $26. The total valuation of all schools inMassachusetts is $3, 512, 557,604. There are within the state eighteen colleges oruniversities, six of them devoted to the education ofwomen only. Massachusetts has also eight schools oftheology, three law schools, four medical schools, two dental schools, one schoolof pharmacy, and three textile schools. The onlycolleges in Massachusetts (except textile schools) receiving state or deferralsubsidies are the State Agricultural Colleges and theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology, the latter receiving both. The number of public libraries inMassachusetts exceeds that of any other state. The list includes 2586 libraries with 10,810,974 volumes valued at $12,657,757. There are 623 reading rooms, of which 301 are free. There are thirtyschools for the dependent and the afflicted.
The growth of the Catholicschools has been notable. Besides Holy Cross Collegeat Worcester, and BostonCollege at Boston, there are in the Diocese of Bostonseventy-nine grammarschools and twenty-six high schools with a teaching staffof 1075 persons and an enrolment of 52,143. This represents an investment of more than $2,700.000, a yearly interest of $135,000. More than a third of theparishes in this diocese now maintain parochial schools. In the Diocese of Fall Riverthere are over 12,000 pupils in 28 parochial schools, besides a commercialschool with 363 pupils. In the Diocese of Springfieldthere are 24, 562 pupils in 56parochial schools.
Laws affecting religion and morals
Elsewhere in this article we have traced colonial lawsand legislation. The Constitution of the United States gave religious liberty. The State Constitution of 1780 imposed a religioustest as a qualification for office and it authorized the legislature to tax the towns, if necessary "for the support and maintenance of publicProtestant teachers of piety,religion, and morality." The former law was repealed in 1821, and the latter in 1833. Complete religious equality has existed since the latterdate. The observance of theLord's Day is amply safeguarded, but entertainments for charitablepurposes given by charitableor religious societies are permitted. The keeping of open shop or engaging in work or business not forcharitable purposes is forbidden. Many of the rigidlaws of colonial days are yet unrepealed. There is no lawauthorizing the use of prayerin the Legislature; custom, however, has made it a rule to open each session withprayer. This same customhas become the rule in opening the several sittings of the higher courts. Catholicpriests have officiated at times at the former. The present Archbishop ofBoston offered prayer at the opening of at least one term of the Superior Court, being the first Catholic to perform this office. The courts and the judiciary have full power to administer oaths.
The legal holidays inMassachusetts are 22 February, 19 April (Patriot's Day), 30 May, 4 July, the first Monday in September (Labor Day), 12 Oct. (Columbus Day), Thanksgiving Day, andChristmas Day. The list does not include Good Friday. Theseal of confession is not recognized by law, although in practice sacramentalconfession is generally treated as a privilegedconversation. Incorporationof churches and ofcharitable institutions is authorized by statute. Such organizations may make their own laws and electtheir own officers. Everyreligious society so organized shall constitute a body corporate with the powers given tocorporations, body corporate with the powers given tocorporations. Section 44,chapter 36, of the Public Statutes provide that theRoman Catholic archbishopor bishop, the vicar-generalof the diocese, and thepastor of the church for the time being, or a majority of these, may associate with themselves two laymen, communications of thechurch, may form a body corporate, the signers of the certificate of incorporation becoming the trustees. Suchcorporation may receive, hold, and manage all real and personal propertybelonging to the church, sell, transfer, hold trusts,bequests, etc., but allproperty belonging to anychurch or parish, or held by such a corporation, shall never exceed one hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of church buildings. Allchurch property and houses of religious worship (except that part of such houses appropriated for purposes other than religious worshipor instruction) are exempt from taxation. Thisexemption extends to theproperty of literary, benevolent, charitable, andscientific institutions andtemperance societies; also to legacies, cemeteries, andtombs. Clergymen are exempt from service as constables, from jury service, and service in the militia. Clergymen are permitted by law to have access to prisoners after death sentence, and are among those designated as "officials" who may be present at executions. Thestatutes prohibit marriagebetween relatives, and recognize marriage by civil authorities and by rabbis. The statutory grounds fordivorce recognized areadultery, impotency,desertion continued for three consecutive years,confirmed habits ofintoxication by liquor, opium, or drugs, cruel and abusive treatment; also if either party is sentenced for life to hard labour, or five or more years in state prison, jail, or house of correction. The Superior Court hears all divorce libels. After a decree of divorce has become absolute, either party may marry again as if the other were dead; except that the party from whom thedecree was granted shall notmarry within two years. The sale of intoxicating liquors is regulated by law. Each community, city or town votes annually upon the question, whether or not licence to sell liquor shall be issued in that municipality. Special boards are appointed to regulate the conditions of such licences. The number of licences that may be granted in each town or city is limited to one to each thousand persons, thoughBoston has a limitation of one license to five hundred of the population. The hours of opening and closing bars are regulated by law. Anyperson owning property can object to the granting of a licence to sell intoxicatingliquors within twenty-five feet of his property. A licence cannot be granted to sell intoxicating liquors on the same street as or within four hundred feet of a publicschool.
