BX7795.F7 B52 1884 Bickiey, A. C. George Fox : and the early Quakers / Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/georgefoxearlyquOObick GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. cs '* r ~ fi'TV^'f ^J<>^^< °f Of ^p*™/) ^k^^ i^ ii ! j yrM$-*sr- fm*& faigl* ^\ijp&ff j. sfy faty CoC^^L 9 ^ 'f* fart /4 frci'i-f boof^ <$ W«* 'fuje Koto Ay name Up ■wnP-cvt Q ryn> jf- /Cq in facsimile, by Jcimi permission of R. LtTTLBBOV, Esq., from (he original nWlUSCrtpt in Ms possession. GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. BY A. C. : BICKLEY. " No grander thing was ever done than when George Fox, stitching himself a suit of leather, went forth determined to find truth for himself, and to do battle for it against all superstition, bigotry and intolerance." Carlyle, " Sartor Resartus." "There is no character in Christian History since the days of its Divine Founder more free from spot or stain than that of George Fox." "Annual Review and History of Literature.'" ITonbou : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXIV. Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works Frome, and London. THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BY PERMISSION TO THE RIGHT HON. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P., IN SINCERE ADMIRATION OF HIS CONSTANT AND SUCCESSFUL ENDEAVOURS TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF EVERY SECTION OF THE HUMAN RACE, AND OF HIS CONSISTENT STRUGGLE FOR " FREEDOM AND JUSTICE AND PEACE." v b PREFACE. HE life of George Fox has frequently been written ; are, sufficient emphasis has never, it appears to the author, been laid upon the fact that he was a great social as well as a great religious reformer ; and this would seem to be the enduring side of his work, for the social influence he diffused has increased, is in- creasing, and will never be diminished. In this work I have endeavoured to supply the want mentioned, without neglecting, at the same time, the religious side of his teaching. George Fox is, perhaps, the grandest specimen of what we may term the seventeenth century socialist. While others dreamed of Utopias, he endeavoured to establish one ; while others theorised about the rights of man, he attempted to enforce them. All through his life, his motto was " liberty, equality and fraternity," in the noblest sense of these most noble words. The study of the life of such a man has been to me a continual source of pleasure. I may perhaps be permitted here to say a word upon the attitude of modern Quakers towards war. It is commonly supposed that they do not consider war most of the biographies of him Vll viii PREFACE. justifiable under any circumstances ; but this, I venture to think, is a mistake. They only deem an appeal to arms to be permissible, when every possible method of avoiding that calamity has been tried ; and when the evils which would result from abstention from force far outweigh those which a struggle will entail. They are willing to give up much for the sake of peace, but not everything. The protection of wealth or the main- tenance of the position of a country among the nations of the earth they would scarcely consider sufficient reasons for fighting, but of religion and freedom they probably would. The way in which the Society of Friends view war cannot be better illustrated than by the following extract from a letter from the Right Hon. John Bright, to me, 1 which he has kindly allowed to be published. " I have not done much to promote arbitration rather than war," writes Mr. Bright ; " it is advisable, but many cases do not admit of arbitration ; they arise from de- lusion on the part of a people or ambition of rulers ; what we want is more of a moral sense, and of a know- ledge that war is rarely, perliaps never, worth what it costs. " Arbitration could do nothing in the American war, or in the French and German war, or in our wicked Crimean war. What we want is more knowledge among the people, a higher morality, and a just sense of the enormous guilt of the slaughter of men. " So long as the term ' war ' is held to cover and to 1 Written 13th Sept. 1883. PREFACE. ix justify all crime — so long, I fear, the slaughter and murder called war will continue. I have striven for freedom and justice and peace, but am sensible how little I have been able to do in so holy a cause." The foundation for this book, as for all other lives of George Fox which have or ever can be written, is, of course, his "Journal or Autobiography." I am also indebted largely to the Histories of Quakerism by Sewel, Gough, Croese, and others ; to the writings of the early Friends, and to other works too numerous to mention. I also have freely used — I believe for the first time for such a purpose — the Swarthmore and other manuscripts preserved in the Library of the Meeting for Sufferings, at Devonshire House, Bishops- gate. To avoid encumbering my pages with tedious references, I have appended at the end of this volume a list of a few of the chief authorities I have consulted. I have great pleasure in acknowledging the invaluable assistance I have received from every member of the Society of Friends whom I have had occasion to con- sult, and especially from Mr. J. Bevan Braithwaite, Mr. Edward Marsh, and Mr. Charles Hoyland. I have also gratefully to thank the Meeting for Sufferings for their kindness in placing their unrivalled collection of manuscripts and books relating to the Society at my disposal ; Mr. Richard Littleboy for his goodness in allowing me to have the letter from Fox to Robert Barclay, which forms the frontispiece of this volume, lithographed ; and Mr. Joseph Smith, the well known Quaker bibliographer, for the use he has permitted me to make of his " Catalogue of Friends' Books," and for X PRE FA CE. the curious and accurate information with which he has supplied me. I have likewise to acknowledge the great assistance I have received from various officials in the Departments of Printed Books and Manuscripts at the British Museum, and from many other friends who have given me much valuable and appreciated help. A. C. B. London, 1884. CONTENTS. Facsimile of Letter from George Fox to Robert Barclay. Frontispiece. CHAPTER I. THE CAUSES OF QUAKERISM. Quakerism, the climax of Puritanism. — Neither novel in dogma nor doctrine. — The Reformation in England. — Causes of Dis- sent. — The Great Bible. — Its influence.— Puritans and con- formity. — Quaker objects. — Its aggressive doctrines. — George Fox's position with regard to Quakerism.— The value of the sect pp. i-io. CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. Drayton-in-the-Clay. — Birth and parentage of George Fox. — His boyhood. — His serious disposition. — What shall we do with the lad? — His apprenticeship. — Objects to drinking healths. — Macaulay's opinion of him. — His revelations, wanderings, and temptations. — Urged to marry, or join the Parliament- ary army. — Nathaniel Stevens. — Fox goes, for comfort, to various ministers. — Social habits. — Resumes his wanderings pp. ir-20. CHAPTER III. FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. Solitary travels. — Elizabeth Hooten. — The fasting woman. — Com- mences his ministry. — His temptations. — Brown's prophe- cies and Fox's trance. — Religious difficulties in 1648. — Meet- ing at Mansfield. — Disputes at Leicester. — The Divine Light. — Other revelations. — His doubts clear away. — Objection to church bells and a paid ministry. — Interrupts a service at xi xii CONTENTS. Nottingham. — Sent to Nottingham gaol. — The friendly sheriff. — Beaten at Mansfield Woodhouse. — Stoned at Market Bos- worth. — Attends meeting at Derby. — Is sent to prison as a blasphemer pp. 21-34. CHAPTER IV. I M PR IS O N ME N T. Religious systems in 1650. — The Anglican Church. — Presbyterians and their hatred of toleration. — The Independents. — The Baptists. — The Ranters. — Minor sects. — Quaker doctrines not original. — Quakerism chiefly disliked on account of its social peculiarities. — Fox's treatmentin Derby gaol. — Tells the justices to quake at the name of the Lord. — His relations visit him. — Other visitors. — His letters to the bell-ringers and people of Derby. — Endeavours to prevent the execution of a young woman. — George is pestered to join the army. — The magis- trates puzzled what to do with him.— He is liberated PP- 35-51- CHAPTER V. THE FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. Change in the condition of the country during Fox's imprisonment. — His extraordinary visit to Lichfield. — Was he insane ? — He continues his wanderings. — Visits Captain Parsloe at Selby. — Is taken to see Justice Hotham. — Adventure at an inn. — Sleeps under a haystack. — Goes to York. — The deceitful Scotch priest. — Is kindly treated by Justice Robinson. — His great meeting near Pickering. — His means of livelihood. — 111 treated at Patrington, Tickhill, and other places pp. 52-64. CHAPTER VI. THE FELLS OF SWARTHMORE. The dissatisfaction of the Presbyterian ministers at their position. — They become active persecutors. — Aldam apprehended and taken to York gaol. — Spread of Quakerism and increase in the number of its ministers.— George meets Farnsworth at Bradford. — Is forbidden to eat with such as have an evil eye, and other "openings." — Brutally treated at Newton Cartmel. — Goes to Swarthmore Hall. — Description of Swarthmore. — Margaret Fell's account of his visit. — George's own account. — The interview between Fox and Judge Fell . pp. 65-77. CONTENTS. Xlll CHAPTER VII. EARL Y FRIENDS. Fox in Westmoreland. — Ill-treated at Ulverstone and at Walney Island. — Re-visits Swarthmore. — Prosecuted at Lancaster Assizes. — Increase of his followers. — Quaker ministers. — Richard Farnsworth. — Thomas Aldam. — Francis Howgill. — John Audland. — William Ames. — James Parnel. — Edward Borough. — Miles Halhead. — Anecdotes. — His wife's dissatis- faction at his travels. — Visits Major-General Lambert. — John Camm. — William Caton pp. 78-98. CHAPTER VIII. THE FOUNDATION OF THE SECT. Fox's troubles at Lancaster. — George goes to call on the judges. — Prophesies concerning the Parliament. — Eccentric conduct of some converts.— Fox's two miracles. — Puritan belief in super- natural agency. — Fox sent to Carlisle gaol. — Is discharged as innocent.— Robert Widders and William Dewsbury. — The Quaker sect assumes a settled form. — Cromwell exacts the Oath of Fidelity pp. 99-110. CHAPTER IX. BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. Fox returns to Drayton. — His dispute with Stevens. — An inter- rupted meeting. — The Swannington meeting. — Troublesome Ranters. — Fox is taken before Colonel Hacker. — Is sent to London. — His interview with the Protector. — Is offered a commission in the army. — Quakers in London. — Thomas Hammersley and the Oath. . . . pp. m-125. CHAPTER X. IN LAUNCESTON GAOL. Fox's travels. — Is taken before a justice. — The Oath of Abjuration. — Drayton-in-the-Clay. — Quakerism in the West. — General Uesborough. — The judge and the hat. — The trial at the assizes. — Fox in Launceston gaol. — Increase of Quakerism. — A Friend's offer. — Release of Fox pp. 126-141. xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. James Naylor. — His escapade at Bristol. — Tried by a Committee of Parliament. — His horrible sentence. — Petitions against Quakers. — Naylor's repentance and subsequent history. — Fox in the West country. — Returns to London. — Meets the Protector in the park.— Interview with Cromwell at Whitehall. — Quakers and the sacraments. — Establishment of meetings for discipline pp. 142-153. CHAPTER XII. THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. The drought of 1657. — Fox visits Wales. — A "light" lady and her priest. — Troubles in Scotland. — A Presbyterian commination service. — Fox ordered to leave Scotland. — He disobeys. — The Friends called Butterflies at Newcastle. — Durham College. — Yearly meeting. — Dispute with a Jesuit. — Interview with the Protector.- — The time of suffering. — Fox's last "speech" of Cromwell pp. J 54-169. CHAPTER XIII. THE RESTORATION. The Savoy Conference. — Increase of persecution. — Its causes. — Quakers before Parliament. — Cambridge. — Case of Barbara Blagdon. — Persecution of Rigg at Southampton. — Petty perse- cutions. — Whitehead's reasons why the Quakers suffered. — Cromwell and the Quakers.— Visions of the King's return. — Quaker sufferings collected. — Parliament warned. — Unclean spirits. — Anxiety in England on account of what the Restora- tion might bring forth. — Meetings at Balby and Skipton. — The doctrine of non-resistance. — Barclay and Fell and high- waymen pp. 170-187. CHAPTER XIV. PERSECUTION. Fox visits Swarthmore.- — Is apprehended. — Committed to Lan- caster prison. — Taken to London to be tried. — Is liberated by order of the king. — Rising of the Fifth Monarchy Men. — Fox CONTENTS. K V again apprehended. — Quaker Declaration to the King. — Ex- citement in the nation about Nonconformity. — Persecution of the Quakers.— Act passed against them. — Their sufferings. — Warnings to the commonwealth. — The Execution of King Charles' Judges. — The " Battledore." — George Fox the Younger and Charles II pp. 188-208. CHAPTER XV. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. Quaker missions. — Missionary movement in 1661. — Stubbs and Fell in Alexandria. — Robinson visits Jerusalem. — John the Quaker at Constantinople.— Quaker attempts to convert the Sultan.— Mary Fisher's interview with the Sultan Mahomet. — Other Quaker missionaries. — The Quakers in America. — Persecution in New England. — The foundation of the Puritan States. — Puritan hatred of toleration. — Early Quakers in New England. — The ill-treatment of Mary Fisher and Ann Austin. — Laws against Quakers. — Sufferings of the Friends in America. — The five martyrs. — Marmaduke Stevens. — Fox's " sense " of these sufferings. — Burrough's interview with Charles II. — The persecutions stopped. — Fox accuses the New England deputies of murder. — Fresh persecutions pp. 209-227. CHAPTER XVI. THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. The schism of John Perrot. — He becomes a persecutor of the Friends. — Fox's warning to his followers. — Friends' marriages. — A case tried at Nottingham. — Quaker marriages declared to be legal. — Fox's respect for authority. — Letter to Richard Richardson. — Quaker carefulness about marriages being regis- tered. — "Reasons why we will not swear." — Letter to Fox from Thomas Sharman. — Fox visits Bristol. — In Leicester- shire. — Is arrested at Swannington. — Why the constables objected to taking Friends to prison. — In Leicester gaol. — The sessions. — Discharged by the justices. — Temporary abatement of persecution. — Fox's frequent narrow escapes of arrest. — Objections to the Quakers either going to or staying away from steeple-houses .... pp. 228-241. xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. THE OATH OR THE GAOL. Swarthmore. — Another warrant issued against Fox. — Fox visits Kirby.— The plot in the North. — Fox again arrested. — The oath or the prison. — In Lancaster Castle. — A cruel woman.— Fox before Judge Twisden. — " I speak to thee in love." — Fox's advice to his followers about Perrot's heresy. — An indict- ment full of errors. — An unknown name. — The prison affects George's health. — Condemned but not sentenced pp. 242-261. CHAPTER XVIII. THE IMPENDING WOE. Fox has visions of impending woe. — He is removed to Scar- borough Castle. — Is taken seriously ill. — His miserable cell. — Is threatened with death. — Finds favour in the governor's eyes. — Is liberated. — The Fire of London. — Thomas Briggs fore- tells the Great Fire. — Thomas Ibbitt's mad conduct. — Solomon Eccles. — Eccles burns his music and instruments. — His escapade in Aldermanbury Church. — His expedient for ascer- taining the true religion. — His " Musick Lector." — Quakers banished. — Humphrey Smith. — Samuel Fisher pp. 262-279. CHAPTER XIX. QUAKER MARRIAGES. Continued illness of George Fox. — Narrowly escapes being arrested. — Meets Margaret Fell. — How some Presbyterians contrived to hold meetings and yet escape arrest. — Reproved by George Fox for their cowardice and hypocrisy. — Fox in London. — At Bristol. — Is compelled to establish a formal discipline. — First- clay meetings. — The Quarterly Meeting. — Its duties. — Friends' marriages. — Importance Fox attached to marriages being well- known and carefully considered. — His advice regarding Matri- mony. — Those marrying out of the Society disowned. — Quaker rules and customs regarding marriages. — Marriages between Quakers and members of another sect not likely to be happy. — Fox advises the establishment of schools. — His love of educa- tion. — Fox at Minehead. — In London again. — Visits "Esquire" CONTENTS. xvii Marsh. — Conversation with a Papist. — Esquire Marsh con- sults him as to how he is to recognise a Quaker. — An unjust judge. — He protects Friends. — Spread of Quakerism in London pp. 280-292. CHAPTER XX. THE CONVENTICLE ACT. Fox visits the Governor of Scarborough Castle. — His journey to Ireland. — Quakers in Ireland. — He returns to England. — Fox the Quaker turned Presbyterian. — His marriage with Margaret Fell. — "An holy seed." — Advises apprenticing Quaker child- ren. — Margaret Fell again imprisoned. — Her release ordered by the king. — Sarah Fell. — The Conventicle Act of 1670. — Fox appeals to the magistrates. — Is taken before the Mayor of London. — A papist informer. — Why the Act should not take hold on Quakers. — The Friends keep to their meetings. — Fox dangerously ill. — He is moved to go to America. PP- 293-308. CHAPTER XXI. AMERICA. The parting of George and Margaret. — The Voyage to Barbadoes. — A " Sally man-of-war " chases The Industry. — Fox's illness on the voyage and in Barbadoes. — Quakerism in the West Indies. — Unsuitable marriages. — Fox's advice regarding the treatment of slaves. — Quaker efforts for the abolition of slavery. — Scandals. — Fox writes a Confession of Faith to the Governor of Barbadoes. — Jamaica. — Death of Elizabeth Hooten. — Arrival in Maryland. — The treatment of Indians. — Quakerism a protection against native American tribes. — Fox's travels in New England. — Troublesome Ranters. — Ac- cident to John Jay. — Have the Indians any share of the " Light " ? — Meeting at Tredhaven Creek. — Fox is wished to become a regular paid minister. — The homeward voyage. — Letter to his wife. — The welcome home . pp. 309-327. CHAPTER XXII. A LEGAL TRIUMPH. Fox leaves Bristol. — Is arrested at Armscot. — Appeals to the Lord Lieutenant. — Is brought before the sessions. The oaths XVIU CONTENTS. again tendered. — Lower decides to stay in the prison with Fox. — London. — The Assizes at Worcester. — Appeals to the King. — Penn endeavours to obtain Fox's release. — Illegality of imprisonment on praemunire. — Fox visits Swarthmore. — His wise counsels. — Female preachers. — Tithes. —He revisits Lon- don. — Fox as a preacher. — His gift in prayer. — As an author. — His Journal. — The noted "third edition " . pp. 328-345. CHAPTER XXIII. THE FRIENDS IN HOLLAND. Yearly meetings. — Fox determines to go to Holland. — William Penn and Pennsylvania. — Robert Barclay. — His life. — "The Apology." — George Keith. — An apostate from Quakerism. — In America. — Address to Parliament. — His death. — The Friends in Holland and Germany.— Letter from the Prin- cess Elizabeth. — The Friends return to England. — Perse- cutions in New England. — A fresh schism. — Fox at Swarth- more. — Is prosecuted in the Court of Exchequer for tithes, and discharged. — Renewed persecutions. — Popish plots. — The Meeting at Devonshire House. — Persecuted Quakers careful not to endanger the goods of others. — Fox revisits Holland. — Margaret Fell fined. — Quaker women's dress. — James II. orders the release of Quakers. — Fox's strength declines pp. 346-372- CHAPTER XXIV. NUNC D1MITTIS. The beginning of the end. — The Toleration Act. — George's last epistle. — He is taken ill at a meeting in Gracechurch Street. — The spreading of truth. — ■ His death. — The funeral. — Bunhill Fields. — His character. — Ellwood's testimony. — Fox's religious teaching. — Quakerism after the death of Fox PP- 373-387- CONTENTS. xix APPENDIX. Page Fragment of a Treatise ........ 389 List of Authorities consulted 391 Note A. Fox's Means of Subsistence 392 „ B. The Early Baptists 393 ,, C. Quaker Ministers 393 „ D. Two Letters from Country Justices to the Protector 394 „ E. Quakers in Scotland ...... 395 „ F. Eccentricities of Quaker Women .... 396 ,, G. The Marriage Certificate of George Fox and Margaret Fell 397 „ H Fox's letter to the Governor of Barbadoes . . 399 „ I. Fox's provision for Quaker Ministers at Swarth- more 402 „ K. List of the Principal Writings of George Fox . 406 CHAPTER I. THE CAUSES OF QUAKERISM. Quakerism, the climax of Puritanism. — Neither novel in dogma nor doctrine. — The Reformation in England. — Causes of Dis- sent. — The Great Bible. — Its influence. — Puritans and con- formity. — Quaker objects. — Its aggressive doctrines.