rporating this freedom into their laws.
What today is termed "freedom of religion" was at the nation's beginnings called "free exercise."[2] This term was first used in an American legal document in 1648, "when Lord Baltimore required his new Protestant governor and councilors in Maryland to promise not to disturb Christians...in the 'free exercise' of their religion."[3] In 1649, the Maryland Assembly passed a statute that boasted the first free exercise clause on the continent: "noe person...professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth bee any waies troubled...for...his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof...nor any way [be] compelled to the beliefe or exercise of any other Religion against his or her consent."[4] Free exercise of religion was not necessarily associated with the separation of church and state in the minds of proponents, but there was one notable individual for whom it was-John Locke-who has been quoted as saying, "The Baptists were the first propounders of absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty."[5]
Locke advocated both free exercise and separation, believing that "religious strife stems from the tendency of both religious and governmental leaders to overstep their bounds and intermeddle in the others' province," stating, "I esteem it above all things necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion, and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other."[6] Locke did not advocate complete separation between church and state, arguing in favor of the magistrate's authority to "make use of arguments...and thereby draw the heterodox into the way of truth," or in other words, proselytize them.[7] He qualifies this statement, however: "But it is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties."[8] Locke acknowledged that a diversity ...