The return to his native village, however, was no cure for his mental ill, though his conscience was thereby somewhat stilled. He continued his visits to various priests, especially one Nathaniel Stevens, with whom he was wont to argue religious questions, and who, after Fox had enunciated certain beliefs, which will be mentioned later, became one of his most cruel persecutors.[9] Each succeeding experience with the priests was but a repetition of a former and it became clear to him that they saw nothing but the externals of his condition and had not the power to penetrate to the innermost complexities of his situation. According to his view their recommendations met only the demands of the ecclesiastics; his need was genuine and he was enabled to see the narrow limitations which hamper the activity of one man who attempts to parcel out salvation to another. [Sidenote: Three of Fox’s conclusions; fundamental] George Fox was now in his twenty-second year. It is pertinent that mention be made at this place of three fundamental beliefs or principles, whose truth, up to this time, had made itself manifest in his mind. The second of these is the one which, being so often misquoted, has become the basis for the belief on the part of many, that the Society was opposed to education. 1. And the Lord opened to me that, if all were believers, then they were all born of God, and passed from death unto life, and that none were true believers but such; and though others said they were believers, yet they were not. 2. The Lord opened unto me, that being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and qualify men to be ministers of Christ; and I wondered at it, because it was the common belief of the people. 3. At another time it was opened to me, that God, who made the world, did not dwell in temples made with hands.... But the Lord showed me clearly that he did not dwell in these temples which men had commanded and set up, but in people’s hearts; for both Stephen and the apostle Paul bore testimony that he did not dwell in temples made with hands, not even in that which he had once commanded to be built, since he put an end to it; but that his people were his temple, and he dwelt in them.[10] These doctrines which he began to promulgate in 1647 were recognized as fundamental, and their influence is plainly to be seen in the organization and discipline of the society which finally resulted.[11] [Sidenote: But not untried]