— George Fox's position with regard to Quakerism. — The value of the Sect. THE foundation of the Quaker movement forms a by no means unimportant chapter in English history — a history in which religion and politics are so bound together that neither can be accurately studied by itself — and yet few historians have deemed the subject worth more than a mere passing notice. ^Tts importance lies in the fact that it was the climax of the Puritan revolt against Popery, and what has been termed the " one man " system in religion ; that within a few years it became the creed of no small part of the English nation ; and that it was more than a religious — it was, also, a social — movement. And it deserves more than formal mention for another reason. The whole existence of this creed has been one long en- deavour to right that which was wrong, and to ame- liorate the condition of humanity in every part of the world}' The causes of Quakerism will be found in the early Puritan movement, of which, in its primitive form, it 2 GEORGE EOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. was, in many respects, scarcely more than an extension. In its theological dogmas it contained little that was absolutely novel, and many of its social peculiarities were only original in the sense of their never having Jieen systematically inculcated by any sect previously. |The movement was essentially an outcome of the time ; and if it were possible for any country to be situated as England was in the early part of the seventeenth century, a somewhat similar religious movement would inevitably take place. In order to see the causes of Quakerism clearly, let us glance for a few moments at the position of England at the commencement of the Great Rebellion. In the sixteenth century England probably was more ready for a religious reformation than any other European state. In her the Church of Rome had never had the power it had in other countries. From the very intro- duction of Christianity, the English bishops enjoyed a freedom of action which those of no other nation could claim. Time after time the Pope was defied, and even though he regained his authority, the very defiance proved in an unmistakeable manner that that authority was not regarded as sacred or paramount. The insular position of our country, and its peculiar system of government, engendered a spirit of independence in the people, a spirit which they carried into religion as into politics, and while they regarded the occupant of the chair of St. Peter with awe on account of his high spiritual office, it was with an awe that was barely, if at all, tinctured with the spirit of fetish-worship. St. Dunstan, Stephen Langton, Wycliffe, and many others, both clergy and laity, had prepared the minds of the people, wittingly or unwittingly, to receive the Reforma- tion, and in no other country could Henry VIII. have overthrown one religious system and set up another in THE CAUSES OF QUAKERISM. 3 the bloodless quietude with which he effected it in Eng- land. It is true that at first the changes he made in the services and doctrines of his new Church were not, if theologically important, numerous — the chief being the resting of the spiritual headship in the king instead of the Pope. But towards the end of his reign they had become so marked as to be obvious even to the meanest intellect. Under Henry the two Churches had rapidly drifted apart ; under his successor the distance between them widened with increased speed. But it was to Queen Mary that the Protestant Church is indebted for much of the stability it obtained during her reign, although to strengthen it was the last thing she intended. Her cruel persecutions, her desire to restore the abbey lands, and her Spanish marriage, did more to set the people against Popery, than all the efforts of even the wisest Protestant rulers could have done. Rome grew to be looked upon as a persecutor and an avaricious schemer, and the interests of the Papacy were deemed by the populace to be identical with those of the country most of all detested — Spain. By the end of the reign of Elizabeth, the Anglican Church had overthrown its Catholic enemy, but another and yet more formidable one had arisen in the course of the struggle. This fresh enemy was Nonconformity. Side by side with the Episcopalians, the Puritans had fought the battle which ended so gloriously for English liberty, and they had fought more vehemently, for their risks, in case of failure, were far greater, and their differences with Rome more important than were those of their allies. But as soon as the common danger was over, they turned their arms against those with whom they had so lately been arrayed, and to whom, it may be said, they owed their very religious existence. The great cause of Dissent was the dread of Popery, 4 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. and the desire to widen the breach with Rome so far that it would be impossible for it ever to be spanned. The Church of England was looked upon by these Non- conformists as a trimmer ; some even feared that in course of time it might again join the mother Church. Much of the Liturgy of the one, they told themselves, was little more than a translated adaptation from that of the other. Many of the ceremonies, and some of the doctrines, of the one bore a considerable resemblance to those of the other. For these and similar reasons the reformed Church, as established by Henry VIII., and continued by Elizabeth, was obnoxious to many who were favourable to the principle of a national religion^ Another cause of the dissatisfaction of the Puritans with the Anglican Church, was that its doctrines and ceremonies were fixed, and could not be adapted to the everchanging feelings of the worshippers ; whilst, since the abolition of " prophesyings," the only part left to the layman was to be an attendant at services. But while a Churchman was merely a listener, the Noncon- formist was free to choose such a form of worship as best suited his particular views and feelings at the time, and in the performance of that worship he might, if he so chose, be an active element. Nor did the political necessity of attempting to suppress the various sects which sprung up in the latter part of the seventeenth century serve to do aught than recommend them to a people whose boast it has always been to sympathize with the weaker party. Had James been able to foresee the result the trans- lation of the " Great Bible " would have on the people, it is probable he would never have permitted it to be published " by authority," even if he had not gone so far as to suppress it altogether. It is impossible to over- estimate the effect this book had, and the effect was THE CAUSES OF QUAKERISM. 5 one of which James, with his ideas of the Divine right of kings and bishops, would not have approved. The Authorized Version of the Bible positively infused new life into England. It became at once the most important and the best known book in the land. It was a book that interested all, for it spoke to the hearts of all. Devotee or libertine quoted it, intentionally or un- thinkingly ; it was the standard of reference on every question which arose between man and man, whether religious or political, social or domestic. The strong man burning under a sense of wrong, thought he had found in the wars of the Israelites, a Divine precedent for rooting out the evil that was in the land, a precedent it was plainly his duty to follow. The ardent loyalist fancied he could show from its pages that all resistance to the king's wishes was not only inexpedient but abso- lutely unlawful. Mothers gave their children the names of the prophets and apostles, in the hope that they might emulate the characters of those whose names they bore, and substituted its sacred stories for the legends with which their children had been amused in bygone years. Its simplicity and clearness were such that every one could read it, and every one was convinced that he understood it. There had been so many changes in religion that the people had come to look on forms as little more than matters of political convenience, only important as showing whether the government leaned most towards Popery, or towards Puritanism. Why, they began to ask themselves, should they want priests and formal ceremonies ? If they could understand the Bible, where was the use of the priest ? If God could only be worshipped in the spirit, of what value were temples made with hands, or set forms of prayer ? The Puritan felt he could commune directly with his Creator, and 6 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. he despised external aids. With his conscience for his guide, he scorned the interference of a priest. No man, he resolved, should come between him and his God. Whilst Protestantism was in danger, the Puritan had submitted willingly, almost gladly, to any restrictions which were necessary to preserve it. He appreciated the value of outward conformity, and he acquiesced in the penal laws, because he saw that they were necessary for the very liberty of the land. But when the danger had passed away, he rightly considered that he ought to be released from these measures, and permitted to worship according to the dictates of his conscience. Yet year after year went on, and still he writhed under them, until the iron entered into his soul, and his temper became day by day more fierce and bitter. Before his death, James, by his weakness, meanness, and want of honesty, had made the crown unpopular and the people distrustful of monarchy ; and his par- tiality to the Church which had been so humiliatingly subservient to him, caused it to share in the same odium. Nor was this odium altogether undeserved by the Church. If the court was depraved, so were the clergy. If the one was bigoted and corrupt, so was the other. Many of the clergy thought it no wrong to rarely teach and never visit. Others encouraged " Sabbath games " and those country fairs and gatherings which were a thinly disguised excuse for tippling, brawling and worse. There were many who had not "defiled their garments," many who led pure, simple, and earnest lives — with the result of being sneered at for being Puritanical. The unpopularity of James descended to his son Charles I., who can scarcely be said to have received a fair trial as a king. When he ascended the throne the condition of England was most deplorable. James's disagreements with his parliament, his encroachments THE CAUSES OF QUAKERISM. 7 on the rights of the people, the encouragement he had given the Papists, and the continued persecutions of the Puritans which he permitted, caused England to be torn with bitter dissensions ; and Charles, instead of attempt- ing to remedy these evils, proceeded to set both his parliament and people at defiance and to govern accord- ing to his own will. The result of his actions was that the people preferred the horrors of civil war to living under such a government. ^The civil war caused — as such wars invariably do cause / — not only a political but a social and religious com- motion of the most intense kind. The Puritans took the side of the parliament, the Churchmen the side of the king, and both parties excused their hatred of each other on the score of their zeal for religion. / Such was the condition of England when, in 1646, /the time when the fierce passions aroused by the re- bellion were at their height, George Fox went forth " determined to find truth for himself," and when he had found it to preach it to others. Both his search and his preaching were crowned with success, and his followers soon became so numerous that they formed a separate and well-defined religious society. The name that a sneering world gave them was the now honoured one of Quakers. / / Quakerism was the embodiment of the Puritan disl ike> /to the "one man" system, and to set forms of service. Its unpaid, uneducated and unauthoritative ministry was the strongest possible protest against sacerdotalism. This is the reason why Quakerism rose in so short a time to be a power in the land, why it so speedily distanced all the many sects which were in existence long before it, and this is one of the reasons why it met with fiercer opposition, and its members were more oppressed than those of any other body. 8 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Quakerism aimed at the overthrow of nearly all vested interests. The Quaker dogma of an unpaid ministry was hateful to the ministers of other denomina- tions ; its non-litigious principles dealt as great a blow at the very existence of the lawyer, as its non-com- batant ones did at that of the soldier. All who loved the beautiful disliked the idea of a religion which forbad music and painting and which prescribed a sober mono- tony of dress. Whilst the gay dreaded one that held every amusement, however harmless, as mere waste of time and therefore sinful, the rich and noble still more dreaded one that destroyed all inequalities of rank and forbade the homage they considered theirs by right. The Quaker system not only ran counter to the habits and customs of the time, but it ran perpetually counter to them. Other Dissenters, if they chose, might conform to them in social or political matters, but the Quaker was forbidden by his creed to do so. In the house and workshop, in the fields or on the highway, he was a marked man. His speech was couched in different phrases from that of other men, his dress was not of the same cut and was of more sober colour ; his manners were less polished and seemingly less courteous. His whole existence was a protest against conventionalities, nor could he consent to make any concessions to the weaker brethren. None of these peculiarities were absolutely novel, nor were any of the religious doctrines of the Quakers. In the most distinctive of the latter, the doctrine of an inward spiritual light which superseded revela- tion, they had been forestalled, at least in part, by the German mystics, and, in the others, such as the non- use of the Sacraments, they did little more than copy or continue earlier Puritan religious systems. THE CAUSES OF QUAKERISM. 9 / Perhaps it is true, as one writer thinks, 1 that George Fox is not fairly entitled to be termed the founder of Quakerism, but he certainly was the organiser of the sect and the formulator of the discipline ; and but for him it is most improbable that the Society of Friends would ever have existed, for although their doctrines might have been widely diffused, they would only have been followed in a partial and fragmentary manner. He was, however, the life and soul of the movement. It was his genius which made the sect spring into organised existence, his amiable temper and Christ-like spirit which caused it to inculcate, as it has always done, humility, peacefulness, simplicity, honesty, truthfulness and charity. His was the comprehensive mind which instituted the admirable systems of regis- tration, of poor relief, of education, and of self-help ; which have made the body, though weak in numbers, a social power, and its members, if not as a rule great, prominent, or learned, at least well-to-do and uni- versally liked and respected. The work of Quakerism is done, and, in England at least, the sect seems fast dying out, but the salutary influence it has exercised will never die. 2 Its work has been done in the imperishable marble of the holy, simple, and benevolent lives of its adherents, and has been the foundation upon which much more showy, but less enduring, work has been built ; and the world will ever have cause to bless the memories of George Fox, of Robert Barclay, of William Penn, and of a noble host of others whose very names are lost in the ocean of the past ; men — whole-hearted and long-suffering — ■ 1 Tallack. " George Fox, the Friends, and the Early Baptists." 2 I am glad to say that since this chapter was written there have been strong symptoms of a revival in the Society of Friends. 10 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. whose lives it is impossible to study without having one's faith in the goodness of human nature strength- ened, and without learning — as Cromwell learned — that there really has existed and yet does exist, a people whom it is impossible to buy either with " money or honours." CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. Drayton-in-the-Clay. — Birth and parentage of George Fox. — His boyhood. — His serious disposition. — What shall we do with the lad?— His apprenticeship. — Objects to drinking healths. — Macaulay's opinion of him. — His revelations, wanderings, and temptations. — Urged to marry, or join the Parliament- ary army. — Nathaniel Stevens. — Fox goes, for comfort, to various ministers. — Social habits. — Resumes his wanderings. ' I N HE influence natural surroundings exercise in X shaping the lives and forming the characters of men is a subject which seldom receives the considera- tion it deserves. We are told of one eminent scholar that he always attributed his almost insane morbidness to the flat and depressing nature of the country sur- rounding the University at which he resided ; and per- haps to the equally flat and depressing nature of his native place may be attributed many of the peculiarities under which George Fox laboured. Drayton-in-the-Clay, in the county of Leicester, now called Fenny Drayton — either of which names describes sufficiently well the damp and dreary, flat and feature- less, nature of the district — was in the early part of the seventeenth century a very quiet little place, far from a town of any size, and so small that it does not seem to have contained a school of any sort. It was in this hamlet that George Fox, the founder of the " people called Quakers," was born, in the month of July, 1624. His father was named Christopher Fox, and was a 12 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. woollen weaver by trade. So upright, so truthful, and so highly respected was he, that his neighbours nick- named him " righteous Christer." " He was an honest man," says his son of him, in his terse way, " and there was the seed of God in him." Equally estimable was the character of his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Lago. One of her ancestors had suffered martyr- dom in the reign of Queen Mary, and she had much of the martyr spirit in her. " She was an upright woman," is all George says of her, leaving others to dwell on her goodness. She was also an accomplished woman for the class in which she moved, and the time in which she lived ; and it is probable that all the learning her son ever got came from her. The Foxes were certainly not poor people, yet " they had no considerable sub- stance, and they were great zealots for the Presbyterian cause." 