3. "That it is lawful and the duty of every man, being thereunto called
by those that govern, to bear witness to truth; and that every church or
profession shall, in their terms of communion, set down the external way
whereby they witness a truth as in the presence of GOD, whether it be by
laying hands on, or kissing the Bible, as in the church of England, or by
holding up the hand, or any other sensible way."
CI. No person above seventeen years of age shall have any benefit or
protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honour,
who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name
recorded in some one, and but one religious record at once.
CII. No person of any other church or profession shall disturb or molest
any religious assembly.
CIII. No person whatsoever shall speak any thing in their religious
assembly irreverently or seditiously of the government, or governors, or
state matters.
CIV. Any person subscribing the terms of communion in the record of the
said church or profession, before the precinct register, and any five
members of the said church or profession, shall be thereby made a member
of the said church or profession.
CV. Any person striking out his own name out of any religious record, or
his name being struck out by any officer thereunto authorised by each
church or profession respectively, shall cease to be a member of that
church or profession.
CVI. No man shall use any reproachful, reviling, or abusive language,
against the religion of any church or profession; that being the certain
way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the conversion of any to
the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animosities, to the hatred of
the professors and that profession, which otherwise they might be brought
to assent to.
CVII. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and
religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it
shall be lawful for slaves, as well as others, to enter themselves, and
be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and
therefore be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall
hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but
be in all other things in the same state and condition he was in before.
CVIII. Assemblies, upon what pretence soever of religion, not observing
and performing the abovesaid rules, shall not be esteemed as churches,
but unlawful meetings, and be punished as other riots.
CIX. No person whatsoever shall disturb, molest, or persecute another for
his speculative opinions in religion, or his way of worship.
CX. Every freeman of CAROLINA shall have absolute power and authority
over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever.
CXI. No cause, whether civil or criminal, of any freeman, shall be tried
in any court of judicature, without a jury of his peers.
CXII. No person whatsoever shall hold or claim any land in CAROLINA by
purchase or gift, or otherwise, from the natives, or any other
whatsoever; but merely from and under the Lords Proprietors; upon pain of
forfeiture of all his estate, moveable or immoveable, and perpetual
banishment.
CXIII. Whosoever shall possess any freehold in CAROLINA, upon what title
or grant soever, shall, at the farthest, from and after the year one
thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, pay yearly unto the Lords
Proprietors for each acre of land, English measure, as much fine silver
as is at this present in one English penny, or the value thereof, to be
as a chief rent and acknowledgment to the Lords Proprietors; their heirs
and successors, for ever. And it shall be lawful for the Palatine's
court, by their officers at any time, to take a new survey of any man's
land, not to out him of any part of his possession, but that by such a
survey the just number of acres he possesseth may be known, and the rent
thereupon due may be paid by him.
CXIV. All wrecks, mines, minerals, quarries of gems, and precious stones,
with pearl-fishing, whale-fishing, and one half of all ambergrease, by
whomsoever found, shall wholly belong to the Lords Proprietors.
CXV. All revenues and profits belonging to the Lords Proprietors in
common shall be divided into ten parts, whereof the Palatine shall have
three and each proprietor one; but if the Palatine shall govern by a
deputy, his deputy shall have one of those three tenths, and the Palatine
the other two tenths.
CXVI. All inhabitants and freemen of CAROLINA above seventeen years of
age, and under sixty, shall be bound to bear arms, and serve as soldiers
whenever the grand council shall find it necessary.
CXVII. A true copy of three FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS shall be kept in a
great book by the register of every precinct, to be subscribed before the
said register. Nor shall any person, of what condition or degree soever,
above seventeen years old, have any estate or possession in CAROLINA, or
protection or benefit of the law there, who hath not before a precinct
register subscribed three FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS in this form:
"I A. B. do promise to bear faith and true allegiance to our
sovereign lord king CHARLES the Second, his heirs and successors;
and will be true and faithful to the Palatine and Lords
Proprietors of CAROLINA, their heirs and successors; and with my
utmost power will defend them, and maintain the government
according to this establishment in these FUNDAMENTAL
CONSTITUTIONS."
CXVIII. Whatsoever alien shall, in this form, before any precinct
register, subscribe these fundamental constitutions, shall be thereby
naturalized.
CXIX. In the same manner shall every person, at his admittance into any
office, subscribe these FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS.
CXX. These FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS, in number a hundred and twenty, and
every part thereof, shall be and remain the sacred and unalterable form
and rule of government of CAROLINA for ever. Witness our hands and
seals, the first day of March, 1669.
RULES of PRECEDENCY.