s in society. They suffered because under the
compulsion of their faith they could act in no other way, and at the
time of their deaths it always looked as though they had been defeated.
But in the end their sacrifices had unsought results. The proof of their
effectiveness is declared in the old adage that "the blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the church."

If we seek examples from relatively recent times, we may find them in
the annals of many of the pacifist sects of our own day. Robert Barclay,
the Quaker apologist of the late seventeenth century, stated the
position which the members of the Society of Friends so often put to the
test:

"But the true, faithful and Christian suffering is for men to
profess what they are persuaded is right, and so practise and
perform their worship towards God, as being their true right so to
do; and neither to do more than that, because of outward
encouragement from men; nor any whit less, because of the fear of
their laws and acts against it."[112]

The early Quakers suffered severely under the laws of England in a day
when religious toleration was virtually unheard of. George Fox himself
had sixty encounters with magistrates and was imprisoned on eight
occasions; yet he was not diverted from his task of preaching truth. It
has been estimated that 15,000 Quakers "suffered" under the various
religious acts of the Restoration.[113] But they continued to hold the
principles which had been stated by twelve of their leaders, including
Fox, to King Charles shortly after his return to England:

"Our principle is, and our practice always has been, to seek peace
and ensue it; to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of
God; seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to
the peace of all.

* * * * *

"When we have been wronged, we have not sought to revenge
ourselves; we have not made resistance against authority; but
whenever we could not obey for conscience sake, we have suffered
the most of any people in the nation...."[114]

These sufferings did not go unheeded. Even the wordly Samuel Pepys wrote
in his diary concerning Quakers on their way to prison: "They go like
lambs without any resistance I would to God they would either conform or
be more wise and not be catched."[115]

In Massachusetts, where the Puritans hoped to establish the true garden