1 We know very little about George's boyhood. He learnt to read and write, in both of which subjects he afterwards improved himself, and there his education seems to have ended. He was a quiet boy, caring little for the sports and pastimes or the companionship of those of his own age, and he spent most of his time in studying the Scriptures, of which he got so great a knowledge that one of his contemporaries said of him that if the Bible were lost it would be found again in the mouth of George Fox. His mother noticed that he did not care for play, and with much satisfaction at his gravity, she treated him very tenderly, and encouraged his seriousness and pious disposition as much as she could. In his "Journal" he tells us that when he came to eleven years of age he knew pureness and righteousness, for while he was a 1 Penn. " Testimony to George Fox." BOYHOOD AND YOU TIL 13 child he was taught to walk so as to be pure. " From my very young years," he adds, " I had a gravity of mind and spirit not usual in children, insomuch that when I have seen old men carry themselves lightly and wantonly towards each other, a dislike thereof hath risen in my heart, and I have said within myself, ' If ever I come to be a man surely I should not do so, nor be so wanton ! ' " He had a great sense of the import- ance of keeping under the body, for when very young he resolved only to eat and drink sufficient to support nature, a resolution to which he adhered all through his life. Although his conversation was generally on religious matters, and he was grave and somewhat taciturn, he was nevertheless so sweet-tempered and simple that he was a general favourite ; such is, at least, his own account, and there is certainly no reason to doubt it. About the time that Fox was old enough to be apprenticed, the civil war broke out ; and, although it would not be correct to term it a religious war, it was one in which religion had a large share, for the Cavaliers were for Church as well as king, the Roundheads for the Parliament and greater liberty of worship. It is a proof how national the struggle was, that even in so remote a place as Drayton, efforts should be made to assist the Parliamentary army. The question, what shall we do with George ? was one anxiously debated by his parents and their friends. Some were for making the lad a minister ; but either on account of his defective education, or from some other cause, others persuaded them to the contrary, and the matter ended in George being apprenticed to a man who combined the trades of shoemaking, wool dealing, and farming. The boy was principally engaged in tending sheep, an occupation which must have been » 14 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. well suited to his quiet, meditative spirit, and have as- sisted him in acquiring the large practical knowledge of natural history, which almost justified Penn in calling him a naturalist. His master seems to have trusted much to his apprentice, who tells us that a great deal went through his hands, and that all the time he was with him his master was " blest," but that after he left " he broke, and came to nothing." George boasts, too, that all the while he was thus employed he never wronged any one, and that when he wished anything he said to be taken as final, he had only to use the word "verily!" for it had become a saying about Drayton that "if George says 'verily' there is no moving him." When he was about nineteen years old, he was sent to a fair on some business for his master, and there he met a cousin of his and another man, who were what he terms "professors" (of religion). Being thirsty, at the instigation of the cousin, they all adjourned to a tavern. But besides his thirst, George had another reason for going; he was never willing to lose an opportunity of having a religious discussion, such as he expected the two professors would engage in, instead of which they began to drink healths ; and agreeing that he who would not drink should pay all, they called for a second tankard of ale. The custom of drinking healths was already looked upon as a heathenish practice by some of the stricter sectaries, and Fox was grieved that any who professed religion should do a thing so light. Quietly getting up, he laid a groat on the table, with the remark that, " if that were so, he would leave them," and then, having done his business, he went home. But all that night he spent wandering up and down his room, until he fancied he heard the voice of God warn- ing him " to forsake all, young and old, to keep out of the way of all, and to be a stranger to all." BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. Macaulay considers that George " had an intellect in the most unhappy of all conditions, that is to say, too much disordered for liberty, and not sufficiently dis- ordered for Bedlam ; " but this is far too harsh a dictum. Yet that George was in vigorous possession of his mental powers at this time is most improbable. His naturally subjective cast of mind had been fostered by the feature- less scenery around Drayton, by the stern fanaticism of the Presbyterians of the civil war amongst whom he lived, by his lonely life as a shepherd, and most of all by the mistaken treatment of the mother who loved him so fondly. She, proud that her boy should be so much better than others of his age, and herself valuing religion above all other objects, had encouraged the boy in his solitary studies, until he became at length so morbid, that it was only his rough journeyings which, in all pro- bability, saved him from that most hopeless of all forms of madness, religious monomania. He interpreted the revelation he imagined he had received, to mean that he was to leave his native place and all his friends ; so, with the implicit obedience he always yielded to what he understood as the will of his Creator, he left Drayton in the autumn of 1643, and went to Lutterworth where he stayed for some time, and so from one place to another until in June, 1644, he was at Barnet. Wherever he went people seem to have pitied the gentle melancholy youth, and many were anxious to befriend him, but he refused to permit them ; for though they were " professors," he tells us that he was sensible that they did not possess what they professed. While at Barnet he was almost in despair ; mighty troubles and temptations came upon him, and he spent many hours walking up and down in the Chace, solitary and sad, trying to find some relief for his over- wrought mind. 1 6 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. How he managed to support himself during his wanderings, has puzzled several of his biographers. Croese, in his "General History of the Quakers," says that he did it by shoemaking, but the truth is, that he had a sufficient competency, how obtained no one exactly knows, not only to supply his simple wants, but also to enable him to give to those who needed. 1 "Why was he so tempted?" he asked himself, for he seems to have considered that every time he was puzzled and disheartened, it was a direct temptation to despair He could call to mind no sin of which he had been guilty, unless it was in leaving his parents so abruptly ; yet, for all this, when he left Barnet, it was not to return home, but to go to London. He had consulted many priests (for this is the term he used to describe all minis- ters of whatever sect), without deriving any comfort from them, so he determined to go to an uncle, who was a Baptist of considerable importance in London, by whom he was very kindly received. But George discovered that his uncle, too, was still "in darkness ;" so bethinking him, that if he stayed longer away, his parents would be anxious about him, he turned his steps back again to Drayton-in-the-Clay. No sooner did he arrive at home, than his friends again began anxiously to discuss the question, what shall we do with George ? Some were for having him marry, doubtless hoping that the excitement of court- ship would root out his religious melancholia. George, however, alleged that he was too young to take upon him the cares of married life, and declared that he must get wisdom before he did so. Others wanted him to join the auxiliary band, which was being raised to recruit the Parliamentary army. To these George replied, that he was too tender a youth to do so. His real objection 1 See Note A. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. n seems to have been to the hardships of a soldier's life ; as, although thin and weak from his distressed state of mind, his subsequent life proves that he must have been endowed with an extraordinarily good constitution, and he seems at this time to have had no religious objection to fighting. So both schemes falling to the ground, for more than a year he remained at home, in sorrow and trouble, spending many nights wandering about in a, state of piteous misery. At this time Nathaniel Stevens, a man who was so great a bookworm that he spent sixteen hours a day in study, was Vicar of Drayton, and to him Fox applied for advice. He was interested in the youth, and often came to see him, and would ask him to his house, some- times talking with him alone, but more frequently in com- pany with another "priest." He used to ask George many questions, which the lad answered with his natural shrewdness. One day he inquired, why Christ cried out upon the cross, " My God, My God, why hast Thou for- saken Me," and, " If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me " ? George answered that it was because Christ had then the sins of all mankind pressing upon Him, which His human nature was hardly able to bear. Stevens praised this answer as something wonderful, although it appears to be quite obvious. The friendship between the two, however, did not last long, as Stevens would talk to Fox in the week, and then, on Sunday, reproduce his ideas in his sermons, at which Fox was greatly incensed. Afterwards, Stevens became the fiercest of George's persecutors. Some years later this man was ejected from his living, although he had changed his creed in order to retain it, and he himself was so fiercely persecuted, that he was compelled to alter his place of abode seven times before he could live in peace. Stevens not being able to comfort him, George went C 1 8 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. to consult most of the priests who lived within walking distance of Drayton. The first he went to was an aged divine, at Mansetter, who could not enlighten him on the causes of despair, but advised him to smoke tobacco and sing psalms. " Tobacco was a thing," says George, " I could not love, and psalms I was not in a state to sing ; I could not sing," he pathetically adds. The priest told him to come again, when he should receive further advice ; but when George went he found that his troubles formed too good a joke for the old man to keep to himself, and as he had taken even his servants into his confidence, George was met by several jeering, laughing milk-lasses, so he went away deeply grieved at having opened his heart to so inconsiderate a professor, and tried another priest, of whom he had heard a good account, but found him " an empty, hollow cask." Dr. Cradock, of Coventry, was a man particularly fond of his garden, and George, whilst conversing with him, inadvertently set his foot on a flower-bed, whereupon the Doctor burst into a rage as violent " as if his house had been on fire," and Fox had to go away, if possible, more wretched than when he went there, and filled with amazement that a professor could be so " light." The next he tried was a man of high reputa- tion, named Macham, who must needs give him some physic and try what blood-letting would do. George's arms and forehead were lanced in several places, but no blood could be got to flow, " so dried up was my body with sorrow, griefs, and troubles, which were so great upon me that I could have wished I had never been born, or that I had been born blind, that I might never have seen wickedness nor vanity ; and deaf, that I might never have heard vain and wicked words, or the Lord's name blasphemed." 1 1 "Journal." BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. i9 He still held aloof from all society ; at Christmas, whilst others were feasting, he would be engaged in visiting the poor ; when invited to weddings he would refuse to attend, generally, however, managing to go and see the newly married couple the next day, in order to give them some advice, and, if necessary, something more tangible. One Sunday morning, early in the following year, it was revealed to him, how he does not clearly say, that going to a University was not enough to make a man fit to be a minister of the Gospel. From this time, much to the distress of his parents, he left off going to church, alleging that as the Apostle had said of believers, " the Anointed teacheth them," it was quite unnecessary, and ever afterwards he systematically undervalued the ministry both of Church and Dissent. The next " revela- tion" he had was, that the Lord did not dwell in temples made with hands, but that His temples were the hearts of His people. For some time this puzzled him, for he had always heard the churches spoken of as "dreadful places," and " hallowed ground." Priest Stevens now became afraid that he was going after " new lights," and so George determined to resume his wanderings. This was an age in which many sects, holding very remarkable tenets, sprang into a mushroom-like exis- tence, the independent action the nation was taking in politics causing a widely spread revolt against the tram- mels of religious systems. Fox had not got many miles from Drayton before he met some members of one of the most eccentric of these sects, the one which held that "women had no souls (adding in a light manner), no more than a goose." He began his long series of polemical discussions by reproving them, and to refute their arguments quoted the words of the Virgin Mary, " My soul doth magnify the Lord." Immediately 2o GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. afterwards he met with some others who looked to dreams for spiritual revelations ; these he also overthrew, by dividing dreams into three classes — " dreams caused by much business, dreams in which Satan .whispers, and dreams in which God whispers." Some, he informs us, renounced their errors and became Friends, but others continued to hold fast to their belief. George's troubles had been increasing rather than diminishing ; although he was constantly having open- ings and revelations. Yet he tells us that " one opening answered another, and when he was in trouble one trouble answered another." Neither Croese, Sewel nor Gough have been able, however, to explain what he means by this difficult sentence. During this year (1646) and the following one, he wandered over a large part of the midland counties, not joining himself to any sect, or stopping long in any one place ; nor does he seem to have begun that ministry which ended in the organization of the sect of the people called Quakers. CHAPTER III. FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. Solitary travels. — Elizabeth Hooten. — The fasting woman. — Com- mences his ministry. — His temptations. — Brown's prophe- cies and Fox's trance. — Religious difficulties in 1648. — Meet- ing at Mansfield. — Disputes at Leicester. — The Divine Light. — Other revelations. — His doubts clear away: — Objection to church bells and a paid ministry. — Interrupts a service at Nottingham. — Sent to Nottingham Gaol. — The friendly sheriff. — Beaten at Mansfield Woodhouse. — Stoned at Market Bos- worth. — Attends meeting at Derby. — Is sent to prison as a blasphemer. 1 "'OX had now fairly set out upon the solitary and -L seemingly aimless travels which occupied the greater part of the years 1646 and 1647 '■> ve t these two years were certainly not mis-spent. We can trace, week by week, how his mind grew stronger, and his ideas more formed. The constant change of scene gradually con- quered his depression, and he developed into a thought- ful and self-contained, but far from morbid or morose, man. Among the few things he carried with him was a Bible, in reading which he passed most of the daylight hours. The nights he usually spent in the open air, beneath a hedge, by the side of a haystack, or, at best, in the scanty shelter of a hollow tree. Whenever he was told of any remarkably "tender" 1 people, he would at once go and visit them ; usually, however, to imme- 1 " Tender" is a term Fox used to denote considerable piety. 22 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. diately leave them in disgust at what he thought to be their heathenish state. Occasionally he would stop a few days in a town or village, but seldom longer ; for he feared that if he did so he might be hurt by the con- versation of either the professors or the profane. He had not wandered long when he met with Elizabeth Hooten, a middle-aged woman, who gladly accepted his teaching ; and who, before very long, became, if not the first Quaker preacher, at least the first formal female minister. About the same time, he made the well-known discovery that cloth breeches were not well- adapted for his rambling life ; and so set to work and made himself the leathern pair which have since become historic. Before long he became known as " the man in the leathern breeches " ; and in his Journal he recounts, with great zest, how priests and professors would scurry away when the cry, " The man in the leathern breeches is coming," was raised. Learning that in Lancashire there was a woman who had fasted for twenty-two days, Fox set out to visit her. When he saw her, he found she was under what he terms " a temptation ;" so, "speaking to her what he had from the Lord," he committed her to the care of her father — a strict professor — and went on his way. Fox does not tell us whether he considered it right to fast so long, nor does he enlighten us as to the nature of the tempta- tion under which the woman suffered, but he seems to imply that he had some supernatural power over her. It was at Dukinfield, in Cheshire, where he stayed for a longer time than he usually spent in any one place, that he made his first attempt to publicly propagate his peculiar doctrines. A few people listened and were convinced, but the majority went away offended, for he had insisted on the necessity of a sinless life, which they declared to be unattainable. While in Nottinghamshire, FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. 23 into which county he next went, his light revealed to him, " that the nature of those things which are hurtful, are to be found in the hearts of wicked men." Thus the nature of dogs and swine he believed " to be in vicious men." " Why should I be thus," he asked him- self, much puzzled at this revelation, " seeing that I was never addicted to these things ? " Then his light revealed to him that it was necessary that he should understand it, in order that he might be able to speak effectively to the souls of all sorts of men. At Mans- field he had another revelation ; he thought he heard a voice say to him, " That which men trample under foot shall be thy food ; " and, accepting this literally, he was more puzzled than before, until the meaning — that he should live by the faith that others trampled upon — was revealed to him. Soon a fresh trouble beset him. His preaching began to attract so much attention that he feared lest he should not have sufficient time left for the contemplation he so much loved. Had Fox been a prophet he would have foreseen that in a little while he would have more opportunities than enough. Later on in this year (1647), Dut when is uncertain, — for Fox, though scrupulously exact in recording the dates of important events, is usually very slipshod in the matter of chronology — a man named Brown, when lying on his death-bed, had "great prophecies and sights " concerning George. Brown told those who were about him that Fox would be made instrumental, in God's hands, in doing great works. This so affected George that, shortly after Brown was buried, he fell into a trance which lasted fourteen days, and which was so like death that his friends really thought he was dead. On his recovery his appearance was so much changed that he appeared to have become another indi- vidual, or, to use his own quaint words, " to have been 24 GEORGE FOX AMD THE EARLY QUAKERS. made over again." After so wonderful an occurrence, it is not surprising that, in those credulous times, a re- port should get abroad that Fox was a young man of a discerning spirit ; or that all kinds of people, both lay and clerical, should flock to see him and test for them- selves whether the report was true. Nor were they often disappointed ; for he had such great " openings," or revelations, that they went away only to spread his fame yet more widely. But George was still much tempted. He feared lest he had committed the mys- terious sin against the Holy Ghost, and his only comfort lay in the remembrance that St. Paul had a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him, after he had been caught up into heaven. The year 1648 was a memorable one in the annals of England. The King was a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle, and men were wondering whether he would con- sent to be restored on the terms the Parliament offered him. The most important of these relating to religion, were that he should consent to the abolition of Episco- pacy, and to the confiscation of the estates of the Bishops. To these terms Charles, rightly or wrongly, refused to listen ; and the nation, which would willingly have seen him again on the throne, was much perplexed at his refusal. All over the country large meetings gathered to consider the state of religion, and what had best be done to secure freedom of worship. The only unanimity arrived at in these meetings was that each man desired to establish the religious sect to which he belonged. Entire toleration was considered to be neither possible nor advisable. During the previous years of the civil war, while England was struggling to maintain her liberty, the question of rival creeds had been lost sight of in the greater question of national rights ; but now these rights had been secured, religious FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. 