Summary Of William Penn And The Quaker Legacy

William Penn and the Quaker Legacy, An Analysis of How Personal Beliefs Can Save a Last Name in History.

People's life is influenced not only by other people, but also by circumstances. Those influences defined the early character of the people, and on consequence, defined also their future decisions. In the book William Penn and the Quaker Legacy, the author, John A. Moretta, shows the different people and episodes that defined William Penn as an important person in the American History. The book shows a very biased version of Penn's life, presenting most of the episodes and the decisions in Penn's journey as positives.

William Penn was an English man that is a main character in American history, due mainly to his fight for freedom in

God revealed himself through an “Inner Light”, that is a piece of God living inside every human. Quakerism differs from other religions in many aspects. For instance, they differ from Puritans in the absence of rituals. Quakers reject all sacraments, liturgies and even formal worships. There is no space for intermediaries between God and people. With Christianity differs in the position about original sin and salvation. Jesus Christ was omnipresent and eternal for Quakers, but he is not part of the holy trinity. For this specific reason, Quakers were persecuted by Orthodox Christians, who support the Divinity essence of Jesus Christ. Other difference is the perception of God different than the vengeful, omnipotent and wrathful as presented in the Old Testament in the bible. For Quakers, God is a merely forgiving and loving deity, who expects the good of human beings. The anti-intellectualism of Quakers was another discrepancy with Puritans and Anglicans. Quakers did not believe in the importance of ministers as the base of the

These analysis developed at Penn the need of attack Catholic and Puritan churches. These attacks put Penn in prison, into a tiny room under the roof, with extreme temperature conditions (Moretta, 48). This episode was really embarrassing for Sir William Penn, who believed that this will decrease any remain influence of him in Whitehall and British society. During the prison time, and due to Duke of York's favor, Sir William Penn had the permission to contact his son through one of his servants, Francis Cooke. William Penn was invited to abandon the Quakerism and receive freedom, but he refused that. During those months in prison, William Penn developed one of his important early works, No Cross, No Crown; with the intention of explaining the Quakerism beliefs and try to disarm the radical dissenters. After an intense lobby from Sir William Penn -and William Penn personal efforts to reach the King, his brothers James, and Privy Council through his written “Innocency”-, Penn was liberated from prison (Moretta 52-54). At the beginning, Sir William Penn asked his son to go Ireland and check family business. After that trip, when William Penn returns to London, and was more active with the Quaker movement. After some public speeches he was accused one more time and he was imprisoned again. This time, Sir William Penn supports his son decision and let him live according to his beliefs.