The Chesapeake region saw a mixture of religions, including Quakers (who founded Pennsylvania), Catholics, Lutherans, a few Jews, and others. The colony of Maryland was originally founded as a safe haven for Irish Catholics. In the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland, the Church of England was recognized by law as the state church, and a portion of tax revenues went to support the parish and its priest. The New England colonists—with the exception of Rhode Island—were predominantly Puritans. Government in these colonies contained elements of theocracy from the start. John Winthrop, as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, stated before landing in the New World that Massachusetts would be “a city upon a hill” and that they shall be an example of Christianity for all those who saw them. Their laws assumed that citizens who strayed away from conventional religious customs were a threat to civil order and