Page 29 - NewsandViews 2023 whole publication

Quaker history Mary Lewis-Bizley

Humanity has worshipped deities from the earliest times - usually fertility or gods of locality. Sadly, as
tribes and religions developed there have been conflicts both between different religions, as in the
crusades or even between different interpretations of the same faith as in Northern Ireland. When Henry
VIII broke ties with Rome and made himself head of the Church of England, there was sever persecution
of Roman Catholics and, until recently, no reigning monarch could be one. After the translation into
English and the printing of the Bible so that people could read the gospels and old testament for
themselves, several Christian based sects such as the Baptists, Quakers, or, to give them their fill title,
Religious Society of Friends, and other non conformist forms of belief were preached. George Fox first
preached in the Lake District in the 17th century.

As Quakers refused to swear an oath of alliance to the King or pay church tithes, they were often put in
prison, fined or beaten up by the authorities. Because of the problems and difficulties these situations
caused, Friends started to hold Meetings for Sufferings to try to help those in financial distress and to
give aid to the families where the bread winner was in prison. Often the wife would set up an industry
which she could work from home. Although Quakers have never had a creed and have been encouraged
to think for themselves, guidance for the beliefs of Friends was first given in Advices and Queries issued
in 1656. This has been brought up to date over the centuries.

Quakers and Friends have always been a peace church which has tried to make them seek reconciliation
with people of other Christian denominations. Even when I was growing up during the 1930s there was
some enmity between the Church of England and Roman Catholics and the non-conformist chapel
communities. For the Quakers, Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence given in 1672 without the consent
of Parliament, marked a change of policy towards those who were no longer with the church of England.
As many had become Puritans under Cromwell in the Civil War, it meant the end of persecution for
many with various religious beliefs but few, then, held other Faiths.

To be continued.

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