Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: FRA-GAE
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF , 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 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:South See also:Durham), the See also:establishment of the University of London, and, more recently, the opening of the See also:universities of See also:Oxford and See also:Cambridge to Nonconformists, have all had their effect upon the body. It has abandoned its peculiarities of dress and language, as well as its hostility to music and art, and it has cultivated a wider See also:taste in literature. In fact, the number of men, either Quakers or of Quaker origin and proclivities, who occupy positions of influence in English life is large in proportion to the small body with which they are connected. During the 19th century the interests of Friends became widened and they are no longer a See also:close community. Doctrine.—It is not easy to state with certainty the doctrines of a body which (in England at least) has never demanded subscription to any creed, and whose views have undoubtedly undergone more or less definite changes. There is not now the See also:sharp distinction which formerly existed between Friends and other non-sacerdotal evangelical bodies; these have, in theory at least, largely accepted the spiritual See also:message of Quakerism. By their See also:special insistence on the fact of immediate communion between God and man, Friends have been led into those views and practices which still See also:mark them off from their fellow-Christians. Nearly all their distinctive views (e.g. their refusal to take oaths, their testimony against See also:war, their disuse of a professional ministry, and their recognition of women's ministry) were being put forward in England, by various individuals or sects, in the strife which raged during the intense religious excitement of the middle of the 17th century. Nevertheless, before the rise of the Quakers, these views were nowhere found in See also:conjunction as held by any one set of people; still less were they regarded as the outcome of any one central belief or principle. It is rather in their emphasis on this thought of Divine communion, in their insistence on its reasonable consequences (as it seems to them), that Friends constitute a separate community. The See also:appointment of one man to preach, to the exclusion of others, whether he feels a divine See also:call so to do or not, is regarded as a See also:limitation of the work of the Spirit and an undue concentration of that responsibility which ought to be shared by a wider circle. For the same reason they refuse to occupy the time of worship with an arranged See also:programme of vocal service; they meet in silence, desiring that the service of the meeting shall depend on spiritual guidance. Thus it is left to any man or woman-to offer vocal See also:prayer, to read the Scriptures, or to utter such exhortation or teaching as may seem to be called for. Of See also:late years, in certain of their meetings on See also:Sunday evening, it has become customary for part of the time to be occupied with set addresses for the purpose of instructing the members of the See also:congregation, or of conveying the Quaker message to others who may be present, all their meetings for worship being freely open to the public. In a few meetings See also:hymns are occasionally sung, very rarely as part of any arrangement, but almost always upon the See also:request of some individual for a particular hymn appropriate to the need of the congregation. The periods of silence are regarded as times of worship equally with those occupied with vocal service, inasmuch as Friends hold that robustness of spiritual life is best promoted by See also:earnest striving on the part of each one to know the will of God for 1r Public worship. himself, and to be See also:drawn into Christian fellowship with the other worshippers. The points on which special stress is laid are:—(1) the See also:share of responsibility resting on each individual, whether called to vocal service or not, for the right spiritual See also:atmosphere of the Meeting, and for the welfare of the congregation; (2) the See also:privilege which may be enjoyed by each worshipper of waiting upon the Lord without relying on spoken words, however helpful, or on other outward matters; (3) freedom for each individual (whether a Friend or not) to speak, for the help of others, such message as he or she may feel called to utter; (4) a fresh sense of a divine call to deliver the message on that particular occasion, whether previous thought has been given to it or not. The idea which ought to underlie a Friends' meeting is thus set forth by Robert Barclay: " When I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I See also:felt a secret power among them, which touched my See also:heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the See also:good raised up "(Apology, xi. 7). In many places Friends have felt the need of bringing spiritual help to those who are unable to profit by the somewhat severe discipline of their See also:ordinary manner of worship. To meet this need they hold (chiefly on Sunday evenings) meetings which are not professedly " Friends' meetings for worship," but which are services conducted on lines similar to those of other religious bodies, with, in some cases, a portion of time set apart for silent worship, and freedom for any one of the congregation to utter words of exhortation or prayer. From the beginning Friends have not practised the outward ordinances of See also:Baptism and the Lord's Supper, even in a non-sacerdotal