25 difficulties cropped up once more. Before this time Fox had been unmolested ; henceforth, all was changed. While at Mansfield, Fox went to one of these meet- ings, at which there was a great number of professors. This was a time when, if a man was desirous of power, he had to be either very religious, or to seem so ; and as always happens in such cases, a large crop of hypo- crites sprang up. At this meeting Fox felt "moved" to pray, and so fervent was his prayer that the very house seemed to be shaken. So earnest was he that it seemed as " if one of the Apostles were praying." A professor followed him with another prayer, and was so dull that the excited people became calm again. A person present coolly told him that " Satan must have tempted him to pray, which made the empty professor ashamed of his dulness." Fox was then desired to pray again, but refused to do so, alleging that he could pray at no man's bidding. At another of these meetings a Captain Stoddart was present, and the discussion turned on the efficacy of the blood of Christ. Fox thought he had a vision of the manner in which the blood entered into the heart, and, in a rapturous speech, said so. This startled the professors, who would have prevented Fox from speaking had not Captain Stoddart — who appears to have been a person of some importance in those parts — insisted that they should " let the youth speak." After this Fox returned to his own county, getting to Leicester in time for a great meeting, wherein Presby- terian and Baptist, Independent and Common Prayer men, were all said to be engaged. The meeting, which was held to discuss some disputed points of doctrine, took place in the church ; and, of course, George felt moved to go. The priest, who was in the pulpit, gave leave to any in the crowded building to speak. After some disputation a woman asked some ques- 26 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. tion, whereupon the priest said warmly : " I permit not a woman to speak in the church." George, "wrapped up in a rapture," immediately demanded of him: "Dost thou call this place a church, or this mixed multitude a church ? " This question the priest answered by asking what he thought a church was? "The Church," was George's reply, " is the pillar and ground of the truth, made up of living stones and lively members ; a spiritual household of which Christ is the head. But He is not the head of a mixed multitude, or of an old house composed of lime, stone, and wood." This answer caused a regular uproar. The priest came down from the pulpit ; the people left their seats ; and there was such a disturbance that the meeting was broken up. George, accompanied by the priest and some others, went to an inn; and there he discussed the subject with such power and vehemence, that all his opponents turned and fled. At first he hoped he had made one convert to his views, but this man afterwards turned bitterly against him. The woman who asked the question, however, eventually became a Quaker. In his Journal Fox always speaks of a church as a steeple- house, a term not uncommon at the time. Most, if not all, of the Puritans, regarded a church as a mere struc- ture, and used the word steeple-house to distinguish it from other buildings. A few days subsequently, as George was sitting by the fireside, a voice seemed to say to him, " All things come by Nature." He pondered over this until his mind got into such a state that he was tempted to be- lieve that there was no God ; all his doubts, however, immediately vanished when the same voice whispered : "There is a living God, who made all things." Fox tells us that he was unable to understand the reason of this " temptation " till, some time afterwards, in the course FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. 27 of his travels, he met with some people who asserted that there was no God, and that all things did come by Nature : then the meaning of the " temptation " was made clear to him, and he was able to reason with and confute all their arguments. No longer satisfied with merely attending meetings, Fox now began to hold them, and to dispute on his own account ; and before many weeks were over he got a large number of followers, many of whom imitated him by going into steeple-houses, and interrupting the service, by declaring what they believed to be everlasting truth. While in Mansfield, George heard that the justices were holding a " mop" for the hiring of servants ; and he felt it his duty to warn them not to oppress the servants in the matter of wages. The court was held at a tavern, and Fox, when he arrived there, hearing the sound of fiddling, determined not to go in till the morrow ; for he disliked the sound of a fiddle almost as much as that of a church bell. When he awoke the next morning he was nearly blind. Deeming this a judg- ment, he inquired where the justices were to sit that day, and learning that the place was only a few miles distant, he went, and exhorted them to be kind to the servants ; a thing they gladly promised. Then, in a moment, his sight returned, all his doubts vanished, and he seemed to be in such a mental paradise, " that the nature and properties of everything seemed to be opened" to him. And now — apparently in the Vale of Weaver — he had revealed to him that there was a mystical, but Divine, light in the hearts of men ; a light which, if followed honestly and steadfastly, would lead to God : and that without the aid of either the Bible or any ordinances. This doctrine of the Divine light is the 28 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. fundamental one of the Quaker faith, and throughout his ministry Fox emphasized it to such an extent that he has frequently been unjustly accused of under-rating the value of the Scriptures and of doctrine, that he might exalt it. " The Lord God opened to me," he says in his Journal, " by His invisible power, how ever)' man was enlightened by the Divine light of Christ. I saw through all, and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation to the light of life, and became children of it ; but they that hated it, and did not be- lieve in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure openings of the light, without the help of any man ; neither did I know where to find it in the Scriptures ; though after- wards, searching the Scriptures, I found it. For I saw in that Light and Spirit which was before the Scriptures were given forth, and which led the holy men of God to give them forth, that all must come to that Spirit if they would know God, or Christ, or the Scriptures aright ; which they that gave them forth were led by." 1 Dimly at first, but more and more clearly as time went on, Fox comprehended that every person in the world had some portion of the Divine light in him, and he became more firmly convinced that God had chosen him to lead men from false creeds to the true faith ; from worldliness and selfishness to righteousness and peace. He saw, too, that priests were deceivers, and that their actions were caused by the dark power which dwelt within them, and that there was a "drowsiness and heaviness over the hearts of the people." About this time he had the famous revelation which directed him to use " thee and thou," and which forbad him to 1 This revelation appears to have been given in 1649, the year the Quakers consider their sect to date from. FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. 29 say "Good morrow, or good even," or to raise his hat to any one ; which last thing, he says, made the people in a great rage. " Thou " was then commonly said to poor people, and "you " to rich ; thus implying that the rich person was more important than the poor. Besides this, it was ungrammatical and untruthful, and on truth Fox rightly considered it impossible to lay too strong an emphasis. In his writings he frequently dwells on the importance of strict veracity, and seems to have been unable to separate truth in speech from honesty in action. To say " Good morrow," Fox held implied that there were some morrows which were bad ; and, therefore, that everything God made was not good. To bow or uncover to any one, Fox construed to be an acknowledgment that the person so honoured was of a superior order. This, like the use of the plural pronoun " you " to one person, would have hindered that equality among mankind for which he strove. All being God's children, he argued, must be equal. These things may appear trivial to us, but there is no doubt that they contributed materially to the vitality of Quakerism. In his Journal Fox gives a list of the things he was anxious to alter ; and the critic who remarks (with a sneer) that he desired to become a universal reformer, only states a certainly not discreditable fact. Never through- out the whole of his life would Fox see anything which he considered either sinful, or merely a .'-ocial sham, without feeling a burning desire to remedy it ; in his eyes no custom, however venerable, was sacred, unless there lay at its back some deep, true, kindly meaning. Few things were so objectionable to Fox as the sound of church bells. Even to hear a bell ring for service grieved him. " It struck at my life," he says. He thought it was just like a market bell calling the people together, that the priest might sell his wares. 3° GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. In his Journal he laments, at considerable length, the vast sums of money — Penn says a million and a half annually — which were gained by the bishops as well as the minor clergy, in selling the Scriptures to their flocks. Fox forcibly contends that Christ intended the gospel to be preached without fee or reward, and entirely ignores all the passages which refer to those who minister about holy things living of the sacrifices. One can picture his horror if he could have foreseen the proposal that a separate order of paid ministers should be established among the Friends, a proposal which appeared in a recent number of a Quaker journal. From Mansfield he went to Nottingham. As he got near the town he heard the bells of St. Mary's ringing, and the sound so affected him that he felt moved to "go and cry against the great temple." A vast con- gregation filled the spacious church. As he looked at them, Fox tells us he thought they looked like a great piece of fallow ground, and the priest in the pulpit like a great clod of earth. The preacher took for his text the words of St. Peter, " We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." 1 He went on to tell his hearers that they ought to try all doctrines, religions, and opinions by the Scriptures, for they were the word of God. " Oh, no ! it is not by the Scriptures," called out Fox, who could no longer contain himself, " it is by the Holy Spirit." The Jews, he continued, had professed to try their doctrines by the Scriptures, and they rejected Christ, therefore they had endeavoured to do without the Holy Spirit, so the 1 St. Peter i. 19 FOX COMMENCES HIS MINISTRY. 3> Scriptures could not be a safe guide. Before he had time to finish his harangue the constables came and took him to the gaol, and thrust him into so foul a dungeon that the smell got into his mouth and throat and much "annoyed" him. Although his discourse was unfinished, the people who had " heard him were so much amazed that they could not get his words out of their heads." The same evening George was taken before a con- clave composed of the Mayor, Aldermen, and "Sheriffs" of Nottingham. The mayor was a man of a peevish and fretful temper, but there was something in Fox's manner which subdued him so much that he gave him a fair hearing. George did not attempt to excuse him- self, but boldly affirmed that the Spirit of the Lord had commanded him to go into the steeple-house and address the people. After some discussion as to what to do with him, the magistrates determined to send him back to prison. He had scarcely arrived at the gaol door when he got a message from the head sheriff, John Reckless, asking him to go to his house, which George immediately did. As he entered, the sheriff's wife met him, and, taking him by the hand, said, " this day is Salvation come to our house." George stayed there that night, was treated with the greatest kindness, and encouraged to expound his views, which he did so effectually that the " Divine power much changed and affected the whole family." The sheriff recollected that he and his brother sheriff, who were partners in the same business, had wronged a poor woman without her being aware of it, and he at once sent off for his fellow officer and for the woman. The other sheriff, when he came, denied having done the woman any wrong, and the woman herself was unconscious of it, but Fox's friend insisted that that wrong had been done, and 32 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. that the other knew it, and at once made restitution for his share to the poor woman, and exhorted his partner to do the like. The next day the friendly sheriff felt moved to go into the market-place and speak to the people, which he did in such a way that some of his hearers felt in their turn moved to go and exhort the magistrates and people to repent and turn to the Lord ; and the town soon got into such a state of uproar that the soldiers had to be called out to disperse the mob. Fox was speedily released from custody, and after taking leave of the kindly sheriff and his family, went to Mansfield Woodhouse, where he saw a doctor en- deavouring to bleed a distracted woman, who, though bound, was struggling so violently that the blood would not flow. George directed them to unbind the woman, and this being done he called on her, in the name of the Lord, to be still. She obeyed him, was bled, and when she recovered became a prominent Quakeress. Here, too, he went into the steeple-house and attempted to declare the truth, but the people would not listen, and beat him severely with sticks and Bibles. They next put him in the stocks and threatened to flog him, but, thinking better of it, hauled him before a magistrate, who, having severely admonished him, set him at liberty. As the magistrate would not punish him, the people took the law into their own hands, and stoned him out of the place. At Market Bosworth, hearing that his former friend, Nathaniel Stevens, Vicar of Drayton-in-the-Clay, was to preach, Fox went to hear him. He tells us that when he spake Stevens " raged much and told the people that I was mad, though he had said before to Colonel Pursey, there was never such a plant bred in England " {sic) ; he led the people not to hear me, who FOX COMMENCES H 'IS MINISTRY. 35 being stirred up by this deceitful priest, fell upon us and stoned us out of the town, yet they did not do us much hurt. Howbeit some people were made loving that day ; and others were confirmed, seeing the rage of both priests and professors, and some cried out that the priest durst not stand to prove his ministry." Pass- ing through Twycross, Fox was moved to go and pray by the bedside of a rich man who was dangerously ill ; as he was coming down stairs afterwards, a serving man rushed round a corner and set a drawn sword against his breast. "Alack for thee, poor creature," said Fox coolly, looking him steadfastly in the face, " what wilt thou do with thy drawn weapon ? It is no more to me than a straw." The man, too much astonished to speak, put up his sword and turned away in a rage, while Fox left the house as quietly as if nothing unusual had happened. The man's action no doubt arose from excessive, though misplaced, zeal for his employer, for probably he was like some of the more ignorant people, who appear to have considered Fox little better than a necromancer. When his master recovered, he was turned away for his rashness. Going to Derby in 1650, Fox stayed at the house of a doctor, whose wife he convinced of the truth of his doctrines. One day, while in his bedroom, he heard the church bell ring, and asking the woman of the house why it was ringing, she told him that a great lecture was to be given there that day, and that many preachers and officers of the parliamentary army were expected to be present, especially a colonel who was a preacher. Of course Fox felt moved to go to the lecture and, when there, to speak ; and the people listened to his exhortation pretty quietly. When he had finished an officer came up to him and told him that he must go before the magistrates, together with D 34 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the two friends who were with him. Fox was examined the same day. On being asked why he had gone to the lecture ? he answered that the Lord had moved him to do so, and added that God did not dwell in temples made with hands. But George shall tell his tale in his own inimitable way. " I also said all their preaching, baptisms, and sacrifices would never sanctify them, and bade them look unto Christ in them, for it is Christ that sanctifies. Then they ran into many words ; but I told them they were not to dispute of God and Christ, but obey Him. The power of God thundered among them, they did fly like chaff before it. They had me in and out of the room often, for they were from the first hour (after noon) till the ninth at night in examining me. Sometimes they would tell me in a deriding manner, that I was taken up in raptures. At last they asked me if I was sanctified ? I answered, ' Yes, for I was in the paradise of God.' Then they asked me if I had no sin ? I answered, ' Christ, my Saviour, has taken away my sin, and in Him there is no sin. They asked me how we knew that Christ did abide in us ? I said, ' By His spirit that He hath given us.' They temptingly asked, ' If any of us were Christ?' I answered, 'Nay, we were nothing, Christ was all.' They asked, ' If a man steal, is it no sin V I answered, ' All unrighteousness is sin.' When they had wearied themselves in examining me, they com- mitted me and one other man to the house of correction in Derby for six months as blasphemers." CHAPTER IV. IMPRISONMENT. Religious systems in 1650. — -The Anglican Church. — Presbyterians and their hatred of toleration. — -The Independents. — The Bap- tists. — The Ranters. — Minor sects. — Quaker doctrines not original. — Quakerism chiefly disliked on account of its social peculiarities.— Fox's treatment in Derby Gaol. — Tells the justices to quake at the name of the Lord. — His relations visit him. — Other visitors. — His letters to the bell-ringers and people of Derby. — Endeavours to prevent the execution of a young woman. — George is pestered to join the army. — The magis- trates puzzled what to do with him. — He is liberated. AND now, while George Fox, for his religious prin- ciples, is lying in Derby prison, we may take the opportunity to enquire what these principles were, and how they conflicted with those of the chief religious systems of the time ; of what he approved, and to what he objected. The chief of these systems was the Episcopal or Anglican Church, which, although it had at this time been virtually abolished by the Parliament having, in 1644, subscribed to the Solemn League and Covenant, and thus set up Presbyterianism as the established form of religion in England, yet continued to be a power in the land. The Episcopalian clergy still lingered in many of the country villages, and, notwithstanding that most of them had conformed, at leas!: in outward seeming, they were true in heart to the Church they professed to have renounced for the sake of retaining 35 , - 36 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. their temporalities ; and there can be no doubt — for the readiness with which Episcopacy was again received at the Restoration proves it — they had a large and faithful following among their flocks. It is not necessary to do more than mention this Church (the one to which Quakers have, perhaps, the least objection 1 ), for its creed was then essentially what it is at the present day. The largest, although not the wealthiest, body of Nonconformists, was the Presbyterians. Their first Church in England was established in the palmy days of " good Queen Bess," and consisted of the people then called Puritans. Among other things, they objected to bishops as a separate and governing order, believing that it was more consistent with Scripture that the Church should be governed by pastors, presbyters and elders. They denied the right of bishops to order and direct congregations. Instead, however, of leaving each Church " with absolute control over its own members and officers, they associated several Churches in one synod, and a number of these synods again united in forming a general assembly, which was the supreme governing body." 2 In bygone days the Presbyterians had been bitterly persecuted ; suffering however had taught them no lesson of mercy or toleration, and when their brief day of authority came, they retaliated with equal bitterness. Toleration seemed to them a sin. Some ministers de- nounced it as the root and gall of bitterness ; others as contrary to godliness. Some said that toleration opened a door to libertinism ; others that is was soul poison. 1 "A Quaker being asked what Church he would soonest live under, if Quakerism could not be allowed to be the National Church, readily replied, the Church of England, mentioning instances of severity they had met with from dissenters of different denomina- tions." — Gentleman's Magazine. 2 " Library of the Society of Friends." Vol. i. p. 7. IMPRISONMENT. 37 So fierce was their opposition to it, that after a long conference of a Committee in Parliament for the purpose of making some agreement by which the Independents might be accommodated in their views of Church government, the scheme was abandoned, because the Presbyterians refused to concede anything. 1 Against no other sect had the Quakers so great a prejudice, for no other sect presented so stern a front of unshrinking and overweening Calvinism to their charity and liberality. Nevertheless, when the Church of England regained its supremacy, and the Presbyterians were again subjected to persecution, they complained as much as other sects in the same condition. The Independents were an outgrowth of the Brownists, a body which held that the Episcopalian was not a true Church, because of the popish corruptions which still retained a place in its liturgy, and on account of its having persecuted Nonconformists ; they also held that the Church ought to be entirely governed by its mem- bers, and that its ministers should be subject neither to selection nor human authority. Any member who felt " called " was allowed to pray or preach ; they permitted no prescribed form of worship ; and each Church was distinct, and only held communication with others as holding a common faith. There is no doubt that the Brownists were zealous in propagating their principles, sincere in their belief, and consistent in their lives ; but they were narrow-minded and prejudiced, and, meeting with much persecution, a great part of their body fled to the Continent, only to meet with treatment very little better. The Independents, of whom Mr. Green has given so 1 "Library of the Society of Friends." 