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BECK index Quakers: Fox and Penn's Holy Experiment George Fox, William Penn and Friends "All Friends everywhere, this I charge you, which is the word of the Lord God unto you all, Live in peace, in Christ, the way of peace, and therein seek the peace of all men, and no man's hurt.... It is love that overcomes and not hatred with hatred, nor strife with strife. Therefore live all in the peaceable life, doing good to all men. " George Fox "We have suffered all along because we would not take up carnal weapons to fight withal against any, and are thus made a prey upon because we are the innocent lambs of Christ and cannot avenge ourselves. These things are left upon your hearts to consider." George Fox "I deplore two principles in religion, obedience upon authority without conviction and destroying them that differ with me for Christ's sake." William Penn "Peace is maintained by justice, which is a fruit of government, as government is from society, and society from consent." William Penn George Fox was born in a small hamlet in Leicestershire, England in July, 1624. His father was a weaver and a pious warden of the church. George had little education other than learning to read and write and study the Bible. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker for whom he also tended sheep. In an incident at the age of 19 George was disgusted by tavern companions who tried to get him into a drinking match. That night he had a vision from God, and the next day, November 9, 1643, he left his family and trade to wander in search of true religion. Carrying his Bible he slept in fields or stayed with hospitable families. He questioned priests and argued with them. George searched for people he called "tender" who were loving and spiritually open. He discovered that most of the priests were not open but that many of the Seekers, a new sect, were. George Fox experienced "openings" or revelations which told him that both Catholics and Protestants could be sincere Christians, that universities like Oxford and Cambridge bred vain and deceitful priests, and that God did not dwell in church buildings as much as in people's hearts. Fox called the man-made temples "steeple houses" and considered the church to be the community of believers in its original sense. Although he considered the Bible a valuable reference point, the inner Light takes precedence as the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. Fox declared that revelation had not ended, but the insights from within must be checked to see that they are in harmony with the teachings of the Bible. There was the danger that some would be led astray by spirits of darkness or the devil; therefore someone attuned to the inner Light must discern the difference, and George Fox always felt that he could. Fox had a powerful personality and an inner conviction which he would not compromise. Confident that the word of God was speaking through him he challenged priests and interrupted their sermons. He would speak for hours at a time, and sometimes he would just glare at people for as long as two or three hours. He could outshout just about anybody. He criticized social injustices, such as the hiring fair at Mansfield in 1648 where local justices had fixed a maximum wage for farm labor. He believed in human equality and was firm in practicing it, even in seemingly trivial ways. He would refuse to remove his hat before a judge or a king. Following the admonition of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount he refused to take oaths. Because of these behaviors and his frank speech he was arrested many times. Altogether in his life he spent seven years in jail, often in filthy conditions, which he sought to reform. As Jesus called his disciples friends, so Fox referred to those who followed the inner Light as Friends, but the world gave them the name Quakers. Critical of professional priests, Fox believed that each person could relate to God directly and thus minister. He defended the rights of women to equal spirituality even against the views of other Friends. Fox and his followers were continually persecuted and often arrested for refusing to take oaths or for holding unauthorized religious meetings. Fox and other missionaries traveled to Europe and America to convince others of the truth of the inner Light. In America Fox preached to the Indians whom he treated as equals, and he urged humane treatment of Negroes and their eventual release from enslavement. Following the teachings of the Christ closely, Fox was a pacifist, and the Society of Friends to this day has remained perhaps the most important pacifist religion. In 1651 during the civil war when Fox was in jail, some commissioners and soldiers offered to make him a captain over the soldiers who were eager to be led by such a courageous man. However, Fox told them that he "lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars," and he explained that all wars come from lust, as James pointed out in the Bible. When they realized that his refusal was serious, they threw him into a dungeon for almost six months "amongst thirty felons in a lousy, stinking low place in the ground without any bed." Thereupon Fox took to writing letters to judges against the death penalty for stealing and minor offenses, and he urged speedier trials because many were being corrupted by criminals in jails while they were waiting for their trials to begin. Then a Justice Bennet offered him press-money if he would be a soldier, but again Fox declined. While preaching he warned soldiers not to do violence to any man. In March 1655 Fox wrote a letter to Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, clarifying his pacifist position as "the son of God who is sent to stand a witness against all violence and against all the works of darkness, and to turn people from the darkness to the light, and to bring them from the occasion of the war and from the occasion of the magistrate's sword." He also referred to "the light in all your consciences, which makes no covenant with death, to which light in you all 1 speak, and am clear." Fox exhorted all Friends to live in peace; he declared that those who use carnal weapons throw away spiritual weapons, and those who do not love one another and love enemies are out of Christ's doctrine. With the Restoration of a monarch in 1660 George Fox was again arrested without good reason. He wrote a letter to Charles II telling the King that