ir destruction inevitable. The
Franciscan Tertiaries, who never wholly abjured war, became involved in
the conflict between the Empire and the Papacy, and departed from their
ideal. The more recent Nazarenes in Hungary and Doukhobors in Russia and
Canada have shown themselves, by their refusal to recognize and obey any
form of government, a hopeless nuisance to any community that is
unfortunate enough to be afflicted by their presence. It surely must
give the present-day pacificists pause, if anything can do so, to find
themselves mixed up with such a throng. If men are to be judged by their
company, they can hardly hope to escape certification.

It is true that the Society of Friends has a more respectable history.
But the Society of Friends has for the most part consisted of sensible
persons who have accepted the common Christian interpretation of the
Sermon on the Mount, and so have been pacificists of an unusually
moderate type--by no means unconditional non-resisters. Just as they do
not give indiscriminately, or lend (especially such of them as are
prosperous bankers) expecting no return, or refrain from judging, or
going to law, or laying up treasure on earth, or taking thought for the
morrow, so they do not interpret literally the command "resist not
evil." They accept the constitution of the country, the government of
which is based on force; they pay taxes for the maintenance of the army
and the navy, and admit their necessity; they support the police, and
call it in if their persons or property are threatened; many of them, to
their infinite credit, actually join the fighting forces when they feel
that great moral issues are at stake. George Fox himself, the founder of
the Society, was an extremely belligerent and even truculent individual.
He supported the militant Cromwellian regime, and it was only after the
collapse of the Puritan Commonwealth, which was based on the force of
the New Model army, that he abjured all weapons of offence, except his
tongue. Isaac Pennington, his contemporary and friend, was actually a
chaplain in the New Model (which contained many Quakers), and to the
very end he was engaged in stirring it up to repeat its early exploits
against "Babylon." His writings contain the passage: "I speak not
against any magistrates or peoples defending themselves against foreign
invasions, or making use of the sword to suppress the violent and
evil-doers within their borders; for this the present s