spirit. They attach, however, supreme value to the realities of which the observances are reminders or types—on the Baptism which is more than putting away the filth of the flesh, and on the vital See also:union with Christ which is behind any outward ceremony. Their testimony is not primarily against these outward observances; their disuse of them is due to a sense of the danger of substituting the See also:shadow for the reality. They believe that an experience of more than 250 years gives ample See also:warrant for the belief that Christ did not command them as a perpetual outward See also:ordinance; on the contrary, they hold that it was See also:alien to His method to See also:lay down See also:minute, outward rules for all time, but that He enunciated principles which His Church should, under the guidance of the See also:Holy Spirit, apply to the varying needs of the day. Their contention that every event of life may be turned into a sacrament, a means of See also:grace, is summed up in the words of See also:Stephen Grellet: " I very much doubt whether, since the Lord by His grace brought me into the faith of His dear Son, I have ever broken See also:bread or drunk See also:wine, even in the ordinary course of life, without the remembrance of, and some devout feeling regarding, the broken body and the See also:blood-shedding of my dear Lord and Saviour." When the ministry of any man or woman has been found to be helpful to the congregation, the Monthly Meeting (see below) Ministers may, after See also:solemn See also:consideration, See also:record the fact that it believes the individual to have a divine call to the ministry, and that it encourages him or her to be faithful to the See also:gift. Such ministers are said to be " acknowledged " or " re-corded "; they are emphatically not appointed to preach, and the fact of their See also:acknowledgment is not regarded as conferring any special status upon them. The various Monthly Meetings appoint Elders, or some body of Friends, to give See also:advice of encouragement or See also:restraint as may be needed, and, generally, to take the ministry under their care. With regard to the ministry of women, Friends hold that there is no evidence that the gifts of prophecy and teaching are confined to one See also:sex. On the contrary, they see that a See also:manifest blessing has rested on women's preaching, and they regard its almost universal See also:prohibition as a relic of the seclusion of women which was customary in the countries where Christianity took its rise. The particular prohibition of See also:Paul (1 See also:Cor. xiv. 34, 35) they regard as due to the special circumstances of time and place. Friends have always held that war is contrary to the precepts and spirit of the See also:Gospel, believing that it springs from the lowerimpulses of human nature, and not from the See also:seed of divine life with its See also:infinite capacity of response to the Spirit of God. Their testimony is not based primarily on any objection to war. the use of force in itself, or even on the fact that war involves suffering and loss of life; their See also:root objection is based on the fact that war is both the outcome and the cause of ambition, See also:pride, greed, hatred and everything that is opposed to the mind of Christ; and that no end to be attained can justify the use of such means. While not unaware that with this, as with all moral questions, there may be a certain borderland of See also:practical difficulty, Friends endeavour to bring all things to the test of the Realities which, though not seen, are eternal, and to hold up the ideal, set forth by George Fox, of living in the virtue of that life and power which takes away the occasion of war. Friends have always held that the See also:attempt to enforce truth-speaking by means of an oath, in courts of law and elsewhere, tends to create a See also:double See also:standard of truth. They find oaths. Scripture warrant for this belief in Matt. v. 33-37 and James v. 12. Their testimony in this respect is the better under-stood when we See also:bear in mind the large amount of See also:perjury in the law courts, and profane See also:swearing in general which prevailed at the time when the Society took its rise. " People swear to the end that they may speak truth; Christ would have men speak truth to the end they might not swear " (W. Penn, A See also:Treatise of Oaths). With regard to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, the belief of the Society of Friends does not essentially differ from that of other Christian bodies. At the same time See also:Theology. their avoidance of exact See also:definition embodied in a rigid creed, together with their disuse of the outward ordinances of Baptism and the Supper, has laid them open to considerable misunderstanding. As will have been seen, they hold an exalted view of the divinity and work of Christ as the Word become flesh and the Saviour of the See also:world; but they have always shrunk from rigid Trinitarian See also:definitions. They believe that the same Spirit who gave forth the Scriptures still guides men to a right understanding of them. "You profess the Holy Scriptures: but what do you See also:witness and experience? What interest have you in them ? Can you set to your seal that they are true by the work of the same spirit in you that gave them forth in the holy ancients?" (William Penn, A See also:Summons or Call to Christendom). At certain periods this doctrine, pushed to an extreme, has led to a practical undervaluing of the Scriptures, but of late times it has enabled Friends to See also:face fearlessly the conclusions of See