I was hard on atheists here a few posts ago but hanging out in the ‘reformed christianity‘ subreddits recently, actually i am more scared of those folks. Give me atheists any day. Give me Buddhists (who are atheists, originally). Give me tantra. Anything but reformed christians lol. Although, I do think the Quakers are ok.
Did i already post about James Nayler? He has an interesting sad story, he was there at the beginning of Quakerism. It was a wild time in England, the civil war going on. Lots of crazy new ideas about religion—about religious freedom, and freedom more generally, freedom from the oppressive church, landholders, societal norms. Nayler was one of the visionaries at the heart of these movements but he went t0o far and was punished, after much debate among the new parliament that emerged in the Kings absence. He was pilloried, had a red-hot iron bored through his tongue, and his forehead was branded with the letter “B” for Blasphemer. Released but broken, he died alone by the side of the road, trying to make his way back to his family, and his story is largely forgotten now.
Parliament spent a long time debating his case, and in deciding to punish him I feel they took a stance on suppressing the activity of revolutionary religious figures in England that has stuck to this day. It set a tone for down to earth realism vs inspired feverous holy dreams. But the reformist or puritan movement James Naylor was part of went on to have a huge influence in the new world over the other side of the Atlantic, and it is there that the figure of the religious emissary or zealot still has a large part to play in society even today.