33 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. eloquent an account in his " History of the English People," 1 held much the same views as the sect which gave them birth. Each of their Churches was distinct and complete, managing its own affairs, judging of the fitness of candidates for membership or the ministry, and of the propriety of expelling those who were dis- orderly. They, too, required no ordination or even previous training in their preachers. During the earlier part of the Commonwealth they were greatly distin- guished for their attachment — in theory — to the prin- ciples of toleration, but as soon as they were able, they practised great severity against both Quakers and Baptists. 2 The Baptists, a large number of whom are said to have become Quakers, were the wealthiest of all the dissenting sects. 3 Their leading tenet was the neces- sity for adult baptism by immersion, for they believed both infant baptism and sprinkling to be contrary to Scripture, and they re-baptised all they admitted into their Church. Most of them held the doctrine of freewill, but a large section, who termed themselves Particular Baptists, adhered to Calvinism. Of all the Puritan sects, the Baptists came nearest in doctrine and practice to the Quakers, especially in the matters of toleration, and opposition to a paid ministry. We are told that they were usually persons of seriousness of mind and strictness of deportment, and were anxious to practise that form of worship only which they believed to have 1 Vol. iii. chap. xi. 2 Some Presbyterian ministers once went so far as to denounce toleration as the Diana of Independents (" Friends' Library," vol. i.). Even a man of Milton's vast talents and breadth of mind claimed for the Protector the right to set up and enforce what form of Church government he would. See his treatise " On the likeliest means of removing hirelings out of the Church." 3 See note B. IMPRISONMENT. 39 been used by Christ and His Apostles. The Ranters or Seekers, among whom Fox found his readiest fol- lowers, were an offshoot of this body. They, equally disliking the formality of the Anglican Church and the sanctimonious manners of the Puritans, withdrew from all visible Churches, in order that they might seek in private that instruction which comes from meditation and prayer. 1 They did not think good works necessary as an evidence of faith, nor did they hold the moral law obligatory, since Christ had fulfilled it. "As if," says Penn, "Christ came not to take away sin, but that we might sin more freely at His cost, and with less danger to ourselves." These doctrines carried into practice led to the wildest self-indulgence, and the most horrible kinds of debauchery and licentiousness, and they were advocated with an intemperance which led to the sect being sneeringly termed Ranters. It is supposed to be to them that Butler refers in his " Hudibras," — " Saints may do the same things by The Spirit in sincerity Which other men are tempted to, And at the Devil's instance do, And yet the actions be contrary, Just as the saints and sinners vary." Besides the sects just mentioned, there were numer- ous others, the largest of which was the Arminians, who held the doctrine of free grace ; and the Erastians, 2 who, Janney tells us, " maintained the pastoral office to be only persuasive, without power to refuse the sacra- ments to any, or inflict censure upon offenders, whom 1 " Life of George Fox," Janney, p. 30. 2 The Erastians took their appellation from Erastus, a German divine of the 16th century. This sect was but a small one, there being only two of their ministers at the Westminster Assembly. See Neal's " History of the Puritans," vol. i. page 190. 40 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. they would leave entirely to the civil power." The Antinomians were also a numerous sect, and held, like the Ranters, " that the oral law was not obligatory under the gospel, and denied the necessity of good works as the fruit of holiness ; " but they were apparently less ex- travagant. They also deemed that it was impossible for the elect to displease God. In the fifteenth century, there were a number of people who denied the necessity of baptism by water, for they alleged that all Christian people were baptised by the blood of Christ. Some of these people suffered martyrdom, and, for a long time, were the objects of considerable persecution ; in the fol- lowing century they received the title of Anabaptists, and at the time of the Commonwealth were a fairly numerous and influential body. 1 And now what was the religion that George Fox de- voted his life to promulgating ? There was little that was entirely new in Quakerism. Most of its peculiar doc- trines had been held previously by either one or other of the many Puritan sects. Even the most important, that of the Divine light, which in some degree shone in every man, and which, if he followed it carefully, was of itself sufficient to lead him to Christ, had been shadowed forth, at least in part, by some of the German mystics ; 2 while 1 Dr. Cunningham, in his book, " The Quakers," gives the following list of sectaries at the time of which I am writing, viz. Anabaptists, Antinomians, Antiscripturists, Baptists, Bohemenists, Brownists, Familists, Independents, Libertines, Millenarians, Perfectists, Presbyterians, Ranters, Seekers, and Socinians. 2 The doctrines and practices of the Mennonites, a sect which flourished in Germany in the early part of the sixteenth century, exhibit so remarkable a likeness to those of the Quakers, that some have imagined that George Fox derived many of his ideas from them. This however, seems highly improbable, as he never men- tions meeting any of this sect during his travels ; and there is no evidence of any of Mennon's followers visiting England till after IMPRISONMEN T. 41 in the total rejection of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the commands to observe which Fox regarded as merely temporary — it only did what the Anabaptists had done more than a hundred years before. The only true baptism Quakers hold is that of the Holy Spirit ; the only real communion, that between the soul and its Maker. In having no fixed form of worship, Fox was preceded by the Brovvnists ; in rejecting the Scriptures as a sufficient guide, he only adopted the idea — by no means uncommon among the Puritans — that God, in some mystical manner, revealed His will to His servants from time to time. For all this, the Quakers are constant students of the Bible, and value it above all other books, and take the utmost care that their services shall be decent, orderly and devout. Fox can hardly be said to have received the doctrine of the Trinity, in the common acceptation of the term, for he never admitted the personality of the Holy Ghost, holding that the Spirit was an emanation from God, by means of which He influenced the hearts of men. 1 He also taught that perfection was attain- Fox's death. In his book, " The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth," chap, v., Mr. Barclay tells us that " the Mennonites held that no Christian could swear, or revenge him- self in any way whatever, that the magistrates should be obeyed in all things not contrary to the Word of God, and that since the duty of the magistrate compelled him to take oaths and bear a sword, no Christian could be a magistrate." Like the Quakers, they have a long pause before meals, instead of using a grace, and in some other respects the practices were similar. 1 Dr. Stoughton, in his valuable " Life of William Penn," tells us that Penn, in his contest with Vincent, a Presbyterian minister, in or about the year 1667, was asked whether the Quakers owned one Godhead in three distinct and separate persons, and replied that they could not accept the doctrine put in that form as of Scriptural origin. In 1668, Penn published a book called " The Sandy Foun- dation Shaken," which is an attack on the commonly received 42 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. able on earth ; that Christ's teaching should be followed both in the spirit and in the letter ; that, if God be no respecter of persons, His followers ought not to be ; that all men are directly responsible to God, and there- fore, that there ought to be entire freedom of conscience, and the fullest social and religious liberty. " To a Quaker," says one author, nobly, " Christianity is free- dom," but it is a freedom which its founder was careful never to permit to degenerate into licence. Such a religion as this, made up of a little taken from one sect and a little from another, was certain to give offence to all : its denunciation of liturgical worship offended one ; its tolerance another and its non-sacra- mental tenets a third ; but the offence given by its creed sank into insignificance before that given by its social principles. Ministers of every denomination disliked a sect which taught that a paid and trained ministry was unscriptural, and which permitted them to have neither power nor authority over congregations ; soldiers des- pised one that denounced all wars, and even the bear- ing of arms ; lawyers hated one that forbade lawsuits. Rich people protested against a religion which avowedly reduced them to a social equality with their poorer neighbours, and the great against one that denied them outward honour. The gay dreaded a creed which for- bade the most innocent games, music or dancing, as sternly as it forbade the gambling house, the racecourse, doctrine that God subsists in "three separate and distinct persons." " In answer to some who accused the Quakers of not accepting the Trinity, Penn replied, that they believed in the Holy Three, but were tender of quitting Scripture phrases for those of the Schoolmen, such as distinct separate persons and substances." — Brewster's " Encyclopaedia." In "The Creeds of Christendom," Dr. Schaffe is of opinion that the Quakers hold this doctrine in substance, though not in name. IMPRISONMENT. 43 or the theatre ; the aesthetic, one that reprobated pictures and sculpture. The traders protested against a religion which required each act of business to be an act of con- science, and the poor against one that threatened to reduce their scanty wages by abolishing the use of the luxuries they were largely employed in supplying. The social effects which Quakerism, if it became the national religion, would have on the country, was a thing imme- diately visible ; its moral results could only be dimly foreseen by the more thoughtful. The effects of Quaker- ism have been to help, comfort and strengthen each one of us, to render our lives more easy, to sweep away many dark patches on the bright page of our civiliza- tion, to purify the national conscience, and to educate the national mind ; but it would be as absurd to blame the people of the Commonwealth, because they could not foresee what the results of Quakerism would be, as it would be for us to attempt to pronounce authorita- tively what the condition of the world would be at the end of the twenty-first century, supposing Mormonism sud- denly to become the national religion of America. It will be better to treat more fully of the opposition which Quakerism encountered, and of the work it accomplished, later on, and to return at once to Fox, whom we left in the dreariest dungeon of the dreary gaol at Derby. The keeper of this prison was a " high professor," in other words, a man who wished to be thought very reli- gious, and who was at first very bitter against George, and exceedingly cruel to him. " But it pleased the Lord," says his harmless prisoner, " to strike him, and he was in much terror of mind." " Wife," Fox overheard him say to his spouse one day, " Wife, I have seen the day of judgment, and I saw George there, and I was afraid of him, because I have done him so much wrong, and have spoken so against him to the ministers and professors GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. and to the justices and in taverns and alehouses." On the evening of the same day, the gaoler went down to his prisoner, and said he had hitherto been like a lion to him, but now he would be like a lamb, and finished by asking him to stay at his house. Fox answered that the other was governor, and could do as he liked ; but the man insisted on Fox's formally accepting the in- vitation, which he did, and slept at the man's house that night. In the morning the gaoler went to the justices and told them that he had been much plagued on account of George, whereupon one of them remarked that the plagues had fallen on them also for keeping him in prison. The justice who made this remark was named Bennet, and was the man who, upon Fox warn- ing him to tremble at the name of the Lord, gave the Friends the nickname of Quakers, a name which for many years was one of scorn and contumely, but has now for a long time been one of pride and honour. The justices now gave the extraordinary order that Fox should have liberty to walk where he liked and when he liked, provided he kept within a mile of the prison. He, however, was acute enough to see that they heartily desired — as the gaoler afterwards allowed was true — that he should walk away altogether ; and he sarcastically told his keeper that if the justices would set down how far a mile was, he would take the liberty of walking it sometimes ; for he was not inclined to ease them of their plague in the way they wished. His relations, who had at last heard of his imprison- ment, came and offered the magistrates bail that, if re- leased, George should not go near Derby, nor trouble the priests again, for they were heartily ashamed of his position, and most of them thought him deranged. But George when brought before the justices declined to acquiesce in this arrangement, on the ground that, IMPRISONMENT. 45 as he was innocent, he would not allow any one to be bound for him. Then he knelt down in the court to pray for the forgiveness of the justices, whereupon Bennet jumped up from the bench in a rage, and cuff- ing him with both hands, cried, " Away with him, gaoler ; take him away, gaoler ! " and back to prison poor George was taken, to lie in a dreadful place, stinking and swarming with vermin, and in the horrible company of thirty felons, until the six months for which he had been committed should have expired. Besides his relations George had other visitors. One of these was a soldier, in creed a Baptist, who had heard him speak in St. Mary's church at Nottingham. In conversation this man jeeringly told him, that "his (Fox's) faith lay in a man that died at Jerusalem, and there never was such a man." George, much grieved, argued with the soldier, and succeeded in convincing him of the reality of Christ's earthly life and death, yet some who were present set about a slander to the effect that the Quakers denied Christ. Soon after, some people who called themselves triers of spirits, came to him, and were asked, " What was the first step to peace, and what was it by which a man might see his salvation ? " We do not know what answer they made, but finding that Fox had a spirit too great for them to try, they informed him he was mad, and left the gaol. While in prison he commenced a practice, which afterwards became inveterate with him, viz. of writing addresses and warnings. These letters were often rambling and illogical, but they always had some deep meaning, and were thoroughly characteristic of the pure high moral nature and the deep and true religion of the somewhat eccentric writer. 1 1 Croese says that Fox's writing was illegible, often unintelligible, and that the task of writing was so difficult to him, that he fre- 4 6 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. The following short letters, written at this time, will show his style. The first was to warn the bellringers of the various churches in Derby. " Friends, take heed of pleasures, and prize your time now while you have it ; do not spend it in pleasures nor earthliness. The time may come that ye will say, You had time, when it is past ; therefore look at the love of God now while you have time, for it bringeth to loathe all vanities and worldly pleasures. Oh ! consider, time is precious ; fear God and rejoice in Him, who hath made heaven and earth." The second was addressed to the inhabitants of Derby. " As the waters run away when the flood-gates are up, so doth the visitation of God's love pass away from thee, O Derby ; therefore look where thou art and how thou art grounded before thou art utterly forsaken. The Lord moved me twice before I came to thee, and to warn all to look to the Lord and not at man. The Woe is against the crown of pride, against drunkenness and vain pleasures, and against them that make a profession of religion in words, yet are high and lofty in mind and live in oppression and envy. You profess a sabbath in words and meet together, dressing yourselves in fine apparel, and you uphold pride. Thy women go with stretched necks and wanton eyes, etc., which the true prophets of old cried against. Your assemblies are odious and abominable to the Lord, pride is set up and quently got some one else to write for him and to put his thoughts into comprehensible language. Sewel, on the contrary, affirms that his writing was legible, and that though he usually employed others to write for him, he chose young lads upon whom he could depend not to alter his words and phrases. Such of his handwriting as the author has seen, while it cannot be called either good or clear, is certainly not difficult to read, and the style is in exact accordance with that of his published writings. IMPRISONMENT. 47 bowed down to, covetousness abounds, and he that doth wickedly is honoured. So deceit bears with deceit, yet they profess Christ in words. Oh the deceit that is within thee ! It breaks my heart to see how God is dis- honoured in thee, O Derby." Fox also wrote to the judges of assize, warning them that they were not justified in putting men to death for theft and like crimes, for such severity was against the laws of God, which laws he exhorted them to bear con- stantly in mind ; they were to show mercy, to refuse bribes and gifts, and not to allow men to lie so long in prison that they could learn wickedness. What effect these particular epistles had we cannot tell, but we have a record of the good that one of his letters did. " While I was here," says Fox in his Journal, " there was a young woman in the gaol for robbing her master. When she was to be tried for her life, I wrote to the judge and jury, showing how contrary it was to the laws of God in old time to put people to death for stealing, and moving them to show mercy." The unfortunate girl, however, was condemned to be hung, her grave was dug, and, at the time fixed for her execution, she was carried out to die. Fox had seized the opportunity to improve the occasion by writing a paper to warn people to beware of greediness, and this was read by the gaoler while the condemned girl was standing on the steps of the gallows. Then the cord was placed round her neck, but just as the executioner was about to launch her into eternity she was informed she was pardoned. It may be objected that Fox had nothing to do with obtaining this pardon ; but when we consider the unlikelihood of the girl being released without the intercession of some friend, it is more than probable he had. Although Fox does not claim it in so many words as his doing, he im- plies it ; and, even if he does — as one of his biographers 48 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. has accused him of doing- — set a liberal estimate of their value on his own acts, he never does so without justifiable grounds. The fact that the girl shortly after- wards became a Friend is also indirect evidence that Fox's intercession had some weight. A little while before the decisive battle of Worcester was fought, Justice Bennet sent several constables to Fox to press him to become a soldier. He had some time before been asked if he would voluntarily accept a command in the Parliamentary army, but had refused ; his reasons for refusing, however, no longer being those which had made him decline when some few years before his friends had wished him to join in order to overcome his melancholy. Now he based his refusal on purely religious grounds, for his light had revealed to him that all wars, other than mystically spiritual ones, were sinful. He told the constables "that he was bought off from outward wars," and finding him firm they went away. Soon after, he tells us, " they came again to give me press money, but I would take none. Then I was brought up to Sergeant Holes, kept there awhile, and taken down again. Afterwards the con- stables brought me a second time before the commis- sioners, who said I should go for a soldier ; but I told them I was dead to it. They said I was alive. I told them that where envy and hatred is, there is confu- sion. They offered me money twice, but I refused it. Being disappointed, they were angry, and committed me close prisoner, without bail or mainprize, where- upon I wrote to them again, 1 directing my letter to 1 In this letter he warns the magistrates, in somewhat strong terms, against war. Watson tells us that his informing the magis- trates that he was " bought [brought ?] off from war," and that " he was dead to it," much incensed them. IMPRISONMENT. 