also:modern See also:criticism, and has contributed to a largely increased interest in See also:Bible study. During the past few years a new movement has been started in the shape of lecture See also:schools, lasting for longer or shorter periods, for the purpose of studying Biblical, ecclesiastical and social subjects. In 1903 there was established at Woodbrooke, an See also:estate at Selly See also:Oak on the outskirts of See also:Birmingham, a permanent See also:settlement for men and women, for the study of these questions on modern lines. The outward beginning of this movement was the Manchester See also:Conference of 1895, a turning-point in Quaker history. Speaking generally, it may be noted that the Society includes various shades of See also:opinion, from that known as " evangelical," with a certain hesitation in receiving modern thought, to the more " advanced " position which finds greater freedom to consider and adopt new suggestions of scientific, religious or other thinkers. The See also:differences, however, are seldom pressed, and rarely become acute. Apart from points of doctrine which can be more or less definitely stated (not always with unanimity) Quakerism is an atmosphere, a manner of life, a method of approaching questions, a See also:habit and attitude of mind. Quakerism in See also:Scotland.—Quakerism was preached in Scotland very soon after its rise in England; but in the north and south of Scotland there existed, independently of and before this preaching, See also:groups of persons who were dissatisfied with the national form of worship and who met together in silence for devotion. They naturally fell into this Society. In See also:Aberdeen the Quakers took considerable hold, and were there joined by Women. some persons of influence and position, especially Alexander Jaffray, sometime See also:provost of Aberdeen, and See also:Colonel David Barclay of Ury and his son Robert, the author of the Apology. Much light has been thrown on the history of the Quakers in See also:Aberdeenshire by the See also:discovery in '826 at Ury of a MS. See also:Diary of Jaffray, since published with elucidations (2nd ed., London, '836). Ireland—The See also:father of Quakerism in Ireland was William Edmondson; his preaching began in 1653-1654. The History of the Quakers in Ireland (from '653 to 1752), by See also:Wight and Rutty, may be consulted. See also:Dublin Yearly Meeting, constituted in 167o, is See also:independent of London Yearly Meeting (see below). America.—In See also:July '656 two women Quakers, Mary Fisher and See also:Ann See also:Austin, arrived at See also:Boston. Under the general law against See also:heresy their books were burnt by the hangman, they were searched for signs of See also:witchcraft, they were imprisoned for five See also:weeks and then sent away. During the same year eight others were sent back to England. In 1656, 1657 and '658 laws were passed to prevent the introduction of Quakers into See also:Massachusetts, and it was enacted that on the first conviction one See also:ear should be cut off, on the second the remaining ear, and that on the third conviction the See also:tongue should be bored with a hot See also:iron. Fines were laid upon all who entertained these people or were present at their meetings. Thereupon the Quakers, who were perhaps not without the obstinacy of which See also:Marcus Aurelius complained in the early Christians, rushed to Massachusetts as if invited, and the result was that the general court of the See also:colony banished them on See also:pain of See also:death, and four of them, three men and one woman,were hanged for refusing to depart from the See also:jurisdiction or for obstinately returning within it. That the Quakers were, at times, irritating cannot be denied: some of them appear to have publicly mocked the institutions and the rulers of the colony and to have interrupted public worship; and a few of their men and women acted with the fanaticism and disorder which frequently characterized the religious controversies of the time. The particulars of the proceedings of See also:Governor See also:Endecott and the magistrates of New England as given in Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers (see below) are startling to read. On the Restoration of Charles II. a memorial was presented to him by the Quakers in England stating the persecutions which their fellow-members had under-gone in New England. Even the careless Charles was moved to issue an See also:order to the colony which effectually stopped the See also:hanging of the Quakers for their See also:religion, though it by no means put an end to the persecution of the body in New England. It is not wonderful that the Quakers, persecuted and oppressed at See also:home and in New England, should turn their eyes to the unoccupied parts of America, and cherish the hope of See also:founding, amidst their See also:woods, some See also:refuge from oppression, and some likeness of a See also:city of God upon See also:earth. As early as '66o George Fox was considering the question of buying See also:land from the See also:Indians. In 1671-1673 he had visited the American plantations from Carolina to Rhode See also:Island and had preached alike to Indians and to settlers; in '674 a portion of New Jersey (q.v.) was sold by Lord See also:Berkeley to John Fenwicke in See also:trust for See also:Edward Byllynge. Both these men were Quakers, and in 1675 Fenwicke with a large See also:company of his co-religionists crossed the See also:Atlantic, sailed up See also:Delaware See also:Bay, and landed at a fertile spot which he called See also:Salem. Byllynge, having become embarrassed in