Religious liberty
In the beginningMassachusetts was Puritanagainst the Catholic first, against all non-conformiststo their version of established religion next. The Puritan was narrow inmind and for the most part limited in education, a typeof man swayed easily to extremes. England was at that period intensely anti-papal. In Massachusetts, however, the antipathy early became racial: first against the French Catholic, later against the Irish Catholic. This racial religious bigotry has not disappeared wholly in Massachusetts. Within the pale of the Church racialschisms have been instigated from time to time in order that the defeat ofCatholicism might be accomplished when open antagonism from without failed to accomplish the end sought. In politics it is often the effective shibboleth.Congregationalism soon took form in the colony and as early as 1631 all exceptPuritans were excluded bylaw from the freedom of the body politic. In 1647 the lawbecame more specific and excluded priests from the colony. This act was reaffirmed in 1770. Bowdoin College preserves the crossand Harvard College the "Indian Dictionary" ofSebastian Rasle, the priestexecuted under the provision of the law. In 1746 a resolution and meeting atFaneuil Hall bear testimony that Catholics must prove, as well as affirm, their loyalty to the colony. Washingtonhimself was called upon to suppress the insult of PopeDay at the siege of Boston. Each of these events was preceded by a wave of eitherFrench or Irish immigration, a circumstance which was repeated in the religiousfanaticism of the middle of the nineteenth century.Cause and effect seem well established and too constant to be incidental. In all the various anti-Catholic uprisings, from colonial times to the present, there is not one instance where theCatholics were the aggressors by word or deed: their patience and forbearance have always been in marked contrast to the conduct of their non-Catholic contemporaries. In every one of the North Atlantic group of states, theCatholics now constitute the most numerous religiiousdenomination. InMassachusetts the number of the leading denominationsis as follows: Catholics1,373,752;Congregationalists 119,196;Baptists 80,894; Methodists, 6,498; Protestant Episcopalians 51,636,Presbyterians 8559.
Catholic progress
Throughout the account of the doings among the colonists, there are references to the coming, short stay, and departure of some Irish priest or FrenchJesuit. In the newspaper account of the departure of the French from Boston, in 1782, it is related that theclergy and the selectmen paraded through the streets preceded by a cross-bearer. It was some fifty years later that the prosperity and activity of the Churcharoused political demagoguery and religiousbigotry. Massachusetts, as well as new York andPhiladelphia, experienced the storm: a convent was burned, churches were threatened, monuments to revered heroes of the Churchwere razed, and cemeteriesdesecrated. The consolingmemory, however, of this period, is thatMassachusetts furnished the Otises, the Lees, the Perkinses, Everetts, and Lorings--all non-Catholics--whose voices and pens were enlisted heartily in the cause of justice, toleration, andunity.
