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SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
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SOCIETY OF See also:FRIENDS
, the name adopted by a See also:body of Christians, who, in See also:law and See also:general usage, are commonly called See also:QUAKERS
.
Though small in number, the Society occupies a position of singular See also:interest
.
To the student of ecclesiastical See also:history it is remarkable as exhibiting a See also:form of See also:Christianity widely divergent from the prevalent types, being a religious fellowship which has no formulated creed demanding definite subscription, and no See also:liturgy, priesthood or outward See also:sacrament, and which gives to See also:women an equal See also:place with men in See also:
For two years the movement spread rapidly
throughout the north of England, and in 1654 more than sixty
ministers went to See also:Norwich, See also:London, See also:Bristol, the Midlands,
See also:Wales and other parts
.
Fox and his See also:fellow-preachers spoke
whenever opportunity off ered,—sometimes in churches(declining,
for the most part, to occupy the See also:pulpit), sometimes in barns,
sometimes at See also:market crosses
.
The insistence on an inward
spiritual experience was the See also:great contribution made by See also:Friends
1 At the time referred to, and during the See also:Commonwealth, the pulpits of the cathedrals and churches were occupied by Episcopalians of the See also:Richard See also:Baxter type, Presbyterians, See also:Independents and a few See also:Baptists
.
It is these, and not the See also:clergy of the Church of England, who are continually referred to by George Fox as " priests."to the religious See also:life of the time, and to thousands it came as a new See also:revelation
.
There is evidence to show that the arrangement for this " See also:publishing of Truth" rested mainly with Fox, and that the expenses of it and of the See also:foreign See also:missions were See also:borne out of a common fund
.
See also:Margaret See also:Fell (1614–1702), wife of See also:
The strife was often conducted on both sides with a zeal and bitterness of See also:language which were characteristic of the period
.
Although there was little or no stress laid on either the joys or the terrors of a future life, the movement was not infrequently accompanied by most of those See also:physical symptoms which usually go with vehement appeals to the See also:conscience and emotions of a See also:rude multitude
.
It was owing to these physical manifestations that the name " Quaker " was either first given or was regarded as appropriate when given for another See also:reason (see Fox's See also:Journal concerning See also:Justice Bennet at See also:Derby in 165o and Barclay's Apology, Prop. r1, § 8)
.
The early Friends definitely asserted that those who did not know quaking and trembling were strangers to the experience of See also:Moses, See also:David and other See also:saints
.
Some of the earliest adherents indulged in extravagances of no measured See also:kind
.
Some of them imitated the See also:Hebrew prophets in the performance of symbolic acts of denunciation, foretelling or warning, going barefoot, or in sackcloth or undress, and, in a few cases, for brief periods, altogether naked; even women in some cases distinguished themselves by extravagance of conduct
.
The See also:case of See also:
The beginning of this appears to be due to William See also:Dewsbury (1621–1688) and George Fox; it was not until 1666 that a complete system of church organization
George Fox
.
was established
.
The introduction of an ordered system and ' discipline was, naturally, viewed with some suspicion by people taught to believe that the inward See also:light of each individual man was the only true See also:guide for his conduct
.
The project met with determined opposition for about twenty years (1675–1695) from persons of considerable repute in the body
.
See also:
Robert Barclay (q.v.), a descendant of an See also:ancient Scottish See also:family, who had received a liberal See also:education, principally in See also:Paris, at the Scots See also:College, of which his See also:uncle was See also:rector, joined the Quakers about 1666, and William Penn (q.v.) came to them about two years later
.
The Quakers had always been active controversialists, and a great body of tracts and papers was issued by them; but hitherto these had been of small account from a See also:literary point of view
.
Now, however, a more logical and scholarly aspect was given to their literature by the writings of Barclay, especially his Apology for the True Christian Divinity published in Latin (1676) and in English (1678), and by the See also:works of Penn, amongst which No See also:Cross No See also:Crown and the See also:Maxims or Fruits of Solitude are the best known
.
During the whole time between their rise and the passing of
the Toleration Act 1689, the Quakers were the See also:object of almost
continuous persecution which they endured with
Persecu-
tion. extraordinary constancy and See also:patience; they insisted
on the See also:duty of See also:meeting openly in time of persecution, declining to hold See also:secret assemblies for worship as other Nonconformists were doing
.
The number who died in See also:prison approached 400, and at least See also:loo more perished from violence and See also:ill-usage
.
A See also:petition to the first See also:parliament of See also:
After a royalist insurrection in 1655, a See also:proclamation was issued announcing that personssuspected of See also:Roman Catholicism would be required to take an See also:oath abjuring the papal authority and See also:transubstantiation
.
The Quakers, accused as they were of being See also:Jesuits, and refusing to take the oath, suffered under this proclamation and under the more stringent act of 1656
.
A considerable number were flogged under the See also:Vagrancy Acts (39 Eliz. c
.
4; 7 Jac
.
I. c
.
4), which were strained to See also:cover the case of itinerant Quaker preachers
.
They also came under the provisions of the acts of 1644, 165o and 1656 directed against travelling on the See also:Lord's See also:day
.
The interruption of preachers when celebrating divine service rendered the offender liable to three months' imprisonment under a See also:statute of the first See also:year of Mary, but Friends generally waited to speak till the service was over.l The Lord's Day Act 1656 also enacted penalties against any one disturbing the service, but apart from statute many Friends were imprisoned for open contempt of ministers and magistrates
.
At the Restoration 700 Friends, imprisoned for contempt and some See also:minor offences, were set at See also:liberty
.
