Thursday, April 19, 2007

Quaker Fox

The term "Quaker" refers to a member of the Religious
Society of Friends, which is the proper name of this sect.
There are two reputed origins of the term, the first
refers to people "quaking" or trembling when feeling
moved by the Holy Spirit to speak in Meetings for
Worship. The other according to Elfrida Vipont Brown, is:

George Fox was arrested in Derby in October 1650 and
charged with blasphemy. The magistrates who tried him
were Gervase Bennett and Colonel Nathaniel Barton.
George Fox was questioned intermittently over an eight
hour period, during which at one point George Fox told
the magistrates "Tremble at the word of the Lord". It
was Justice Bennett who coined the name "Quakers" for
the followers of George Fox.

http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/Quaker-faq.html

Given that judges today in the United States seem to be, if anything, worse than those that George Fox had to deal with, quakerfox seemed like a decent address for insights of a lawyer dealing with criminal justice and liberty.

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