One of the excuses for ill-using the Friends was that they were Popishly affected. This must have galled Robert Barclay's sensitive nature exceedingly. His growing friendship with the King and the suspected Duke of York gave colour to the charge, and his training in a Catholic college, his former profession of the Catholic faith, and his near kinship to many Catholics, were taunts ready to the hand of disputants like the Aberdeen students or the scurrilous John Brown. From the "Chapel," Barclay wrote a strong appeal to Archbishop Sharpe to abandon his unchristian persecutions. Does the reader think this is like asking Shylock to renounce his pound of flesh? He must remember that the Quakers were accustomed to accomplish such impossibilities; and where their hardy faith could not succeed in such feats, it could persevere in attempting them. Their love was as invincible as their patience. They sincerely pitied their persecutors, and felt that they were harming themselves more than they hurt the Friends. So for their soul's sake they pleaded with them, using every argument which they thought they could ask God to bless. Whilst in Aberdeen prison, Barclay also wrote his treatise on "Universal Love," an earnest plea for religious toleration. The prisoners gained their liberty by an amusing disagreement between the Aberdeen Magistrates and the Sheriff, which led to a lawsuit. Meanwhile, Robert Barclay and others who had been liberated on parole, went before a notary and claimed their full liberty. We now find Robert Barclay attending the Yearly Meeting in London, and then going on to the Continent in company with George Fox and William Penn. Their object was two-fold, aggression and organisation. The Mennonite churches of the Netherlands and Germany were the special attraction. William Caton, at one time tutor at Swarthmoor Hall, had settled in Holland, and had met with a cordial welcome amongst these churches. William Ames and other Friends also visited them, and by degrees the Quakers had become very strong in Holland. William Penn had visited them before. We may here remark that the Friends have ever kept up a kindly and brotherly intercourse with the Mennonites whether in Germany, Russia, or the United States, visiting them for fraternal encouragement, and helping them in times of famine and persecution.