Why charleston called holy city

Anti-Catholic sentiment continued to form a significant part of English law during the reign of William and Mary, but in the new monarchs gave their royal assent to a law that extended a modicum of religious freedom to the English-speaking realm. Membership in the Church of England was required for anyone employed by the government or holding public office, and this limited religious toleration did not extend to Catholics, Unitarians, or atheists.

The point of all of this religious history is to make one fact abundantly clear: The religious prejudices inherent in English law and culture in the late seventeenth century came to South Carolina with the English settlers who populated Charles Town in the early years of the colony.

They, in turn, applied these prejudices to the non-English people who settled here as well. The French Huguenots who began arriving here in the s, fleeing a wave of anti-Protestant violence in staunchly Catholic France, for example, were afforded the same limited religious toleration as other Protestant groups that did not conform to the Church of England. Here the Huguenots could form their own church and worship in peace, but their civil rights were likewise abridged by the ingrained legal prejudice against non-conforming Protestants.

In response to this inequity, many of the early South Carolina Huguenots aligned themselves with the Church of England. France and Spain were the traditional Catholic enemies of the Protestant English nation, and the English viewed the predominantly Catholic island of Ireland with an abundance of suspicion and contempt.

Irish sailors and settlers in the English-speaking colonies were routinely detained and interrogated in case they might be acting as enemy spies. The laws of England and most of her colonies afforded no civil liberties to Catholics.

As a result of such practices, the Irish population of colonial-era South Carolina was miniscule. The first part of this act provides the earliest evidence that a handful of Sephardic Jews were living in Charleston at that time, but the laws of this colony afforded neither legal recognition of nor protection for their religious traditions.

As you can see, the legal playing field of colonial-era South Carolina was skewed by an inherited system of religious discrimination. A law ratified in Charleston in the spring of , and based on English precedent, went so far as to criminalize a variety of beliefs that deviated from the teachings of mainstream Protestant Christianity.

The Lords Proprietors of Carolina rejected the language of version, but the revised law of formally empowered the provincial legislature to apply public tax revenue for the construction and maintenance of Anglican churches in each of the newly created parishes of South Carolina, as well as the salary of all Anglican ministers.

Philip that would express the majestic dominance of the Church of England in the capital of South Carolina. No discussion of religious history in colonial South Carolina would be complete without acknowledging the plight of the enslaved population. White Europeans began bringing Africans and people of African descent to this area immediately after the founding of Charleston in , and by the year they formed a majority of the local population. Documentary evidence of their religious opinions and practices is virtually non-existent, however, because white settlers exhibited so little respect for the humanity of their enslaved brethren as to ignore their spiritual lives.

As with the indigenous population of South Carolina, the early settlers of this colony viewed their African slaves as uncivilized savages, incapable of complex thought or philosophical introspection. Introducing African laborers to Christianity was not a priority in colonial South Carolina, but the practice gained acceptance as the colony matured. When it did take place here, religious instruction to enslaved people followed a distinctly Protestant agenda that emphasized Old Testament lessons of obedience and stoicism.

At the same time, however, Spanish clerics in nearby Florida were actively converting both Indians and Africans to Catholicism, and rewarding such converts with freedom from slavery. This path to liberty induced many enslaved men and women to flee from South Carolina in the hope of reaching Spanish Florida, and provided white authorities in Charleston with further reasons to distrust anyone who practiced the Catholic faith.

To encourage white Europeans to come to South Carolina rather than one of the other mainland colonies, our provincial government offered free land, a cash bounty, and a variety of agricultural tools for every incoming adult who promised to settle here.

A German immigrant was standing in a queue at the Council Chamber, along with many other Germans who had just arrived by ship, waiting to receive their royal grants for free land. When it became his turn to take the usual oaths of allegiance and abjuration, this particular immigrant paused and stepped back in confusion.

He was Catholic, he told the clerk, and could not, in good conscience, take an oath swearing allegiance to the Protestant King and renouncing the authority of the Pope and the basic tenants of the Catholic faith. After a brief pause, the poor German, who had just travelled more than four thousand miles to start a new life in America, temporarily swallowed his faith and took the oaths necessary to receive his free land.

We can imagine that many other Catholics who came to colonial-era South Carolina had to make similar decisions about their faith, when their survival depended on it, but there are no written records of such closet conversions. Other immigrants, whose Catholic identity was a matter of public knowledge, had fewer options. In the autumn of , for example, British forces began forcibly removing the large population French Acadians from the Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada.

Unlike other groups of immigrants who came to colonial Charleston looking to start a new life, the French Acadians were well-known to be staunchly Catholic. These church steeples also served as useful landmarks that guided ships into Charleston Harbor, one of the most important ports on the East Coast. Our city's beauty can be seen in its culture, architecture, and amazing Charleston Real Estate.

Learn more about the many neighborhoods, events and marketing trends with our Charleston Real Estate Guide. So, how did this great city get the nickname of "the Holy City"? Learn About Things to Do in Charleston. Print Share. This Gothic Revival building has been painted a light pink and was built in It lays claim to being the only Huguenot church in the U.

The congregation was formed in Charleston by a group of 45 French Huguenots back in Today, church services are held in English — although the church offers one service in French in the spring.

This classic Greek Revival church is known for its interior architectural designs, including its bright blue knave and stained-glass windows, and was designed by E. The congregation originally hailed from Germany, and services were in German until Charleston: A Tolerant City Charleston has been known for its religious tolerance since the s. Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul This cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of South Carolina.

The building was completed in In its churchyard are the graves of Vice President John C. Circular Congregation Church was organized in and in began meeting in a Robert Mills-designed circular building that gave the congregation its unique name. The building was destroyed by fire in and damaged by the earthquake. The present building opened in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was made up of freedmen and slaves when it started in In the s, Denmark Vessey plotted a slave rebellion in the church, and it was closed.

The congregation was reorganized at the end of the Civil War, and the current building was built in