Mary_Howgill
Mary Howgill (1623 – before 1681) was a prominent early member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England. She is best known for her public defense of Quakers in a 1656 letter to Oliver Cromwell.[1][2][3] She delivered the letter in person and subsequently had a long discourse with Cromwell. She began the letter:
When thou wast a soldier for the Lord, thou wast low, and little in thine own eyes; then thou remembredst the Lord, and stood in his fear, and he was thy strength; but now thou art in thy own strength, and hast forgot that time: I say, thou hast denied the Lord God, and thy own law with the pride of thy own heart; and the pride of the heart is now acting all manner of cruelty against them who are in the fear of the Lord
— Mary Howgill, [1]
The letter was written during a time of religious persecution, and challenges political and religious authorities that punished statements of religious conscience with confiscation of property, physical violence, and imprisonment.[2]