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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1.Miles Halhead A BOOK Of some of the SUFFERINGS AND PASSAGES OF Myles Halhead ... (1690): ‘And in the 6th Moneth, in the Year 1652, in the Government of Oliver Cromwell, the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Go to the Steeple-House in Kendall, and speak to the Chief Priest in that place, & say unto him, Friend come down, thy Covering is too narrow, the Lord God of Heaven and Earth will plead with thee, thou painted Hypocrite.’