After the Restoration there began a persecution of Friends and other Nonconformists as such, notwithstanding the See also: I. c . 6) . The refusal in any circumstance to take an oath led to much suffering . The Act 3 Jac . I. c . 4, passed in consequence of the See also:Gunpowder See also:Plot, against Roman Catholics for not attending church, was put in force against Friends, and under it enormous fines were levied . The Quaker Act 1662 and the Conventicle Acts of 1664 and 167o, designed to enforce attendance at church, and inflicting severe penalties on those attending other religious gatherings, were responsible for the most severe persecution of all . The act of 167o gave to informers a pecuniary interest (they were to have one-third of the See also:fine imposed) in See also:hunting down Nonconformists who See also:broke the law, and this and other statutes were unduly strained to secure convictions . A somewhat similar act of 35 Eliz. c . 1., enacting even more severe penalties, had never been repealed, and was some-times put in force against Friends . The See also:Militia Act 1663 (14 See also:Car . II. c .
3), enacting fines against those who refused to find a man for the militia, was occasionally put in force
.
The refusal to pay See also:tithes and other ecclesiastical demands led to continuous and heavy distraints, under the various laws made in that behalf
.
This See also:state of things continued to some extent into the 19th See also:century
.
For further See also:information see " The Penal Laws affecting Early Friends in England " (from which the foregoing See also:summary is taken) by Wm
.
Chas
.
Braithwaite in The First Publishers of Truth
.
On the 15th of See also: For many years after this they were liable to imprisonment for non-payment of tithes, and, together with other Dissenters, they remained under various See also:civil disabilities, the See also:gradual removal of which is part of the general history of England . In the years succeeding the Toleration Act at least twelve of their number were prosecuted (often more than once in the spiritual and other courts) for keeping school without a See also:bishop's See also:licence . It is coming to be recognized that the growth of religious toleration owed much to the early Quakers who, with the exception of a few Baptists at the first, stood almost alone among Dissenters in holding their public meetings openly and regularly . The Toleration Act was not the only law of William and Mary which benefited Quakers . The legislature has continually had regard to their refusal to take oaths, and not only the said act but also another of the same reign, and numerous others, subsequently passed, have respected the See also:peculiar scruples of Friends (see See also:Davis's See also:Digest of Legislative Enactments See also:relating to Friends, Bristol, 1820) . 2 . Period 5689-5835.—From the beginning of the 18th century the zeal of the Quaker body See also:abated . Although many Period of " General " and other meetings were held in different Decline. parts of the See also:country for the purpose of setting forth Quakerism, the notion that the whole Christian church would be absorbed in it, and that the Quakers were, in fact, the church, gave place to the conception that they were " a peculiar people " to whom, more than to others, had been given an under- , See also:standing of the will of God . The Quakerism of this period was largely of a traditional kind; it dwelt with increasing emphasis on the peculiarities of its See also:dress and language; it rested much upon discipline, which See also:developed and hardened into rigorous forms; and the correction or exclusion of its members occupied more See also:attention than did the winning of converts . Excluded from See also:political and municipal life by the laws which required either the taking of an oath or joining in the Lord's Supper according to the See also:rites of the Established Church, excluding themselves not only from the frivolous pursuits of See also:pleasure, but from See also:music and See also:art in general, attaining no high See also:average level of literary culture (though producing some men of See also:eminence in See also:science and See also:medicine), the Quakers occupied themselves mainly with See also:trade, the business of their Society, and the calls of philanthropy . From early times George Fox and many others had taken a keen interest in education, and in 1779 there was founded at Ackworth, near See also:Pontefract, a school for boys and girls; this was followed by the reconstitution, in 18o8, of a school at Sidcot in the Mendips, and in 1811, of one in See also:Islington Road, London; it was afterwards removed to See also:Croydon, and, later, to See also:Saffron See also:Walden . Others have since been established at See also:York and in other parts of England and See also:Ireland .
None of them are now reserved exclusively for the See also:children of Friends
.
During this period Quakerism was sketched from the outside by two very different men
.
See also:Voltaire (Dictionnaire Philosophique, " Quaker," " Toleration ") described the body, which attracted his curiosity, his sympathy and his sneers, with all his brilliance
.
Thomas See also:Clarkson (See also:Portraiture of Quakerism) has given an elaborate and sympathetic account of the Quakers as he knew them when he travelled amongst them from house to house on his crusade against the slave trade
.
3
.
From 1835.-During the 18th century the doctrine of the Inward Light acquired such exclusive prominence as to bring about a tendency to disparage, or, at least, to neglect, the written word (the Scriptures) as being " outward " and non-essential
.
In the early part of the 19th century an American Friend, See also:Elias See also:Hicks, pressed this doctrine to its furthest limits, and, in doing so, he laid stress on " Christ within " in such a way as practically to take little account of the person and work of the " outward, i.e. the historic Christ
.
The result was a separation of the Society in America into two divisions which persist to the present day (see below, " Quakerism in America ")
.
This led to a See also:counter movement in England, known as the See also:Beacon Controversy, from the name of a warning publication issued by See also:Isaac Crewdson of See also:Manchester in 1835, advocating views of a pronounced " evangelical " type
.
Much controversy ensued, and a certain number
x1.of Friends (Beaconites as they are sometimes called) departed from the See also:parent stock
.
They See also:left behind them, however, many influential members, who may be described as a See also:middle party, and who strove to give a more " evangelical " See also:tone to Quaker doctrine
.
See also:Joseph John See also:Gurney of Norwich, a See also:brother of See also: 
Those who quitted the Society maintained, for some little time, a separate organization of their own, but sooner or later most of them joined the Evangelical Church or the See also:Plymouth Brethren . Other causes have been at work modifying the Quaker society . The See also:repeal of the Test Act, the admission of Quakers to Parliament in consequence of their being allowed to affirm instead of taking the oath (1832, when Joseph See also:Pease was elected for See also: |