When Protestants Did It Too

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” — Matthew 7:12 (KJV)

So far, most of the persecutors in this book have been Roman emperors or Catholic authorities. If that were the whole story, you might conclude that one group of Christians were always the villains and the other always the heroes. That would not be true, and Foxe’s book itself shows it.

In the 1650s a new group of Christians arose in England called the Friends, nicknamed “Quakers.” They had some unusual beliefs and practices, and many people disliked them. The editors of Foxe’s book admit that writers had often treated them “in a very contemptuous manner,” and add: “that they did not deserve such treatment, is equally certain.”

Some Quakers went to the American colonies. In Boston, Massachusetts, which had been founded by Puritans, strict Protestants who had themselves fled persecution in England, the authorities passed harsh laws against them. A law from 1656 called them “a cursed sect of heretics.” Ship captains who brought Quakers in could be fined. People who sheltered them were fined for every hour. Quakers were whipped, imprisoned and banished.

And then it went further. The book records that some were banished on pain of death if they returned, and that “four were actually executed by the hands of the hangman.” In October 1659 three were sentenced to death together: William Robinson, a merchant from London; Marmaduke Stevenson, a countryman from Yorkshire; and a woman named Mary Dyer. Robinson and Stevenson were hanged in Boston, and Mary Dyer was hanged there the following year. They were put to death by Protestant Christians, for their faith.

This is uncomfortable. People who had suffered persecution became persecutors when they gained power. And it happened on every side of Christian history: Catholics persecuted Protestants, Protestants persecuted Catholics, and both persecuted other groups like the Quakers and the Anabaptists.

Even Foxe himself, a Protestant who had fled from the fires, saw the danger. In 1575, when two Anabaptists were sentenced to be burned under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, he begged her to spare them. He wrote: “I have no favour for heretics, but I am a man and would spare the life of a man.”

What should we learn? First, humility. No group of Christians has a perfect record. Second, the Golden Rule: do to others what you would want them to do to you. Christians who have been treated unjustly should be the first to defend others from injustice, even people they disagree with.

And third, today Catholic and Protestant Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ. Whatever our real differences, the right response to these stories is never suspicion or hatred of other Christians. It is to love one another, pray for one another, and never use power to force anyone’s faith.

One thing to do this week: think of a Christian from a different church tradition than yours, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant or another. This week, pray for them and their church by name, and if you can, ask them about their faith and listen.