Historical Statement

The Society of Friends originated in England at the time of the Puritan Revolution (about 1628 - 1660). The overthrow of the monarchy was the result of a growing sense of personal independence among the people, which politically established Oliver Cromwell as protector and religiously produced many revolts against the established church. The latter tendency resulted in many quick-growing but often short-lived sects and in a large number of restless, searching spirits.

George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was of this seeking type of mind. Born in 1624, he began when nineteen years old a solitary, spiritual quest of truth. He records in his Journal that at last in 1646, "when all my hopes in...all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, O then, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,' and, when I hear it, my heart did leap for joy."1

In 1647, Fox began to preach, convincing many persons, and in 1648 a whole community in Nottinghamshire accepted his message and, associating together, called themselves Children of the Light, the earliest name by which Friends were known. From this time on the number of his followers grew rapidly.

Puritan ministers were then teaching that God's revelation to humanity lay in the Bible and in the work of the historic Christ and that, until the judgment at the Second Advent, God would not speak again. Fox proclaimed that God speaks directly to each human soul through a present, living experience of Christ. The heart of his great message was the gospel of this revelation, the Inner Light, requiring no human mediator to translate its meaning to the individual.

George Fox was a powerful personality. In him was "combined in a singular degree the burning zeal of the enthusiast with the magnetic force of a born leader of men."2 He was his own best illustration of the truth he preached, "that a single man or woman living in the spirit of the apostle and prophets would shake all the country...for ten miles around."3

He soon attracted around him a group of young men and women who became inspired preachers of this new religious force and were called Publishers of Truth. These were later joined by other earnest men and women. They engaged in the heroic work of spreading the movement, traveling in twos and threes through the length and breadth of England, extending their labors also into Wales, Scotland and Ireland, although often hindered by imprisonment and persecution. Undismayed by every sort of difficulty, they fed the inward spiritual flame of widely separated groups, stimulating their zeal, holding them in the bond of group-consciousness, and providing for them a channel of communication.

Margaret Fell, often called the Mother of Quakerism, was an early convert and a powerful personality. Swarthmore Hall, her home, became a center of activity, a stable focal point giving the movement a sense of community and strength. She set up a central fund to which Friends could contribute to help those on long preaching trips or in prison. She herself suffered imprisonment and traveled to visit Friends in prison, in isolated meetings and to promote the setting up of women's meetings. Eleven years after the death of her husband, Judge Fell, she and George Fox were married.

The powerful preaching of these leaders was supported by the daily life of the first Friends. Along with an intense religious fervor there ran a life of practical righteousness. Justice, temperance, commercial honesty, and the complete observance of all civil laws that did not violate their conscience were vitally important matters. "None could dispute the validity of a Christianity which resulted in consistent and Christ-touched lives. In such lives, amid all their imperfections, the Inward Light was justified of its children." 4

A deep realization of the equality of all persons before God led to the early recognition of the spiritual gifts of women as well as men and to the acceptance of their public preaching. It brought about the use of the "plain language" and the refusal to remove the hat to superiors, customs which caused frequent persecution; and still greater suffering resulted from the refusal to take oaths or later to pay tithes for the upkeep of the state church.

With the restoration of the monarchy, the Anglican church was re-established and no other worship was permitted. An era of persistent persecution was inaugurated for all non-conformists, during which Friends endured long imprisonments, disastrous fines and cruel treatment. Their meetings were often broken up and the meeting-houses destroyed. But because their consciences assured them that resistance to the law was no sin, they continued their way of worship openly and bravely in spite of every effort to stop them. In some places when all of the adult Friends were in jail, the children held the meetings alone.

This faithfulness in persisting according to their religious conviction, with no evasion of the penalties of the law, was a factor of importance in finally winning for England liberty of conscience and religious toleration. But for the Society of Friends itself, the persecution had some unfortunate results: it paralyzed the itinerant services of the Publishers of Truth, isolated the meetings and hastened the necessity for organizing into a sect what had been a glorious creative movement.

From 1667 on, George Fox was active in helping to organize the system of monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings and in arranging methods of procedure therein. Women's business meetings were set up in addition to men's. A Meeting of Ministers and a Meeting for Sufferings were established.

The earliest concerns of these business meetings were for the poor and for prisoners, checking the vagaries of individual judgment, admonishing delinquents, and also providing for carrying on work at home and for expenses of ministers traveling beyond the seas, and for the keep of records. While the discipline thus set up was no equivalent for the compelling power of widespread evangelism, it did foster well-ordered and noble lives.

Efforts at formulation of doctrine soon followed, and in this, Robert Barclay (1648-1690) was the foremost figure. His most complete exposition was his Apology. His Quakerism was affected by current Puritan theology. The influences of his writings was so great as to be felt as late as the nineteenth century when the various separations occurred with the Society of Friends.

A period of development into a sect was underway. Along with the formulation of doctrine there were growing experiments toward improving the social order. These included refusal of election bribes and justice toward workmen and employees. Efforts were made to reestablish the poor in business, along with plans for giving work to those in prison, the establishment of workhouses, and active concern for the treatment of the insane. Temperance and the question of Negro slavery claimed attention of Friends. In Pennsylvania and Rhode Island bold attempts were made to establish truly Christian commonwealths.

1 Fox, George Journal of George Fox (edited by John L. Nickalls), 1952, paperback 1975, p. 11

2 Braitwaite, William C. The Beginnings of Quakerism, London, p. 1923, p. 50

3 Braithwaite, ibid., p. 67

4 Braithwaite, ibid., p. 152