he was the very opposite of a disturber of the peace. The suspicion that he would plot an armed rebellion was absurd. He asserted that he loved everyone including his enemies and attempted to awaken the love of the King for the truth. "Those that follow Christ in the spirit, the captain of their salvation, deny the carnal weapons." While in custody of soldiers at Whitehall he preached the gospel of loving one another and asked them why they wore swords and when they would "break them to pieces and come to the gospel of peace." Later that year Fox and eleven others signed "A Declaration from the harmless and innocent people of God, called Quakers, against all plotters and fighters in the world." They stated that their principle is, and their practices always have been, to seek peace and follow righteousness and the knowledge of God for the welfare of all. Warfare results from the lust and desire to have men's lives and estates. Pertinent passages from the Bible are quoted, but more importantly they honestly can declare that they have practiced the ways of peace and suffered persecution for righteousness' sake and have not done violence against anyone. They have suffered in obedience to God, having been "Despised, beaten, stoned, wounded, stocked, whipped, imprisoned, haled out of synagogues, cast into dungeons and noisome vaults where many have died in bonds, shut up from our friends, denied needful sustenance for many days together, with other the like cruelties." Hundreds of Friends had suffered these things, few more than George Fox. Yet they refused to swear or to fight; often they remained in jail after their sentence, because they refused to pay the jailkeeper since they did not recognize that they had committed a crime. They pleaded to the King so that he would end this useless suffering. In his Journal Fox described how this declaration cleared away the darkness so that the King proclaimed that no soldiers should search a house without a constable and that Friends in jail should be set at liberty without having to pay the fees. Fox continued to preach and clarify the doctrines of the inner Light until he died in 1691; during all this time he was the generally acknowledged leader of the Quakers. The second great Quaker leader, William Penn, was born in London on October 14, 1644 and died in 1718. His father rose to become Vice Admiral of England and was knighted by Charles II. He was hopeful that his son would become prominent in the court and provided him with a fine education. Young William studied at Christ's Church College in Oxford where John Locke was teaching, but he was fined and expelled for refusing to attend church and for religious nonconformity. Disgruntled by his son's pious seriousness, the Admiral sent him off to France, and the father was glad when William returned a good French scholar with the bearing of the courtly life. He advised William then to study law at Lincoln's Inn, but after a year a great plague hit London in 1665. Again William turned toward religion and was convinced by a Quaker named Thomas Loe when he spoke about "a faith that overcomes the world." William recalled how the Lord had appeared to him since the age of twelve, the debauchery of Oxford and his persecution there, and the "irreligiousness" of the world's religions. At the Quaker meeting the Lord visited him again, and he testified, "I related the bitter mockings and scornings that fell upon me, the displeasure of my parents, the cruelty and invective of the priests, the strangeness of all my companions, and what a sign and wonder they made of me; but, above all, that great cross of resisting and watching against my own vain affections and thoughts." A year later Penn was arrested at a meeting of Friends; the mayor, noticing his aristocratic dress, offered to free him on his promise to behave, but the twenty-three-year-old refused and was sent to prison with the eighteen others. Penn wrote, "Religion, which is at once my crime and mine innocence, makes me a prisoner to a mayor's malice, but mine own free man." In this letter to the Earl of Orrery he pleaded for religious toleration. The arrest brought the conflict between William and his father to a head. His father wanted him to conform to the ways of the world and attain a position of honor, but William pleaded that he must listen to his conscience. Finally his father threatened to disinherit him; he asked that his son only uncover his head before the king, the duke, and himself. William prayed and fasted to know the heavenly will; but this only strengthened his resolution, and he was thrown out of the house. Uncertain about whether to give up his fine clothes, it is said that Penn asked George Fox if he must stop wearing a sword. Fox replied, "Wear it as long as thou canst." Penn gave up the sword and became an active promoter of Quaker ideas by writing numerous pamphlets such as "No Cross, No Crown," "The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Debated," "Examination of Liberty Spiritual," "A Persuasive to Moderation," "The Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers," "Primitive Christianity Revived," etc. Many Quakers believed that his writings brought about the release of thirteen hundred Quakers from jail. Penn himself had been arrested again for preaching in 1670 because of the Conventicle Act. Penn challenged the legality of the indictment; when the magistrates did not like the jury's verdict, they locked up the jury without meat, drink, fire, and tobacco waiting for "a verdict such as the Court will accept." Penn referred to the rights of the Magna Charta and advised the jurors, "Give not away your right." The result was that Penn and all twelve of the jury were sent to prison. This trial became famous and showed that the arbitrary and oppressive proceedings of the courts badly needed reform. Again the next year he was sent to Newgate prison for six months for preaching without taking an oath, even though the law was only for those in holy orders, which Penn was not. He occupied the time in prison writing. When Penn's father died, he gave his son his blessing. The crown of England owed a great debt of gratitude to Admiral Penn, and in 1680 William Penn asked for a grant of American land west of the Delaware. The land he received, probably the largest piece of property ever owned by a commoner, became the scene of the Holy Experiment in pacifist government and was called Pennsylvania. Penn wanted to call it Sylvania for its forests, but