Quakers and the European Union: the past
Oliver Robertson, in the first of two articles, reflects on the relationship between Quakers and the European Union
Quakers have been advocating for the European Union since 1693. This was the year William Penn wrote An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe, by the Establishment of an European Dyet, Parliament or Estates. At the time, and in common with most of the second Christian millennium, Europe was at war with itself; Penn mentions ongoing conflicts in ‘Hungary, Germany, Flanders, Ireland, and at sea’.
In his essay, Penn talks about the damaging effects of war on profit and pleasure, how in times of peace the rich ‘bring out their hoards, and employ the poor manufacturers’ but war ‘seizes all these comforts at once, and stops the civil channel of society. The rich draw in the stock, the poor turn soldiers, or thieves, or starve: no industry, no building, no manufactury, little hospitality or charity; but what the peace gave, the war devours.’
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