One Man and a Mule by Hugh Thomson

Author:Hugh Thomson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2017-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

The people ‘coming forth in white raiment’ were the Westmorland Seekers, and the reason that George Fox’s message found such a quick reception. The Seekers had been established in this part of Westmorland for some years and already proposed a radical, puritan form of Christianity. One of their doctrines was that priests should live austerely and not extract tithes from the flock. But Fox went further. He questioned the need for a formal priest, and indeed church, at all. If God was everywhere, then one might as well preach in the open air. ‘A church,’ said Fox, ‘is only a building.’ Moreover, the members of a community, both men and women, should all be empowered to debate with each other on matters of faith.

It was a revolutionary message and not surprisingly the Established Church reacted to it with extraordinary hostility. The later persecution of Quakers, at times vicious, often followed from the Church’s concern that it would lose its financial support as much as for theological reasons.

So, what did (and do) Quakers actually believe? This is harder to pin down. In some ways, they have always liked to define themselves by rejecting the ideas of others. In the seventeenth century, this meant they were opposed to the hard-line predestination views of some puritans who believed they were an elect; for the Quakers, salvation was possible for everyone, and men and women were equal in the eyes of the Lord. Moreover, people were urged to turn to the light of Christ within themselves. Even the Bible was less important than this inner spirit. As one commentator has put it, for the Quaker believer, ‘Heaven was within’.

When I found the Brigflatts meeting house down the end of a small country lane – with no one querying my strange southern accent – I found a class in progress: a group of Quakers were being taught how to scythe grass on the lawn just in front of the meeting house.

‘Why use a strimmer,’ asked the young man giving the lesson, ‘when you can do this instead? When you can be at peace with yourself?’

Given that using a full-length scythe clearly needed a great deal of instruction – the class were advancing cautiously over the grass to make sure they didn’t cut their toes – I could see why people might keep the strimmer. But the scythes all moving across the lawn in unison had a quiet grace that was instantly appealing. It was a lovely thing to watch.

‘What you have to do,’ the young man told the class, ‘is use your whole body weight and balance to swing the scythe from side to side, like t’ai chi. The mistake is to do it the way the Austrians do, the haymaking way, and just use the strength in your upper arms and shoulders.’

He demonstrated. The class murmured in sympathetic appreciation. They were a gentle, middle-aged group in fleeces. Many of the men and women had long hair, the men’s often in a ponytail, the women’s loose and frizzy.

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