From Henry VIII to Richard Nixon

Political, religious, social and cultural leaders often bring forth popular movements at odds with their own intentions. Perhaps this is particularly true of religious leaders, or perhaps it seems that way to me because I've been studying the history of religions lately. 

Henry VII's son Henry was born in 1491, became King Henry VIII of England in 1491, shortly before his 18th birthday, and reigned until 1547. In 1521, with Lutherism spreading quickly all over Europe, Pope Leo X declared Henry to be defensor fidei, Defender of the Catholic Faith. In 1530, however, Henry became a Protestant when Pope Clement VII refused to grant him a divorce. 

Henry envisaged the Church of England as being very much like the Catholic Church, except that it would allow divorce, thus allowing him, he thought, to have many sons, making the succession of the English crown more secure. But once he opened the door, many forms of Protestantism poured in. 

There were very bloody religious conflicts in England for a long time after Henry VIII died. By far the bloodiest was that we now call the English Civil War, from 1642 to 1651, pitting King Charles I, very Catholic-friendly, against Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, as Calvinists were called in England, and not Catholic friendly at all. 

During the Civil War many new Protestant denominations sprang up in England. One of these became known as the Quakers. Their official name was and is the Friends, but they accepted that they were known as Quakers. The Quakers took the Protestant principal that a Pope and a strict Church hierarchy were unnecessary, took it much further, and declared that no preachers were necessary, and that no-one should tell anyone else what to believe.

The Quakers said that everyone had within them an inner light. They said that everyone should look within themself to understand what was right. And so, naturally, many of them were killed by Anglicans and also by Puritans, both in England and in the American colonies, where many of them emigrated. Quaker emigration increased greatly after 1681, when King Charles II gave William Penn, a Quaker, the colonial territory which would become known as Pennsylvania.

Not only Quakers came to Pennsylvania. Their reputation for religious tolerance also attracted many Lutherans, as well as many Protestants from Germany who no longer called themselves Lutherans, such as Baptists and Pietists. Some of these offshoots of Lutheranism greatly resembled the Quakers in their de-emphasis on church hierarchy, their encouragement of all members to participate and speak in their meetings, and their pacifism.

Spinoza, when he was cast out by the synagogue of Amsterdam, found friendship and support from Quakers who had emigrated to Holland. John Locke was exiled from England in the 1680, and he too found friendship among Dutch Quakers. Two examples of those who found that you don't have to be a Quaker to be accepted and defended by Quakers.

Remember, officially, they've never been called Quakers. Officially, they're Friends.

And yes, Richard Nixon was a Quaker. Some might say that he was not a particularly good Quaker. Others might possibly refer to Matthew 7:1, a Bible verse not infrequently cited by Quakers over the centuries.