49 Colonel Barton, a preacher, and the rest who were con- cerned in my commitment." 1 He continued for some time to pester the magistrates with letters, until these narrow-minded and not over- worthy men became very much puzzled what to do with him, and were all " much exercised in spirit." These letters were principally warning them to do justice, not so much to himself, as from an abstract point of view ; in fact, the injustice of his own imprisonment does not seem to have troubled him much. He affirms that " there was a great judgment in the town, and the magistrates were uneasy about me, but could not agree what to do with me." One suggested that he should be sent to London to be examined or tried by the Parlia- ment, though on what grounds is far from clear. Another was for shipping him off to Ireland. Neither of these suggestions seem to have found much favour with the rest of the bench. Then they called him a deceiver, a seducer and a blasphemer, but this did not afford a solution of their difficulty ; and " afterwards," he says, " when God had brought his plagues upon them, they styled me an honest, virtuous man." At length, in despair of getting rid of him and his letters in any other way, " they were made to turn me out of gaol." This was about the beginning of the winter of 165 1. He had lain in Derby gaol for about twelve months, half of which time, roughly speaking, he had been kept in the house of correction, and been kindly treated, and the other half he had spent amongst the felons and prostitutes in the common gaol, and had been treated, if not like them, at all events, with consider- able harshness. Fox's imprisonment, although utterly unjust, if it 1 " Journal," p. 144. Edition 1808. E SO GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. served no other good purpose, brings some good points of his character into strong relief, particularly his sym- pathy with others, as evinced by the interest he took in the case of the poor girl who was condemned to be hung for theft, and also his love of justice and patience. It also caused him ever afterwards to be anxious for the im- provement of prisons, and the separation of those who were incarcerated for different offences, and of old gaol- birds from those who were imprisoned for the first time. Tt is difficult to decide how much of the amelioration of the condition and treatment of prisoners within the last two hundred years we owe to the Quaker movement, but all admit that it is a very large proportion. Fox proved from actual observation the evil influence that imprisonment, as then inflicted, had on those not wholly vicious, and impressed on his followers the vital importance of effecting a change in the laws. Though Fox does not appear to have been summoned as a brawler, but as a blasphemer, it is as evident from the wording of 5 & 6 Edward VI. c. 4, that he was guilty of the first offence as it is that he was innocent of the second. This statute, which was passed on ac- count of the frequency of quarrels between members of the Reformed Church and the adherents to the Roman Catholic Church, enacted that any person who by words only quarrelled, chid, or brawled in any church or churchyard, should be punished. The punishment for a layman was to forbid his attending the church for such time as the ordinary thought proper. How far Fox infringed this Act is uncertain, but there is evidence that he disturbed the congregation, and at this time he was not usually delicate in his choice of words or epi- thets. Whether the temporary overthrow of the Church of England for the time abrogated this statute, is a point which lawyers must decide ; but I think that it IMPRISONMENT. 5i probably was not held to have done so, for we fre- quently meet with cases in which Quakers and other Nonconformists were prosecuted for disturbing congre- gations of Independents and Presbyterians. CHAPTER V. THE FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. Change in the condition of the country during Fox's imprisonment. — His extraordinary visit to Lichfield. — Was he insane ? — He continues his wanderings. — Visits Captain Parsloe at Selby. — Is taken to see Justice Hotham. — Adventure at an inn. — Sleeps under a haystack. — Goes to York. — The deceitful Scotch priest. — Is kindly treated by Justice Robinson. — His great meeting near Pickering. — His means of livelihood. — 111 treated at Patrington, Tickhill, and other places. T I THEN Fox was released from Derby gaol, he V V found the political aspect of the country greatly changed. The Scots, on his having promised to abolish Episcopacy, had acknowledged Charles the Second as their rightful king, and, under his leadership, they had invaded England. The Royalist rising this action caused was defeated with crushing force on the field of Worcester, and the king in name — after several ad- ventures and with some difficulty — succeeded in reach- ing the safe shelter of Fecamp, leaving his victor, Cromwell, to enjoy the power, if not the title, of king. But none of these things troubled Fox ; he was per- fectly indifferent as to whether the government of the country he lived in was conducted under monarchical or republican forms ; all he wished for himself was liberty to proclaim what he believed to be the truth ; all he wished for others was freedom to practise, without fear of inti- midation or persecution, the form of religion they pre- ferred. As soon as he was set at liberty he " went on THE FOUND A TION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. 53 in the work of the Lord " as if it had not suffered nearly a year's interruption, and he determined to pursue that work with increased vigour. The people he met with were usually friendly, although he tells us of one outra- geous professor who " had an intent to do him a mischief, but the Lord prevented him." And now we come to what is perhaps the most remarkable instance of eccentricity in the whole life of Fox. A few days after his release he was crossing a field with some of his followers, and looking up saw in the distance the three tall spires of a great church, which he felt " strike at his life." He asked what place it was, and was told it was Lichfield. Apparently he took no notice of the answer, and went with his friends to the house at which they intended to stop and busied himself in seeing them comfortably lodged, then steal- ing quietly out of the house ran, as if for his life, over hedge and ditch until he came within a mile of the spires which had so strangely attracted him. In a large field, in which some shepherds were keeping their sheep, he paused to take breath. " Then," he tells us, " I was commanded by the Lord to pull off my shoes. I stood still, for it was winter, and the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I pulled off my shoes and left them with the shepherds, and the poor shepherds trem- bled and were astonished. Then I walked on about a mile till I came into the city, and as soon as I got with- in the city the word of the Lord came to me again saying, ' Cry, Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield.' So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, ' Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield.' And it being market day I went into the Market Place, and to and fro into the several parts of it, and made stands crying as before, ' Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield,' and no one laid hands on me ; but as I went thus crying 54 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. through the streets, there seemed to me to be a channel of blood running down the streets, and the Market Place appeared like a pool of blood. When I had declared what was upon me, and felt myself clear, I went out of the town in peace, and returning to the shepherds gave them some money and took my shoes of them again. But the fire of the Lord was so in my feet and all over me that I did not matter (care) to put my shoes on again, and was at a stand whether I should do so or no, till I felt freedom of the Lord so to do ; then, after I had washed my feet, I put my shoes on again. After this a deep consideration came upon me, for what reason I should be sent to cry against that city, and call it the bloody city. For though Parliament had the minster one while and the king another, and much blood had been shed in the town during the wars between them, yet that was no more than had befallen many other places. But afterwards I came to under- stand that in the Emperor Diocletian's time a thousand Christians were martyred at Lichfield. So I was to go w ithout my shoes through the channel of their blood, and into the pool of their blood in the Market Place, that I might raise up the memorial of the blood of those martyrs which had been shed above a thousand years before and lay cold in the streets. So the sense of their blood was upon me and I obeyed the word of the Lord. Ancient records testify how many of the Christian Britons suffered there, and much I could write of the sense I had of the martyrs' blood that hath been shed in this nation for the name of Christ, both under the ten persecutions and since ; but I leave it to the Lord and to His Book, out of which all shall be judged, for His Book is a most certain record and His Spirit a True Recorder." Whether or not Fox was partially insane at this time THE FOUNDA TION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH, 55 has been a disputed point with his biographers, some holding that he was, others that this act was only an outburst of ungovernable enthusiasm. Certainly his subsequent conduct was often that of an enthusiast, but never that of a madman. But even if we allow that this escapade was that of an insane person, the admission is of no value. Just released from prison — and contem- porary writers show us how horrible prisons were in those days — it is possible that his freedom may have turned his brain for the time ; but the events which immediately follow show that if so it was only for a very short time. That he really was inspired to denounce Lichfield probably no one believes, for no result what- ever followed his denunciation. It is curious that his ardent admirer and apologist, Sewel, does not allude to this occurrence. After this Fox travelled through parts of Nottingham- shire and Derbyshire, on his way to Yorkshire, preach- ing in the villages and towns through which he passed. At Wakefield he held a large meeting, at which he "convinced " three men, who all became famous preachers in the Quaker community. These were James Naylor, Francis Goodyear and William Dewsbury. From here he went to pay a visit to Captain Parsloe, at Selby, whom he had heard was well disposed towards him, leaving his horse on the way with a man who had been to see him while a prisoner in Derby gaol. The horse seems to have been a great source of trouble to Fox, for he tells us in his quaint way, that he did not know what to do with it when he was " moved to go to many great houses and admonish and exhort the people to turn to the Lord." Why he did not take his horse with him when he went to these great houses, he does not say. He arrived at Beverley wet to the skin, and went to an inn. A girl admitted him, and spoke to 56 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. him as if she had seen him before and had expected him ; a circumstance which much surprised him, and for which he could not account. The next morning, although his clothes were still very wet, he put them on, and went to the Church — a place, he tells us, " of great profession " — arriving just before the conclusion of the sermon. When the preacher had finished, George stood up and spoke for a few minutes, his words causing a " mighty dread " amongst the people. The mayor of the town came up and spoke to him, but no one seemed inclined to interfere actively. When he had finished his address here, he left the place and went to another steeple-house, and again, waiting till the sermon was ended, he essayed to exhort the congregation. The priest declined an invitation to argue with George, on the ground that he was but a child, and unable to dis- pute with such a man as Fox, who thereupon declared that he did not want to dispute ; and in the end the people became so "loving" towards him, that they pressed him to remain as their teacher, an honour he refused. When Fox arrived at Captain Parsloe's house, he was very warmly welcomed, and, although it does not appear that his host had ever seen, or even heard of him before, he was not misinformed when he was told that Parsloe was disposed to be friendly towards him. His host took him to see a justice named Hotham, a man of considerable importance in that part, who also received him very kindly. While there a lady came, who told Hotham that she had been in the church at Beverley when Fox preached, that the people had taken him for a spirit or an angel, and that he had mightily astonished both priests, magistrates, and professors. All this Hotham repeated to Fox, who was exceedingly pleased at having been taken to be something superhuman. THE FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. 57 With this hospitable justice he stayed a week, and during that time was visited by many of the neighbour- ing priests. On the following Sunday he went with Captain Parsloe to the steeple-house, where the preacher — " a great high priest called a Doctor " — took for his text the words of the prophet Isaiah : " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price." No sooner had he finished than George felt moved to say, "Come down, thou deceiver ; dost thou bid people come freely, and take of the water of life freely, and yet thou takest three hundred pounds a year of them for preaching. Mayst thou not blush for shame ? Did the prophet Isaiah and Christ do so, who spake the words and gave them forth freely ? Did not Christ say to His ministers whom He sent to preach, ' Freely ye have received freely give.' " The priest was terribly disconcerted by this sudden attack, and at once left the church, when George had, as he almost gleefully tells us, as much time as he liked in which to address the people on his favourite topic of the Divine light which is in every man. Justice Hotham had not been to the church; but when George on his return told him of this, he posi- tively hugged his guest, so pleased was he that "the Lord's power " should have been revealed in such a striking manner. George left Justice Hotham's that same night. After journeying several miles he came to an inn, at which he wished to stay, but it was kept by " some very rude peojile." He went in and asked for some meat, and the hostess, having taken offence at his addressing her by the singular pronoun "thou," refused to serve him. Fox next asked for some milk, which she denied having. As George did not believe her, he then asked for cream, 5§ GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. and this she also said she had not got. No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than her little boy, who was playing in the room, overturned a churn, and the cream it contained was spilt all over the floor. The woman, vexed at having been proved a liar, vented her temper on the unlucky child, whom she beat savagely. Fox told her the accident was a judgment on her, and sternly reproved her for her conduct. This, however, did not help him, for the woman not only still refused to serve him, but even to let him sleep in the house, and so, hungry and tired, he had to lie down and sleep in the inclement weather, for it was within a week of Christ- mas, by the side of a haystack. Two days before Christmas he reached York, and at once felt " moved " to speak in the Cathedral. Waiting till the service was over, he announced that he had, something to say from the Lord. "Then say on quickly," said a member of the shivering congregation. After he had said a few words, the cold people got impatient, and hurrying him out of the church, pitched him down the steps. Not much hurt, he picked himself up and returned to his lodgings, where, later in the day, he held a service, which was not altogether unsuccessful. On leaving York, as he went through Cleveland, he met a Papist, whom he followed home, and lectured in such a way that the man got too much enraged to listen to him, and fled out of the house, leaving George in possession, though scarcely master of the situation. At Stath he met some Ranters, with whom he had several meetings, and a fairly amicable discussion. At the discussion was the leader of the Ranters in this part of England, as well as two priests, one of whom was Philip Scafe, afterwards a well-known Quaker minister ; the other being a Scotchman. The Ranter commenced by sar- castically telling George that he had had a vision of THE FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. 59 him sitting in a great chair, and that he had been directed to pull off his hat and bow to the ground before him. So saying the jeering man took off his hat and bowed. Fox retorted that it was his own figure that the Ranter had seen, and added, not over courteously, " Repent, thou beast ! " The man replied that Fox was jealous, whereupon George gave him so personal a description of jealousy that his mouth was effectually stopped. This somewhat spoilt the debate, and George made use of the opportunity to preach a sermon, in which he compared the Ranters to the people of Sodom. After the meeting was over, the Scotch priest suggested that they should go for a walk on the cliff ; but to this Fox would only consent provided a third person went with them, for he feared that otherwise what he said might be unfairly reported. To this the other agreed, and the walk was taken. After a long discussion they parted, apparently on the most amicable terms, and George was much surprised to learn from Scafe after- wards, that the Scotch priest declared that if he and Fox met again one of them should take the other's life, and that he would give his head if George was not knocked down before the end of another month. The Friends supposed that he had only desired to walk alone with Fox in order that he might have thrown him over the cliff, or at least have done him some serious mis- chief, which the presence of the third person prevented. Yet not very long afterwards this malignant priest became a Quaker minister, and twelve years later enter- tained Fox as an honoured guest in his house. George had several other disputes with priests in that part of the country, getting so much the better of them that one priest hid himself behind a hedge, sooner than meet him ; and (as I before mentioned) when the cry " The man in the leathern breeches is coming," many 6o GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. people would get out of his way as fast as they could, so great was " the power of the Word of the Lord over their earthly and airy spirits." In Yorkshire, Fox's ministry was more than usually successful. One of the women who came to hear him was a bigoted Independent, and before she started had told her neighbours that she would willingly go some distance to see him hanged ; but for all this she was con- vinced of the truth of his teaching and became a Friend. On his way to Pickering he held many disputations, in all of which he appears to have been the victor. When he arrived at Pickering, he found that the magis- trates were holding their sessions in the church, one Justice Robinson being the chairman. While these were going on, Fox held a service in the schoolroom, and so overcame a priest, a friend of Robinson's, who was present, that he placed his church at George's disposal. The next morning Fox went to call on Justice Robinson; and though he warned him that he could not pay him man's honour, they speedily became very loving to- gether. The good priest accompanied George to a neighbouring village, where a great meeting was to be held, at which it was expected that many professors of all sects would be present. George tells us that he mounted a haystack, and for several hours the people stood round to hear him, but he did not open his lips. " I was commanded to famish them from words," is the reason he gives. The people, who impatiently asked when he would begin, would have left had not the old priest persuaded them to stay, saying that the people often had to wait long for Christ to speak to them. At last George was moved to speak, and then the people were so struck with the Lord's power, that a large num- ber acknowledged the truth of Fox's doctrines. As they left the place, the o 1 d priest, whose name was Boyes, THE FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. 