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293 chaPTer 12 WILLIAM PENN PREACHES AN IMPRoMPTU FUNERAL SERMoN William Penn (1644–1718) is perhaps more familiar to contemporary people than any other early Quaker. He is well known as an important seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political figure.1 What is lesser known is that Penn was also an able preacher. Eleven of his sermons are extant in printed form, each originally a product of unknown but probably non-Quaker listeners with shorthand skills.2 This chapter will focus on a sermon Penn preached at the London funeral or memorial of important early Quaker minister Rebecca Travers on June 19, 1688. In this chapter, I will (1) place the sermon in the context of both Penn’s and Travers’ lives; (2) lay out the journey-pilgrimage metaphor for purposes of this chapter; (3) focus on Penn’s use of the journey metaphor in response to the immediate rhetorical situation, particularly his choice of language that suggests the differences between the liminal journey of the present life and the status (or stasis in Greek, fixity) of the life to come; and (4) conclude with implications of the sermon with regard to the development of communitas. williaM Penn and his TrouBles Born to influence and wealth in the home of a British admiral, Penn’s conversion to Quakerism came in 1667, when he was twenty-three years old and tending to his father’s affairs in Ireland. By the 1670s, Penn had become one of the acknowledged leaders among Friends, and he used his influence and knowledge of the law to petition Parliament on behalf of Friends, oppose unjust laws, seek an end to religious persecution, and gain the release of imprisoned Quakers. Eventually, upon his father’s death in 1670, Penn inherited large landholdings in England and Ireland, and he began to use his wealth and influence in the American colonies. 294 PREACHING THE INWARD LIGHT The period between 1681 and 1684 went exceptionally well for Penn and his colony and has been referred to as “the high point of his life.”3 Penn spent almost two years in Pennsylvania but eventually returned to England to defend the boundaries of his colony in court against Lord Baltimore, a legal battle that Penn could not wage effectively from America. Penn returned to England deeply in debt and left the colony under the care of inadequate absentee leadership.4 The four years leading up to Penn’s sermon at the memorial of Rebecca Travers were tumultuous in the history of England as well as Penn’s life. In Quaker circles, he was begining to feel the effects of his absence from England, and negative rumors circulated about conditions in the Pennsylvania colony. Similarly, outside Quaker circles , Penn’s reputation began to take a turn for the worse, especially with Anglicans and Puritans, among whom he began to be too closely associated with Catholics, especially his personal friend James II, a Catholic, who succeeded Charles II in 1685. Penn began to use his influence with his old friend to attempt to bring about greater toleration for Dissenters.5 In the process, Penn became identified in many quarters as having Catholic leanings. Penn wrote his famous Perswasive to Moderation during this period as part of his campaign for toleration. In 1685, the king proclaimed a pardon for all “imprisoned for conscience ’s sake,” probably due to Penn’s influence,6 and in 1686 Penn traveled to Holland on behalf of the king but also participated in the Quaker traveling ministry while on the continent. In 1688 he sought to offer advice to James about his policies regarding nonconformists.7 Penn’s political influence ended abruptly after the overthrow of James II by William and Mary in December 1688, five months after his sermon at Travers’ memorial. With James now in exile, Penn was summoned as an adherent of the former king, eventually arrested, and accused of treason by the new government.8 Important to this chapter, late during this period, at a time nestled between his return to England in 1684 and the “Glorious Revolution” in 1688, Penn took time out from his stressful schedule in May 1689 to attend and preach at the memorial service of Travers, ten months before the passage of the Act of Toleration, a law that would usher in “a new era for Friends and other Nonconformists.”9 For a time following his 1688 sermon, Penn actually refused to be seen in public for fear of arrest.10 [18...

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