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The Testimony Of Martha Simmonds, Quaker, Bernadette Smith
The Testimony Of Martha Simmonds, Quaker, Bernadette Smith
Quaker Studies
Martha Simmonds (1624-1665) was an early Quaker whose spiritual journey involved preaching, travelling, becoming a devotee of James Naylor and participating in his re-enactment of Christ's entry into Jerusalem and its aftermath. This event has largely defined her place in history and little serious attention has been given to her writings This paper attempts to fill this lacuna by discussing spiritual writing within the context of her life and contemporary constructs of'signs' and suffering, both on a personal scale and within the wider context of the collective persecution of the early Quakers. It aims to re-assess the Bristol 'sign' and …
Travelers Here In This Vale Of Tears: William Penn Preaches A Funeral Sermon, Michael Graves
Travelers Here In This Vale Of Tears: William Penn Preaches A Funeral Sermon, Michael Graves
Quaker Studies
William Penn, the significant seventeenth-century political figure and writer, was also an important preacher, but his role as a public speaker has received little attention, though at least two of his speeches and twelve of his impromptu sermons have survived. This essay argues that Penn's sermonic work is noteworthy through an examination of his 1688 public response to the death of Rebecca Travers, an important first-generation Quaker leader. Penn's response to Travers' death reveals his struggle to come to grips with the vicissitudes of his own life and, by implication, Travers' life. The sermon is interpreted as an instance of …
'Ministering Confusion': Rebellious Quaker Women (1650-1660)', Catie Gill
'Ministering Confusion': Rebellious Quaker Women (1650-1660)', Catie Gill
Quaker Studies
This paper assesses the position of women within the Quaker community, concentrating on their ministerial roles. Female prophets and preachers were visible during the first decade of Quakerism, and the early years prove fruitful for exploration of women's experiences. In order to consider the difficulties women faced when taking a public role in support of Quakerism, some context on seventeenth-century attitudes to women will be provided. It will be argued that women had to challenge patriarchal notions that the 'weaker' sex should be silent, passive and obedient. In contrast to prevailing seventeenth-century norms, the potential radicalism of the Quaker approach …