61 was repeatedly offered his tithes by one or another. These he refused to accept, saying that " he would have none of them, they might keep them, for he had enough without," and the people not unwillingly took him at his word. Fox now returned to Justice Hotham's house, where he was again kindly welcomed, the justice re- marking that "If God had not raised up George Fox to teach the principles of life and light, the whole nation would have speedily been overrun with Ranters." After stopping here a short time, Fox again set off upon his rambling travels. It would be uninteresting to follow his excursions minutely, for his adventures all bear a strong resemblance. At most places he had disputes with the priests, in which he was generally victorious. At many places he held more or less successful meetings ; at some he was kindly treated, while at a few the peo- ple absolutely refused to listen to him. The greater part of Fox's troubles came from preachers of different denominations. Most of those with whom he came in contact were disposed to look upon him unfavourably, as a man who was the avowed enemy of tithes, and indeed of every other kind of payment for preaching, and therefore as one whose success meant their ruin. 1 How, then, was he able to travel about as he did ? is a question often asked. He always seems to have had sufficient money to pay his way, and to give to those who needed. He had a horse, and (breeches excepted) dressed as an ordinary member of society ; in fact he was rather well dressed than otherwise, for he was al- ways very particular about his personal appearance, especially as regarded his linen. His lodging he often got 1 Post considers that most of the Quaker persecutions may be traced to the influence of the priests and their partisans. Post's " Life of George Fox." 62 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. free, and his bodily needs, too, were usually ministered to by his friends. For the rest, the small competency he possessed must have enabled him to do something more than provide for his simple wants. It is not gene- rally known that, although Quaker ministers are unpaid, they are permitted to receive presents, if they are satis- fied that these presents are given them as marks of esteem and not in any way as payment for their religious services. 1 One night, just as it was getting dusk, Fox, after several unimportant adventures, reached the town of Pat- rington. As he walked up the street, he warned priest and people to repent and turn to the Lord, and, by the time he had got to the end of the town, he had a large following, to whom, dark as it was, he preached. Al- though patiently listened to, he does not seem to have impressed the people favourably, for when he attempted to get a lodging he was everywhere refused, nor would his offered money purchase him so much as a drink of milk. Determining to spend the night in the open air, he turned to leave the place, followed by a scoffing, jeer- ing crowd. It was so dark that he could not see the road. At length a glimmer of water showed him a ditch, out of which he refreshed himself, and then, lying down beneath the shelter of some furze bushes, the weary man soon fell asleep. It was break of day when he awoke, and getting up he turned his back on the town which had been so inhospitable to him. He had not gone more than three miles when he was overtaken by a number of the inhabitants of Patrington, who, guarding him as if he was a prisoner, forced him to return to the town, which, having reached, he found to be in a state of uproar. A man, more kind-hearted than the rest, 1 See Note C. THE FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM IN THE NORTH. 63 gave him some bread and milk as he passed his door ; a gift for which, Fox tells us, he was very grateful, as for some days past he had not tasted food. Then the people forced him to go nine miles farther, in the oppo- site direction, to the house of the nearest justice, a man whose habit it was to get drunk as early as possible in the day, but who on this occasion fortunately happened to be sober. As Fox declined to take off his hat, and addressed him as " thou," the justice asked if he was mad ; but when it was explained to him that this was done on principle, and not from any feeling of disre- spect, he was good-natured enough to listen patiently to George's admonition to turn to the light. " Ay, ay," said the justice ; " you mean the Light spoken of in the third of John," and then taking Fox into a parlour, he demanded his papers and letters, for he seems to have had a suspicion that he was a Royalist agent. George, to prove that his reply that he had neither letters nor papers was true, took his linen from his bundle and unfolded it, when the justice, remarking that no vagrant would have such clean linen, set him at liberty. George was next carried back to Patrington by one of the men who had escorted him to the justice. When they arrived at his house, this man asked him to lie down on his bed in order to contradict a report — engendered by his being so often compelled tosleep in the open air — that " the Quaker " would not lie in any bed. On the following Sunday, George went to the steeple- house, where he was permitted to speak without moles- tation, and before he left the place the people had become very friendly. But Fox did not always fare so well. When in the church at Warmsworth, the priest asked him many questions, but the people would not permit him to reply. They thrust him out of the church, and after the service was over, beat him terribly, the priest 64 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. helping them. At another place a man fetched him into his house when the people were trying to stone him, and for this act of kindness had his head broken. At Doncaster he was taken before a magistrate, who declared that if ever he came there again, he would have his life. At Tickhill, while George was disputing in the church, he tells us, " The parish clerk up with his Bible, and, as I was speaking, struck me in the face with it, so that my face gushed out with blood, and I bled exceed- ingly in the steeple-house." Not content with this, the people pulled him out of the church and threw him over a stone wall, and then they dragged him through a house into the street, beating and stoning him all the time. Fortunately he was not so hurt as to be unable to go on to Balby the same day, though without his hat, which was lost in the struggle, and of which loss he seems to have thought far more than of his sore bones. So serious was this affair at Tickhill considered, that the justices held a special meeting to investigate the cause of the riot, and the clerk was terribly afraid lest his hand should be cut off for striking George in the church. 1 George, however, forgave him, and by refusing to appear against him, saved the man from this punishment — a mercy he scarcely deserved. 1 It is very doubtful whether the clerk was liable to so terrible a punishment ; for the statute 5 & 6 Ed. VI. c. 4, only provides that if any one smite or lay violent hands on another in the church, he shall be deemed ipso facto excommunicate. If, however, the Bible be deemed a " weapon," then, on conviction, the striker was liable to have his ears cut off, or if he had no ears, to be branded on the cheek with the letter F, as a fighter and fraymaker, and was also to be deemed ipso facto excommunicate. CHAPTER VI. THE FELLS OF S WAR THAW RE. The dissatisfaction of the Presbyterian ministers at their position. — They become active persecutors. — Aldam apprehended and taken to York gaol. — Spread of Quakerism and increase in the number of its ministers. — George meets Farnsworth at Bradford. — Is forbidden to eat with such as have an evil eye, and other "openings."— Brutally treated at Newton Cartmel. — Goes to Swarthmore Hall. — Description of Swarthmore. — Margaret Fell's account of his visit. — George's own account. — The interview between Fox and Judge Fell. ALTHOUGH the overthrow of the Church of Eng- land was an accomplished fact, yet in 1652 no religious party in the country was entirely contented. The Presbyterians, if they had, in some degree at least, succeeded to the emoluments of the dispossessed Epis- copalians, had succeeded neither to their prestige nor their influence ■} and their arrogance towards other sectaries, while it tended to prove their dissatisfaction at their own position, raised up for them a number of bitter and irreconcilable enemies in the ranks of their fellow-dissenters, and was, in a sense, a powerful 1 Hallam says that "the Presbyterian discipline and synodical government were very partially introduced ; and upon the whole the Church, during the suspension of the ancient laws, was rather an assemblage of congregations than a compact body, having little more unity than resulted from their common dependency on the temporal magistrate. In the time of Cromwell, who favoured the Independent sectaries, some of that denomination obtained livings ; but very few I believe, comparatively, who had not received either Episcopal or Presbyterian ordination." 6 5 p 66 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. weapon which was unsparingly used against them. Whatever rights and privileges the Episcopalians had enjoyed, the Presbyterians claimed the right to enjoy too ; but they were soon taught the lesson that imposts, which are rendered merely as a matter of course to one who can at least show that he has enjoyed them long and uninterruptedly, will be grudgingly yielded to another whose claim rests solely on the ground of succession. The title will be narrowly examined, and eager advantage will be taken of every flaw which offers a loophole of escape. The tithes the farmer had year by year paid to the priest, almost without thought — satisfied to pay because his father had paid before him — he now paid to the presbyter, only because the law compelled him to do so. The more enthusiastic Republican parties in the kingdom, divided as they were on nearly every other matter, were almost unanimous in their agreement to abolish tithes. Tithes, however, like private patronage, subsisted during the whole of the Commonwealth. 1 During this year (1652), active opposition was roused against the Quakers, and one of the first-fruits was the issuing of a warrant for the arrest, in any part of the West Riding, of Fox and his follower, Thomas Aldam. 1 The Parliament voted that tithes should cease as soon as there was evidence that a godly ministry could be maintained without them, and that they (tithes) should be maintained by law until such time. The majority which carried the first of these measures can hardly be described as large, and the second was only carried by two votes. This maintenance of tithes had an important influence at the Restoration, for otherwise it would have been extremely difficult to have re-established the Anglican Church, as there would have been no provision for its maintenance, and it is hardly pos- sible to conceive that, after being released for eight years from payment, the people would have consented to allow the re-infliction of this impost. See " Hallam," chap. x. page 458 (Edit. 1870). THE FELLS OF SWARTHMORE. 67 The constable who was charged to execute it made no difficulty about apprehending Aldam, but for some reason was loath to take Fox, who was with him, though the warrant included both. Fox was almost desirous of being arrested; and so far from avoiding the constable, he accompanied Aldam on his journey to York gaol. The constable, who seems to have been an easy and good-natured man, and to whom his task was somewhat obnoxious, actually, on the way to York, permitted Aldam to attend a meeting Fox held — a meeting important because at it we first hear of the three Quakers who soon afterwards became famous ministers and zealous missionaries, James Naylor, Thomas Goodyear, and William Dewsbury. The meet- ing over, the two friends parted, Aldam going with the constable to the gaol at York, and Fox to pursue his usual avocations. 1 Fox's peculiar doctrines, and especially that of " Divine light," had by this time spread so widely that, in nearly every place of any size within the basin of the Trent or in the more northern parts of the Midland counties, his followers had become so numerous as to be able to form little congregations and to hold, more or 1 There seems to have been little disposition to persecute on the part of Cromwell at this time ; for in a letter, Alexander Pearson tells us that he saw the Protector several times about the release of Aldam, and that Cromwell " had to signe his name to three instru- ments under the ' Broad Seal.' ... He was ever ready to do it, and stood with his hat off while I was with him ; which being noised abroad," adds Parker, " made all great men very civil." Parker also tells us that he believes he had to go to every court in London, and that the fees came to ^20. He quaintly expresses his amazement that, as he was so poor as to be unable to pay these fees, they should have been so civil, he being only able to give the clerks " something for parchment and wax and part of their pains." — "Swarthmore MSS." 68 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. less frequently, regular meetings ; nor were these meet- ings always private ones. Several of George's followers began to preach and dispute publicly, especially Naylor, Goodyear, Dewsbury, and Aldam, who appear to have given the whole of their time to propagating Quaker principles. Besides these, Edward Borough, Francis Howgill, and Richard Farnsworth, were among the leading ministers. Most of these men, like the Apostles, were poor and illiterate, but they all seem to have had considerable power of swaying the minds and touching the hearts of their hearers. This last was the qualification Fox most valued ; for, uneducated himself, he systematically undervalued education in ministers, and we never hear of him rejecting one preacher because he lacked learning, or accepting another on account of his possessing it. It is but fair, however, to add, that no minister was rejected because he was educated. Wherever he went Fox seems to have made a habit of stirring up the priests and professors, a habit which caused him to have some very narrow escapes of being severely injured, or even killed. At one place a man, who openly boasted that he had killed one man and two women, gave out that he intended to add Fox's name to the list of those whom he had murdered, and actually lay in wait to put his threat into execution; but " the Lord delivered him out of his hand." At Bradford Fox again met with his follower, Richard Farnsworth, and they went together to a house, where the people, willing to be friendly, pressed them to have some dinner. The offer was accepted ; but, just as he was about to commence, Fox heard the voice of the Lord say to him, " Eat not the bread of such as have an evil eye." So he immediately rose from the table, and no amount of pressing could induce him to eat a morsel ; THE FELLS OF SWARTHMORE. 69 and, having exhorted the family to turn to the true Light, he left the place. Some little while after, he tells us, he discovered that the woman was a Baptist; and al- though he does not clearly state whether he considered all Baptists to have " an evil eye," or whether it was wrong for a Quaker to eat with them, he seems to have con- sidered that this fact fully accounted for his revelation. A week or two after this occurrence, he had two more visions. " As we travelled," he tells us, " we came to near a great high hill called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it, which I did with much ado, it was so very steep and high. When I was at the top I saw the sea bordering on Lancashire. From the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered. As I went down I found a spring of water in the side of the hill, with which I refreshed myself, having eaten or drunk but little several days before." "At night," he continues, "we came to an inn, and declared truth to the man of the house, and wrote a paper to the priests and professors, declaring the day of the Lord, and that Christ was come. The man of the house spread the paper abroad and was himself mightily affected with the truth. Here the Lord opened unto me and let me see a great people in white raiment by a river side coming to the Lord." For some little time Fox travelled among the hills and dales of North Lancashire, and preached his doctrines with so much success that for several genera- tions these places were amongst the chief strongholds of Quakerism. In his Journal he records a quaint little incident which happened to him at Kendal, and which is highly characteristic of the man. " One Cock," he says, " met me in the street and would have given GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. me a roll of tobacco. I accepted his love, but did not receive the tobacco." In all probability the tobacco was refused, because Fox imagined it to be offered as a reward for his work, a thing he always dreaded. George, although we never hear of him smoking, was rather fond of snuff, which he used to take by sprinkling a little on the back of his hand when he had a cold. His snuffbox, formed from the end of a bullock's horn, is said to be still preserved, with several other relics of him, at Swarthmore. The day on which he arrived at Newton Cartmel forms a notable epoch, not only in his life, but in the history of Quakerism. He reached the village during the morning and commenced to address the people, who flocked to hear him, but before he had continued long the priest so stirred up the people that they cut the sermon short by throwing the preacher over a stone wall ; yet he was not wholly unsuccessful, for he made one convert (who subsequently became a preacher), and also actually persuaded the very people who had used him so savagely in the morning, to give him a patient hearing in the afternoon. This over, he went through Ulverstone to Swarthmore Hall, the seat of Judge Fell, at that time one of the Justices of the Welsh Circuit, and Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster. Why Fox should have gone to Swarthmore, is not at all clear, for it is evident that neither had he any knowledge of the Fells, nor were they Quakers ; the most reason- able hypothesis is, that they had the reputation of being " very tender people," and such, as we have seen, it was Fox's habit to visit ; and that he had heard, as Margaret Fell tells us was the fact, that they were interested in, or rather curious about, the Quaker movement. 1 1 Margaret Fell's reason, given on page 72, is hardly sufficient, when the fact that Fox habitually avoided going to the houses of THE FELLS OF SWARTHMORE. 7i Swarthmore Hall, which, though it still exists, is now little better than a dilapidated ruin, was in the seven- teenth century a fine and handsome specimen of a Yorkshire manor house of the smaller class. The house, like most of its fellows in the district, is built of stone, and has the square, solid, yet picturesque appearance common to the buildings of the previous century. To the east of it extends a tract of fertile land, which stretches down to the shores of Morecambe Bay, while to the west lies the exposed barren moorland of Swarthmore, from which the house is sheltered however by a belt of ancient trees ; and to the north the little town of Ulverstone may be seen, while the background is filled up by he rugged slopes of the Cumbrian hills. An account of Fox's first visit to Swarthmore, a visit of extreme interest and importance in Quaker history, is given by Margaret Fell in her "Testimony;" and the narrative is so quaint and pleasant, that I cannot refrain from giving it here, condensed, but otherwise un- altered : — "In the year 1652 it pleased the Lord to draw him (George Fox) towards us ; so he came on from Sedbur into Westmoreland, to Firbank Chapel, where John Bleykling came with him ; and so on to Preston, Grarig, Kendal, Under-barrow, Poobank, Cartmel, and Staveley, and so on to Swarthmore, my dwelling-house, whither he brought the blessed tidings of the everlasting gospel, which I and many hundreds in these parts have cause to praise the Lord for. My then husband, Thomas Fell, was not at home at that time, but gone the Welsh circuit, being one of the judges of assize; and our house being a place open to entertain ministers and professors for the sake of food and shelter is considered ; and he was a most unlikely man to have permitted a "friend" to have taken him to such a house. 