Kendal, Holy Trinity Church interior, with pulpit
The incumbent at the time was Thomas Walker (18.4.1651-1656), whom Miles Hallhead was moved to abuse as ‘thou painted hypocrite’.1 From February 1658/9 the vicar was the Rev. William Brownsword, who gave as good as he got. He issued a pamphlet, intended largely for his parishioners, entitled The Quaker-Jesuite, or, Popery in Quakerisme ... (1660) which argued that the Jesuits were behind the rise of Quakerism, and that most of their theology and practices were either Jesuit or ‘monkish’, e.g. ‘They run up and down Naked, though not constantly, yet at some times’, which he affirms to have been a habit of St Ignatius Loyola [page 8]. The confusion between Quakers and Catholics arose partly because both were recusants, i.e. they refused to attend worship in the Church of England, which was then prescribed by law. Jesuits were popularly imagined to be fomentors of terrorism and attempts to overthrow the government.
Image © Meg Twycross 6 November 2010
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