the King insisted that Penn be added. Although Penn was sole proprietor and therefore governor, he wanted it to be a haven for religious toleration and representative government. Of course it was to be a home for the Quakers, but others were welcome also. He drew up a constitution, and the first article protected freedom of worship according to conscience. Penn was sensitive to being friendly and peaceful toward the Indians and required that all land bought from him must also be purchased from the local tribes. In 1682 he gave the following address to the American Indians: The Great Spirit who made me and you, who rules the heavens and the earth, and who knows the innermost thoughts of men, knows that I and my friends have a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with you, and to serve you to the utmost of our power. It is not our custom to use hostile weapons against our fellow creatures, for which reason we have come unarmed. Our object is not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. We are met on the broad pathway of good faith and goodwill, so that no advantage is to be taken on either side, but all to be openness, brotherhood, and love. Penn stayed in America for two years overseeing the founding of the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, and when he returned to England he was pleased to report that there was "not one soldier, or arms borne, or militia man seen, since 1 was first in Pennsylvania." Penn had to spend most of his time in England trying to protect the colony from intrusions by the British government; he was only to make one more two-year trip to Pennsylvania. He appointed deputies and encouraged the province to be self-governing. Although often barely a majority, Quakers tended to control the policies and were able to refrain from military activities and policies until 1756, in spite of frequent outside pressures to tax for defense or raise a militia. Although the Holy Experiment was not totally successful, it did demonstrate that a pacifist government could sustain itself even on a frontier with a vastly different type of people (Indians). In 1693 William Penn published one of the world's excellent plans for international peace entitled "An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe By the Establishment of an European Diet, Parliament, or Estates." His points are relatively simple and well argued. First, the value of peace is obvious when we look at the terrible ravages of wars which cause so much suffering and destruction. Second, war and strife are prevented by means of justice, both for individuals and groups, resolving conflicts in a fair way. Third, justice depends on government to enforce laws impartially, and government gains its sovereign authority to do so from the consent of the people. Fourth, peace in Europe may be maintained by forming a Sovereign Parliament of the European states to collectively decide disputes and unite as one strength in enforcing the decisions. Fifth, there are three ways the peace is broken: defending one's own territory, trying to recover territory previously claimed, and trying to increase one's dominion by invading another country. Sixth, governments claim sovereignty by succession, election, marriage, purchase, or conquest. Seventh, all of the European states including Russia and Turkey should be included in the Diet with votes equivalent to the value of their territory. Eighth, among regulations a secret ballot is recommended to prevent the corruption of bribes with the idea that the one bribing would have no guarantee whether his money was effective. In the ninth section Penn answers objections. Even if the strongest nation refused to join, the others together could compel it. Small forces within each country could prevent a large army from forming. Youth not trained for war would not become effeminate if they were disciplined for some other type of work. States would still maintain their sovereignty over their own internal affairs. In the tenth section Penn lists the many benefits of his plan. Bloodshed would be prevented, and towns and property would not be destroyed. The Christian countries would be more in harmony with the true teachings of Christ. Every country would save money which could be used in more constructive ways. It would give the Christian countries security against the Turks. Travel between states would be free and easy, and personal friendships could develop between the peoples of different countries. Princes would not have to marry for political and diplomatic reasons but could establish unions based on sincere love. In his conclusion Penn reiterates the important principle that there must be a sovereign authority to settle disputes which is greater than the parties in conflict. Just as individuals have difficulty settling their own disagreements, so also nations often require an impartial authority to decide between them. As an actual example of a working federal system he cites the United Provinces which met at The Hague. Many of the principles of Penn's plan are certainly of lasting value. >>>Hot linques at site<<< THE WAY TO PEACE Introduction Chinese Sages: Lao Tzu, Confucius, Mo Tzu, and Mencius Indian Mystics: Mahavira and the Buddha Greek Conscience: Pythagoras, Socrates, and Aristophanes Jesus and the Early Christians Francis of Assisi The Magna Charta Dante on One Government Chaucer on Counseling Peace Erasmus and Humanism Crucé's Peace Plan Grotius on International Law George Fox, William Penn and Friends Rousseau's Social Contract Federalist Peace Plans of Bentham and Kant Emerson's Transcendentalism Thoreau's Civil Disobedience Religion for World Peace: Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l Bahá Leo Tolstoy on the Law of Love Mahatma Gandhi's Nonviolent Revolution Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations Franklin Roosevelt and the United Nations Einstein on Peace in the Atomic Age Schweitzer on Civilization and Ethics The Pacifism of Bertrand Russell Protests of A. J. Muste Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement Lessons of Vietnam The Clark-Sohn Proposal for World Law and Disarmament Women and Peace The Anti-Nuclear Movement Conclusions BECK index ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; I don't believe everything I read or send (but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's important) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. 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