Christianity was introduced to north america as it was colonized by europeans beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries the spanish french and british brought roman catholicism to the colonies of new spain new france and maryland respectively while northern european peoples introduced protestantism to massachusetts bay colony new netherland virginia colony carolina colony newfoundland and labrador and lower canada . A history of american christianity by bacon leonard woolsey 1830 1907 publication date 1897 topics united states church history united states religion publisher new york christian literature co collection princeton americana digitizing sponsor msn contributor princeton theological seminary library language english addeddate 2008 06 02 182114 call number 193913 camera canon 5d . Christianity expressed in the new england confederation of 1643 early in american history the people recognized the governing leaders as ministers of god these officials were to lead with wisdom and according to the laws and principles of scripture when this confederation organized it stood for christian principles. The religious and ecclesias tical history of the united states is precisely that which tends at the first blush to repel the interest of the ordinary englishman perhaps of the ordinary cis atlantic christian it is not the history of a national church whether roman catholic or reformed with a certain number of sects dis senting from it in various directions