his circumstances, placed his interest in the land in the hands of Penn and others as trustees for his creditors; they invited buyers, and companies of Quakers in See also:Yorkshire and London were amongst the largest purchasers. In '677-1678 five vessels with eight See also:hundred emigrants, chiefly Quakers, arrived in the colony (then separated from the See also:rest of New Jersey, under the name of West New Jersey), and the See also:town of See also:Burlington was established. In 1677 the fundamental laws of West New Jersey were published, and recognized in a most See also:absolute form the principles of democratic equality and perfect freedom of conscience. Notwithstanding certain troubles from claims of the governor of New York and of the See also:duke of York, the colony prospered, and in 168' the first legislative See also:assembly of the colony, consisting mainly of Quakers, was held. They agreed to raise an See also:annual sum of £200 for the expenses of their commonwealth; they assigned their governor a See also:salary of £2o; they prohibited the See also:sale of ardent See also:spirits to the Indians and imprisonment for See also:debt. (See NEw JERSEY.) But beyond question the most interesting event in connexion with Quakerism in America is the See also:foundation by William Penn (q.v.) of the colony of Pennsylvania, where he hoped to carry into effect the principles of his sect—to found and govern a colony without armies or military power, to reduce the Indians by justice and kindness to See also:civilization and Christianity, to administer justice without oaths, and to extend an equal toleration to all persons who professed a belief in God. The history of this is part of the history of America and of Pennsylvania (q.v.) in particular. The See also:chief point of interest in the history of Friends in America during the '8th century is their effort to clear themselves of complicity in See also:slavery and the slave trade. As early as '67' George Fox when in See also:Barbados counselled kind treatment of slaves and ultimate liberation of them. William Penn provided for the freedom of slaves after fourteen years' service. In '688 the See also:German Friends of See also:Germantown, See also:Philadelphia, raised the first See also:official protest uttered by any religious body against slavery. In 1711 a law was passed in Pennsylvania prohibiting the importation of slaves, but it was rejected by the See also:Council in England. The prominent See also:anti-slavery workers were See also:Ralph Sandiford, See also:Benjamin Lay, See also:Anthony Benezet and John See also:Woolman.' By the end of the '8th century slavery was practically See also:extinct among Friends, and the Society as a whole laboured for its abolition, which came about in 1865, the poet See also:Whittier being one of the chief writers and workers in the cause. From early times up to the present day Friends have laboured for the welfare of the North American Indians. The history of the '9th century is largely one of See also:division. Elias Hicks (q.v.), of Long Island, N.Y., propounded doctrines inconsistent with the orthodox views concerning Christ and the Scriptures, and a separation resulted in 1827-'828 (see above). His followers are known as " Hicksites," a name not officially used by themselves, and only assented to for purposes of description under some protest. They have their own organization, being divided into seven yearly meetings numbering about 20,000 members, but these meetings form no part of the official organization which links London Yearly Meeting with other bodies of Friends on the American See also:continent. This separation led to strong insistence on " evangelical " views (in the usual sense of the See also:term) concerning Christ,the See also:Atonement, imputed righteousness, the Scriptures, &c. This showed itself in the Beaconite controversy in England (see above), and in a further division in America. John Wilbur, a See also:minister of New England, headed a party of protest against the new evangelical-ism, laying extreme stress on the " Inward Light "; the result was a further separation of " Wilburites" or " the smaller body," who, like the " Hicksites," have a separate independent organization of their own. In 1907 they were divided into seven yearly meetings (together with some smaller independent bodies, the result of extreme emphasis laid on See also:individualism), with a membership of about 5000. Broadly speaking, the " smaller body" is characterized by a rigid adherence to old forms of dress and speech, to a disapproval of music and art, and to an insistence on the " Inward Light " which, at times, leaves but little See also:room for the Scriptures or the historic Christ, although with no definite or intended repudiation of them. In 1908 the number of " orthodox " yearly meetings in America, including one in See also:Canada, was fifteen, with a See also:total membership of about loo,000. They have, for the most part, adopted, to a greater or less degree, the " See also:pastoral system," i.e. the appointment of one man or woman in each congregation to " conduct " the meeting for worship and to carry on pastoral work. In most cases the pastor receives a salary. A few of them demand from their ministers definite subscription to a specific body of doctrine, mostly of the ordinary " evangelical " type. In the matters of 1 Woolman's Journal and Works are remarkable. He had a See also:vision of a political See also:economy based not on selfishness but on love, not on See also:desire but on self-denial. William Penn. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] FRIENDS, SOCIETY |
[next] FRIERN BARNET |