Robert Barclay Quotes
So the question is, First, Whether the civil magistrate hath power to force men in things religious to do contrary to their conscience, and if they will not to punish them in their goods, liberties, or lives? this we hold in the negative.
Barclay, Robert. An Apology for the True Christian Divinity. Friends' Book Store, 1908, Proposition XIV, sec. II.
This quotation is extremely important because it was completely antithetical to the United States basic philosophy of freedom of religion. Anti-Catholic prejudice which already existed, seized on this quotation to demonstrate that the Catholic Church was a danger to Protestantism and the other religions that had come to America and the many that were created in America. It would take 70 years for the anti-Catholic prejudice had diminished sufficiently to elect a Catholic President—JFK.
The modernity of this ancient leader is striking. For another example see his view on the importance of engendering supportive public opinion: XXX
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus
William was a Catholic himself. Spain then controlled Holland.
Williams was the first theologian who not only advocated religious toleration but argued that Christianity demanded it and the separation of church and state.
Robert Barclay was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was also governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s, although he himself never resided in the colony.