In 1843, Rhode Island andConnecticut were set off from the original Diocese of Boston. Maine and New Hampshire, also under thejurisdiction of Boston, were made a new diocese ten years later, with theepiscopal see at Portland. This was the period of the great Irish immigration, andBoston received a large quota. This new influx was, as in the previous century, looked upon as an intrusionand the usual result followed. New England had now become what Lowell was pleased to call "New Ireland". This religious andracial transformation, made the necessity for churches, academics, schools,asylums, priests, and teachers an imperative one. The work of expansion, both material and spiritual went forward apace. The great influx of Canadian Catholicsadded much to the Catholicpopulation, which had now reached more than a million--souls over sixty-nine percent of the total religiouspopulation of the state. The era was not without itsreligious strife, this time within public and charitable institutions, state and municipal. This chapterreads like those efforts of proselytizing in the colonial days when names ofCatholic children were changed, paternity denied, maternity falsified--all in thehope of destroying the truereligiious inheritance of the state wards. The influence ofCatholics in the governing of institutions, libraries, andschools has since then increased somewhat. Thespiritual necessities of the vast Catholic communities are provided for abundantly;orphans are well housed; unfortunates securely protected; the poor greatly succoured; and the sick have the sacraments at their very door. Schools, academies,colleges, and convents, wherein Catholic educationis given, are now within the reach of all. The whole period of ArchbishopWilliam's administration (1866-1907) has been appropriately called "the brick and mortar age of theCatholic Church in New England." (SeeARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.)
Upon the death of Archbiship Williams, in the summer of 1907, his coadjutor, the Most Reverend William H. O'Connell, D.D. (the presentarchbiship), was promoted to the metropolitan see. Thisarchbishop invited the National Convention of the federation of CatholicSocieties to meet in Bostonwith resulting interest, activity, and strength to thatsociety, in which, indeed, he has shown a special interest. To develop the solidarity ofpriests and people, of racesand nations, of the cultured and the unlettered--a unity of all the interests of theChurch, the archbishopneeded a free press: he purchased "The Pilot", secured able and fearless writers and placed it at a nominal cost within the reach of all. The dangers to the immigrant in a new and fascination enviroment are all anticipated, and safeguards are being strengthened daily. At the same time, the inherited misunderstanding of PuritanMassachusetts, and the evilmachinations of those who would use religion andcharity for selfish motives or aggrandizement are still active. The Catholic mind is aroused, however, and the battle for truth is being waged; CatholicMassachusetts moves forward, all under one banner--French Canadian,Italian, Pole, German,Portuguese, Greek, Scandinavian, and Irish--each vying with the other for an opportunity to prove his loyalty to the Church, to itspriests, and to their spiritualleader. In every diocese and in each county well-organized branches of the Federation, exist,temperance and churchsocieties flourish,educational and charitableassociations are alive and active. The Church's ablestlaymen are enlisted, and all are helping mightily to accomplish the avowedintention of the Archbishopof Boston, to makeMassachusetts the leadingCatholic state in the country. (See also JEAN LOUIS DE CHEVERUS; DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER; DIOCESE OF SPRINGFIELD.)
Sources
AUSTIN, History of Massachusetts (Boston, 1876); BANCROFT, History of the United States, I (London, 1883-84); BARRY, History of New England, I (Boston, 1855); Boston Town Records (Boston, 1772); BRADFORD, History of Plymouth Plantation; DAVIS, The New England States, III (Boston, 1897); DRAKE, The Making of New England, 1584-1643 (New York), 1886); DWIGHT, Travels in New England, I (New Haven, 1821), 22; EMERSON, Education in Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Collection (Boston, 1869); HALE, Review of the Proceedings of the Nunnery Committee (Boston, 1855); HARRINGTON, History of Harvard Medical School, III (New York, 1905); Irish Historical Proceedings, II (Boston, 1899); LEARY, History of the Catholic Church in New England States, I (Boston, 1899); Massachusetts Historical Society Collection, 1st ser., V. (Boston, 1788); Proceedings, 2d ser., III (Boston, 1810) McGee, The Irish Settlers in America (Boston, 1851); PARKER, The First Charter and the Early Religious Legislation of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Collection (1869); WALSH, The Early Irish Catholic Schools of Lowell, Mass., 1835-1865 (Boston, 1901); IDEM, Am. Cath. Q. Rev. (January, 1904).
About this page
APA citation. Harrington, T. (1911).Massachusetts. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved September 6, 2015 from New Advent:http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10024c.htm
MLA citation. Harrington, Thomas."Massachusetts." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 6 Sept. 2015<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10024c.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Beth Ste-Marie.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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