Its missionaries, men of a far different character from the miserable incumbents of parishes in Maryland and Virginia, were among the first preachers of the gospel in the Carolinas.

Within the years 1702-40 there served under the commission of this society in North Carolina nine missionaries, in South Carolina thirty-five.[67:1] But the zeal of these good men was sorely encumbered with the armor of Saul.

Too much favorable legislation and patronizing from a foreign proprietary government, too arrogant a tone of superiority on the part of official friends, attempts to enforce conformity by imposing disabilities on other sects--these were among the chief occasions of the continual collision between the people and the colonial governments, which culminated in the struggle for independence.

By the time that struggle began the established church in the Carolinas was ready to vanish away.
FOOTNOTES: [55:1] W.H.Browne, "Maryland" (in American Commonwealths), p.

18.
[57:1] This seems to be the whole explanation of the curious paradox that the first experiment of religious liberty and equality before the law among all Christian sects should have been made apparently under the auspices of that denomination which alone at the present day continues to maintain in theory that it is the duty of civil government to enforce sound doctrine by pains and penalties.