| The complex situation of Catholicism in Great Britain had results in their Colonies. |
英国天主教复杂的发展状况对殖民地产生了影响。 |
| At the time of the American revolution, Catholics formed approximately 1.6% of the total American population of the original 13 colonies. |
在美国独立战争期间，天主教徒们在最初的13个殖民地广泛传教，美国人民中约有1.6%都信奉天主教。 |
| If Catholics were seen as potential enemies of the British state, Irish Catholics, subject to British rule, were doubly-damned. |
如果将天主教视作英国政府的潜在敌对力量，那么受英国政府统治的爱尔兰基督徒们应该被更严重的谴责。 |
| In Ireland they had been subject to British domination. |
爱尔兰曾经属于英国统辖。 |
| In America Catholics were still forbidden from settling in some of the colonies. |
而在美国，天主教徒们不被允许进入部分殖民地。 |
| Although the head of their faith dwelt in Rome, they were under the official representation of the Catholic Bishop of the London diocese, one James Talbot. |
虽然他们的宗教领袖居住在罗马，但实际上，他们的官方代表却是来自伦敦教区的天主教主教詹姆斯·托尔伯特。 |
| When War began, Bishop Talbot declared his faithfulness to the British Crown. |
战争爆发之际，托尔伯特主教公开向英国皇室表示了他的忠诚。 |
| (If he had done otherwise, Catholics in England would have been in trouble. Anti-Catholic sentiment still ran high.) |
（如果他不这样做，英格兰天主教将会陷入危险。当时的反天主教情绪仍然高涨不降。） |
| He forbade any Colonial priest to serve Communion. |
他禁止让殖民地教区的牧师领取圣餐。 |
| This made practice of the faith impossible. |
这种做法使得“传教”也无法进行。 |
| This created sympathy for the Colonial rebels. |
这也让人们开始同情殖民地的反叛者。 |
| The Continental Army's alliance with the French increased sympathy for the faith. |
法国陆军联盟的出现进一步助长了人们的同情心。 |
| When the French fleet arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, the colony repealed the Act of 1664 and allowed citizenship to Catholics. |
当法国舰队抵达新港口时，殖民地政权撤销了1664年法案，并开始允许市民们信仰天主教。 |
| (This anticipated the provision of the Constitutional Bill of Rights which would strike anti-Catholic laws from the books.) |
（这预示着《宪法权利法案》的条款将会把反天主教法规法典从法典中剔除出去。） |
| After the war, the Pope created an American Bishop, John Carroll -- a descendant of the same Carrolls who had helped found Maryland -- and an American Diocese communicating directly with Rome. |
战后，教皇创建了一片与罗马直接对接的美国新教区，并为其任命了一名新主教——美国主教约翰·卡罗尔。他是协助建立马里兰州的卡罗尔家族的后代。 |
| The British government commanded General Thomas Gage to enforce the Intolerable Acts and shut down the Massachusetts legislature. |
英国政府派遣托马斯·盖奇将军前往执行“不可容忍的法案”，并关闭了马赛诸塞州的立法机构。 |
| Gage decided to confiscate a stockpile of colonial arms located in Concord. |
盖奇将军下令查收了位于康科德的殖民地武装库存。 |
| On April 19, 1775, Gage's troops marched to Concord. |
1775年4月19日，盖奇将军率领部队进军康科德。 |
| On the way, at the town of Lexington, Americans who had been warned in advance by Paul Revere and others of the British movements made an attempt to stop the troops. |
在莱克星顿市的沿途城镇，此前已被保罗·列维尔和其他英国人警告的美国人拼尽全力阻挡军队前进。 |
| No one knows which side fired the first shot, but it sparked battle on Lexington Green between the British and the Minutemen. |
没有人知道究竟是哪一方打响了第一枪，但这一声枪声正式掀起了英国军队和美国义勇兵的“莱克星顿草原之战”。 |
| Faced against an overwhelmingly superior number of British regular troops in an open field, the Minutemen were quickly routed. |
开阔的草原上，英国正规军队在人数上的压倒性优势凸显，而美国民兵们很快就被击溃了。 |
| Nevertheless, alarms sounded through the countryside. |
即便如此，警报声响彻村庄遍野。 |
| The colonial militias poured in and were able to launch guerrilla attacks on the British while they marched on to Concord. |
在英军向康科德进军的过程中，殖民地民兵们蜂拥而至，向英军发动游击式袭击。 |
| The colonials amassed of troops at Concord. |
殖民地居民在康科德集结了大批军队， |
| They engaged the British in force there, and they were able to repulse them. |
奋力与英军交战，并击退了他们。 |
| They then claimed the contents of the armory. |
然后，他们要求英军归还军械库的物资。 |
| The British retreated to Boston under a constant and withering fire from all sides. |
在四面八方不断猛烈的炮火攻势下，英国人不得不撤退到波士顿。 |
| Only a reinforcing column with artillery support on the outskirts of Boston prevented the British withdrawal from becoming a total rout. |
在波士顿郊区，仅有一枚大炮支援的增援纵队使英军暂时免于彻底溃败。 |
| The following day the British woke up to find Boston surrounded by 20,000 armed colonists, occupying the neck of land extending to the peninsula the city stood on. |
就在第二天，英国人一觉醒来，发现两万名殖民地民兵已经将波士顿城区包围，并占领了波士顿所在半岛的颈部地带。 |
