uch we may
disagree with people, there is no need for us to tell them so in the
same sort of harsh language that was too often used by George Fox and
his contemporaries.

To these Presbyterian priests, therefore, George went next to ask for
counsel and help. The first he tried was the Reverend Nathaniel
Stephens, the priest of his own village of Fenny Drayton. At first
Priest Stephens and young George seemed to get on very well together.
Another priest was often with Stephens, and the two learned men would
often talk and argue with the boy, and be astonished at the wise
answers he gave. 'It is a very good, full answer,' Stephens once said
to George, 'and such an one as I have not heard.' He applauded the boy
and spoke highly of him, and even used the answers he gave in his own
sermons on Sundays. This was a compliment, but it cost him George's
friendship and respect, because he felt it was a deceitful practice.
The Journal says: 'What I said in discourse to him on week-days, he
would preach of on first days, which gave me a dislike to him. This
priest afterwards became my great persecutor.'

Priest Stephens' wife was also very much opposed to Fox, and it is
said that on one occasion she 'very unseemly plucked and haled him up
and down, and scoffed and laughed.' Fox always felt that this priest
and his wife were his bitter foes; but other people described Priest
Stephens as 'a good scholar and a useful preacher, in his younger days
a very hard student, in his old age pleasant and cheerful.' So, as
generally happens, there may have been a friendly side to this couple
for those who took them the right way.

After this, Fox continues, 'I went to another ancient priest at
Mancetter in Warwickshire, and reasoned with him about the ground of
despair and temptations; but he was ignorant of my condition; he bade
me take tobacco and sing psalms. Tobacco was a thing I did not love,
and psalms I was not in a state to sing; I could not sing. Then he bid
me come again and he would tell me many things; but when I came he was
angry and pettish; for my former words had displeased him. He told my
troubles, sorrows and griefs to his servants so that it got among the
milk-lasses. It grieved me that I should have opened my mind to such a
one. I saw they were all miserable comforters, and this brought my
troubles more upon me. Then I heard of a priest living about Tamworth,
which was accounted an experienced man, and I went seven miles to