Re: History Question about the Quakers
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In reply to:
History Question about the Quakers
10/06/01
Hi,
Nick's earlier response to your question was pretty well done. There are a couple of clarifications I'd like to make. People in Puritan Massachusetts might have been accused of witchcraft, but they were punished under the laws of HERESY...that is "opinion or doctrine contrary to church teachings." Not everyone was accused of being a witch, but anyone who spoke heresy was thought to be infected by devilish thought and needed to be purged. Misguided "tough love," I suppose. It's the central Quaker idea of the "Inner Light" and direct sontact with God that brought their beliefs under the heading "heresy."
Nick also mentioned that New Jersey was the religiously-tolerant colony. NJ was tolerant; however, Roger Williams, also cast out from Masachusetts for religious teachings contrary to the Puritans', founded Rhode Island on the basis of religious freedom.
The name Pilgrim is misused, overused, and poorly used. Properly speaking, the Mayflower settlers were "Separatists." They wanted to separate from the Church of England and the Catholic Church. Puritans wanted to purify the C of E.
Below is information from a website about the Quaker martyr Mary Dyer. She was an early American activist whose name should be better remembered in history than it is. The website address is http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/2822/marydyer.htmlhttp://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/2822/marydyer.html
Mary Dyer, Quaker Martyr
Mary Dyer was a follower of mid-wife and religious activist Anne Marbury Hutchinson, who taught that God could be communicated directly (without the assistance of a minister) and that salvation could be assured. This view was considered heresy by the Puritan religion, which taught that it was impossible to know whether one was "saved" or not (which resulted in the colonial Puritans being a rather anxious group). When Hutchinson was excommunicated by the Boston Puritan Church for her beliefs, Dyer sided with her. Subsequently, Mary Dyer and her husband (William Dyer) were also excommunicated and banished from the colony. They eventually settled in Newport, Rhode Island, where Mary Dyer and her husband enjoyed a political atmosphere of greater religious tolerance.
Following a voyage to England in 1652, Mary Dyer became a follower of George Fox - the founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers) - whose teachings were similar to those of Anne Hutchinson. When Mary Dyer returned to Boston in 1657, she was imprisoned due to her uncompromising expression of her Quaker beliefs. She was granted release when her husband promised that she would keep silent until she left the colony.
In 1658, religious intolerance in Boston reached a horrible height, when a law was passed banishing Quakers under "pain of death." When Mary Dyer learned that two Quakers of her acquaintance were jailed in Boston, she went to visit them in 1659 - and was herself imprisoned (probably by design -- Dyer was very pro-active). That September, Mary Dyer and the two other Friends were released, after being assured that they would be executed if they returned. Nevertheless - only a few weeks later - an undaunted Mary Dyer, in the company of other Friends, returned to Boston resolved to "look the bloody laws in the face."
Imprisoned once again, Mary Dyer saw her two fellow Quakers hung to the death. While herself bound and with the rope around her neck she received a last-minute reprieve (which was almost certainly prearranged). Against her wishes, Mary Dyer returned to Rhode Island; but soon came back to Boston - knowing the inevitability of her fate, but determined to give up her life in order to gain the "repeal of that wicked law".
On June 1, 1660, she was led once more to the scaffold and executed by hanging - refusing to repent, holding fast to her beliefs to the very end. Mary Dyer was happy to be martyred for her beliefs, as she hoped that her sacrifice would result in a change toward greater tolerance of religious faith.
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Re: History Question about the Quakers
Marilyn Critari 10/30/09