72 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. religious people at, one of George Fox's friends brought him thither, where he stayed all night ; and the next day, being a lecture or a fast day, he went to Ulverstone steeple-house, but came not in till people were gathered ; I and my children had been there long before. And when they were singing before the sermon, he came in, and when they had done singing he stood up upon a seat or form and desired ' that he might have liberty to speak,' and he that was in the pulpit said he might. And the first words he spoke were as fol- lovveth : 4 He is not a Jew that is one outward, neither is that circumcision that is outward ; but he is a Jew that is one inward, and that is circumcision which is of the heart.' And so he went on and said : ' That Christ was the Light of the world, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and that by this Light they might be gathered to God,' etc. I stood up in my pew and wondered at his doctrine ; for I had never heard such before. And then he went on and opened the Scriptures, and said, ' The Scriptures were the prophets' words, and Christ's, and the apostles' words, and what, as they spoke, they enjoyed and possessed, and had it from the Lord.' And said, ' Then what had any to do with the Scriptures, but as they came to the Spirit which gave them forth. You will say, Christ saith this and the apostles say this ; but what canst thou say ? Art thou a child of the Light, and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inward from God ? ' etc. This opened me so, that it cut me to the heart ; and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again and cried bitterly ; and I cried in my spirit to the Lord, ' We are all thieves, we are all thieves, we have taken the Scrip- tures in words and know nothing of them in ourselves.' So that served me, that I cannot well tell what he spoke THE FELLS OF S IV A R THMORE. 73 afterwards ; but he went on in declaring against the false prophets, priests, and deceivers of the people. And there was one, John Sawrey, a justice of peace and a professor, that bid the churchwarden take him away ; and he laid his hands on him several times, and took them off again, and let him alone ; and then after a while he gave over, and came to our house again that night. And he spoke in the family amongst the servants, and they were all generally convinced ; as William Caton, Thomas Salthouse, Mary Askew, 1 Anne Clayton, and several other servants. And I was struck with such a sadness, I knew not what to do, my husband being from home. I saw it was the truth and I could not deny it ; and I did as the Apostle saith ; I received the faith in the ' love of it ' ; and it was opened to me so clear, that I had never a tittle in my heart against it, and then I desired no greater portion." 2 Such is the account of Margaret Fell, and from this George's own version differs but slightly. He tells us, " From thence (Newton in Cartmel) I went to Ulverstone, and Swarthmore to Judge Fell's ; whither came one Lampitt, a priest, who was a high notionist. With him I had a great deal of reasoning ; for he would talk of high notions and perfection, and thereby deceived the people. He would have owned me, but I could not own nor join with him, he was so full of filth. He said, he was above John, and made as though he knew all things. But I told him, ' Death reigned from Adam to Moses ; and that he was under death and knew not Moses ; for Moses saw the paradise of God ; but he neither knew Moses, nor the prophets, nor John.' . . . 1 William Caton was tutor to Judge Fell's sons, and Mary Askew a humble relation of Margaret Fell. 2 "Testimony of Margaret Fox." Dame Fell subsequently mar- ried Fox. 74 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Margaret Fell had been abroad in the daytime, and at night her children told her, priest Lampitt and I had disagreed, which somewhat troubled her, because she was in profession with him ; but he hid his dirty actions from them. At night we had great reasoning ; and I declared the truth to her and her family. Next day Lampitt came again, and I had a great deal of discourse with him before Margaret Fell, who then clearly dis- cerned the priest. A convincement of the Lord's truth came upon her and her family. Soon after a day was to be observed for a humiliation ; and Margaret Fell asked me to go with her to the steeple-house at Ulver- stone, for she was not wholly come off from them ; I replied, ' I must do as I am ordered by the Lord.' So I left her and walked into the fields ; and the word of the Lord came to me saying, ' Go to the steeple-house after them.' When I came, Lampitt was singing with his people ; but his spirit was so foul, and the matter they sung so unsuitable to their states, that after they had done singing I was moved of the Lord to speak to him and the people. The word of the Lord to them was, ' He is not a Jew that is one outward ; but he is a Jew that is one inward, whose praise is not of men but of God.' Then as the Lord opened further, I showed them, ' That He was come to teach His people by His Spirit, and to bring them off from all their old ways, religions, Churches, and worships ; for all their religious worships and ways were but talking of other men's words ; but they were out of the life and spirit which those were in who gave them forth.' Then cried out one, Justice Sawrey, 'Take him away;' but Judge Fell's wife said to the officers, ' Let him alone ; why may he not speak as well as any other ? ' Lampitt also, the priest, in deceit, said ' Let him speak.' So at length, when I had declared a pretty while, Justice THE FELLS OF SWAR THM ORE. 7 5 Sawrey caused the constable to put me out ; and then I spoke to the people in the graveyard." 1 For some time George made Swarthmore, which seems to have been a kind of "liberty hall" for professors, his head-quarters, going away for two or three days and then returning for rest. During one of these excursions Judge Fell returned home from his circuit, and his wife sent for George to come to them immediately, which he did very willingly, for he felt " freedom from the Lord so to do." He found that Fell had been somewhat in- censed against him by the misrepresentations of Sawrey and others, but not so much as to be unreasonable, or to refuse to hear what George had to say in defence both of his religion and his conduct. Margaret Fell gives a graphic, because simple, account of the interview between the two men : — " So my husband came home greatly offended (at his family having embraced the tenets of Fox), and any may think what a condition I was like to be in, that either I must displease my husband or offend God ; for he was very much troubled with us all in the house and family, they had so prepossessed him against us. But James Naylor and Richard Farnsworth were both then at our house, and I desired them to come and speak to him, and so they did — very moderately and wisely ; but he was at first displeased with them, till they told him they came in love and good will to his house. They offered as if they would go away, but I desired them to stay, and not to go away yet, for George Fox will come this evening. " At night George Fox came ; and after supper my husband was sitting in the parlour, and I asked him ' if George Fox might come in ? ' and he said, ' Yes.' So 1 "Journal," page 71. Edition, 1765. 76 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. George came in, without any compliment, and walked into the room, and began to speak presently ; and the family and James Naylor and Richard Farnsworth came all in ; and he spoke very excellently as ever I heard him. . . . And so my husband came to see clearly the truth of what he spoke, and was very quiet that night. "And at our house divers Friends were speaking one to another, how there were several convinced hereaway, and we could not tell where to get a meeting, my husband also being present, he overheard, and said of his own accord, ' You may meet here if you will ; ' and that was the first meeting that we had that he offered of his own accord. And my husband went that day to the steeple-house, and none with him but his clerk, and his groom that rid with him, and the priest and the people were all fearfully troubled ; but praised be the Lord they never got their will upon us to this day." Judge Fell soon became reconciled to his family becoming Friends, and, although he never became a Quaker himself, the powerful protection he invariably extended to that body, prevented it being so fiercely persecuted in that district as it was elsewhere ; nor did he ever openly attend the meetings he had permitted to be held in his house ; but old family records or tra- ditions relate that he was accustomed to sit in the little parlour at the end of the Hall with the door left open, and to listen to all that passed. 1 1 From the " Fells of Swarthmore Hall," we learn that Thomas Fell was a barrister who was advanced to the bench on account of his eminence, and not because of his political views. He was one of the Judges of the Chester and North Wales Circuit, and Vice- Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster, as well as Chan- cellor of the Duchy Court of Westminster; he was also a magistrate for the county of Lancaster. In 1645 his name figures as one of THE FELLS OF SWARTHMORE. 77 the members for the borough of Lancaster ; but, during the latter part of Cromwell's Protectorate, he retired from Parliamentary life, because he was dissatisfied with the Protector's administration. The Protector was warmly interested in him, and wished to attach him to his own person, an honour the judge firmly declined for the reason just given. Among the heirlooms long preserved at Swarthmore, was a handsome silver cup, which Cromwell presented to the judge. Besides the revenue he enjoyed as a judge, Thomas Fell seems to have been possessed of an ample estate. In 1632 he married Margaret Askew, a lineal descendant of Anne Askew, the Smithfield martyr, he being at that time thirty-four years old and she eighteen. Margaret Fell is described as being good- looking, well-educated, and deeply pious, and by her the judge had a numerous family. He died in 1658. CHAPTER VII. EARL Y FRIENDS. Fox in Westmoreland. — Ill-treated at Ulverstone and at Walney Island. — Re-visits Swarthmore. — Prosecuted at Lancaster Assizes. — Increase of his followers. — Quaker ministers. — Richard Farnsworth. — Thomas Aldam.— Francis Howgill. — John Audland. — William Ames. — James Parnel.— Edward Borough. — Miles Halhead. — Anecdotes. — His wife's dissatis- faction at his travels. — Visits Major General Lambert. — John Camm. — William Caton. VERY shortly after his interview with Judge Fell, Fox left Swarthmore Hall to continue his minis- trations among the mountains of Westmoreland, happy in the knowledge that he had left behind him a friend who would be a powerful protector to those who had embraced the tenets of which he had constituted him- self the apostle. Although persecution was now being waged freely against those who called themselves Quakers, the meetings he held were more largely at- tended than ever ; and before many weeks were over the natural result of religious oppression became once more exemplified in the many who were raised up to take the places of the ministers cast into prison. Amongst these new preachers we find the famous names of Hubberthorn, Hubbersty, and Miles Halhead. As soon as this journey was over, Fox returned to Ulverstone, and there found that his old enemy, Justice Sawrey, professed to have changed his opinions regarding him. The change was only an outward one ; for when 78 1 EARLY FRIENDS. 79 according to his custom, Fox rose to speak during a service in the church, Sawrey called upon him to speak according to the Scriptures. " I admired him for speak- ing so," says George, in his simple way, " and told him I would speak according to the Scriptures, and bring Scripture to prove what I had to say." This reply, apparently given in the utmost good faith, for some reason or another seems to have incensed the Justice, for, after listening to what Fox had to say for a few minutes, he incited the people to beat and ill-use him. At his bidding, Fox was thrust out of the church, knocked down, beaten, kicked, and trampled on, and then handed over to the constable to be whipped and put out of the town. A few who would have defended the unfortunate man were served in the same way, while a son of Judge Fell, who followed to see what they would do with Fox, was pitched into a muddy ditch. When he had led him to the side of Ulverstone Moss, the constable, after hitting him once or twice, pushed poor George into the middle of the crowd which had followed them, and these ruffians beat him with holly bushes and hedge stakes till he dropped down senseless. On recovering, Fox found himself lying on the wet com- mon and, as the people were still standing round, lay still for a few minutes till, as he tells us, " the power of the Lord sprang through me, and the eternal refreshings revived me, so that I stood up again in the strengthening power of the eternal God ; and stretching out my arms amongst them, cried, ' Strike again ! here are my arms, my head, and my cheek.' " A rough lout, who was of course a " high professor," took him at his word, and struck him such a violent blow on the back of his hand that his arm was benumbed for so long, that the people feared he would be deprived of the use of it for ever; but after a few minutes the Divine power again "sprang" So GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. through him, and, in a moment, he recovered the use of it again in the sight of them all. The people, much astonished and half afraid, now began to fall out amongst themselves ; and some of them offered that if Fox would give them money they would prevent the others touching him again, an offer, it is needless to say, sternly refused. After resting for some little time, so as to recover himself, Fox returned to Ulverstone and, moved with love towards those who had so maltreated him, preached in the market-place. Here again he met a champion. A soldier, who had seen his ill-treatment, drew his sword and would have avenged his wrongs, but Fox promptly stayed his hand. When he was examined that night in the friendly hall at Swarth- more, he was found to have been beaten till his body and arms were "yellow, and black, and red" all over. The Hall, he tells us, was full of people who came there to have the wounds they had received from the violent professors at Ulverston dressed. Judge Fell was, at this time, again absent on circuit, or, we may be sure, this abominable outrage would not have occurred. After a brief rest, George, nothing daunted by his late mishap, went away to pursue his mission ; and, within a few miles from Swarthmore — at Walney Island — he received somewhat similar treatment to that he had met with at Ulverstone. Here a woman, named Lancaster, having been persuaded that her husband had been be- witched by Fox into becoming one of his followers, stirred up the people against him. About forty men, swear- ing they would kill him, rushed at him, and endeavoured to thrust him into the sea, so that he narrowly escaped losing his life. After Fox had been compelled to leave the place, the crowd fell on James Naylor, who had accompanied him, and so ill-treated him that Naylor too was nearly killed. EARLY FRIENDS. 8l When Margaret Fell heard of this second outrage- she, with that thoughtfulness which appears to have been one of her most marked characteristics, sent to ask George to return at once to Swarthmore, and, not knowing how severely he was injured, sent a horse for him to ride on. But Fox was too sore to be able to ride for a long time, so, accepting the invitation, had to go to Swarthmore on foot. When he arrived there he was greeted with the unpleasant information that Justice Sawrey had issued a warrant against him on an accusation of blasphemy, and he was compelled to appear before the magistrates at Lancaster, to which place, much to the disgust of his persecutors, Judge Fell accompanied him. The prosecution seems to have been got up entirely by the priests, for the only witnesses were a priest — probably a Presbyterian minister — and the two sons of another priest. These witnesses brought the ridiculous charge against him of having said that God taught deceit and that the Scriptures contained lies. Fox, who was allowed to speak freely in his own defence, had but little difficulty in clearing himself from these accusa- tions, and so was discharged. Judge Fell was very much annoyed that a warrant should have been issued, and publicly pointed out to Justices Sawrey and Thompson, who were responsible for it, the error of which they had been guilty in such a way, that they were not inclined to interfere with the Quakers for some time afterwards. As a result of this abortive trial, a saying got about that, " the Quakers had won the day and the priests were fallen ; and," remarks George, "many were convinced that day." 1 1 A year or two after these assizes, Justice Sawrey was drowned. It is remarkable how many of Fox's persecutors and enemies came G S2 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. About this time, Fox wrote a large number of letters to various persons, several of which he copied into his Journal. As all deal with religious matters, none of them are of any interest to the general reader, and but few to even the student of early Quaker literature. The letters he wrote to the bell-ringers and to the town of Derby, which are given in a previous chapter, are fair specimens, both of the style and matter of these compo- sitions. Fox's followers were now very numerous, especially north of the Trent, and the sect was fast becoming an organized and homogeneous body, which, besides Fox, had at least twenty-five preachers who devoted all their time and energy, and that without fee or hope of reward, to the propagation of its practices and precepts. These preachers were all single-minded, enthusiastic men, who valued neither their skins nor their lives in their pursuit of the work to which they deemed they had been consecrated by God Himself. We never read of any one of them being deterred by the rough hand- ling they constantly experienced from thoughtless and cruel mobs, or the more severe persecution which they met with from the bigoted magistrates who harshly ad- ministered the harsh laws against sectaries. They were men who refused to surrender jot or tittle for the sake of peace, or to escape imprisonment or blows ; who ren- dered "hat" homage to neither King nor Kaiser ; who " thee'd and thou'd " prince and peasant alike ; and who, please or offend, were " always instant in season and out of season." As the names of some of these preach- ers have been mentioned in the last chapter, it will be to untimely ends. In his Journal, George calls attention to this; and in several of the cases he mentions we have positive proof of the accuracy of his statements. EARL Y FRIENDS. 83 well to see what sort of men these were, who, in the course of a few years, wrought a mighty change on the face of religious England. Of many of the earlier ministers among the Quakers we know little more than their names ; and of very few have we anything like sufficient materials for a satis- factory biography. Thus, of Richard Farnsworth, one of the most successful of the original preachers, literally all that we know, with any degree of certainty, is, that he was a poor and ill-educated man, who was intensely earnest and very self-denying. In all probability he was a North-country man. Coale, who wrote a brief "testimony" of his work, carefully abstains from giving us any details whatever of his life, except that, while on his death-bed, he vigorously " testified " against an " anti-Christian, intruding and fractious spirit." Farns- worth was a voluminous author, but his works are utterly forgotten, nor have they ever been thought worthy of collection. 1 Thomas Aldam, whom we have just seen accompanied to the gaol at York by George Fox, was one of George's earliest converts in the North. When or where he was born is unknown, but probably near his residence at Warmsworth, a village not far from Doncaster. During the year 165 1, he, together with his wife, mother, and two sisters, attended a meeting held by Fox near York, at which all of them were convinced of the truth of Quaker doctrines. Before he joined the Friends he had long been a man of serious disposition, and, like many of the North-country men, profoundly dissatisfied with the narrowness of the Puritans. Aldam believed him- self called to be a minister, and at once threw himself 1 Farnsworth is said to have died of fever, in the Parish of St. Thomas Apostle, in the City of London, in or about April, 1666. 84 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. heart and soul into the work of itinerant preaching ; and no one was more constant than he both in attending meetings and speaking in churches. At one place we are told that the priest directed the constable to put out of the church " that rude and uncivil fellow who came so uncivilly and made such a disturbance," but the constable, a man of some spirit, and holding different views from the parson, refused, saying, " He disturbeth no man, nor doth any harm." " When the priest had finished his sermon," the account goes on to say, " Thomas Aldam preached to the people. Some of the rude sort, after the example of their priest, reviled him, and, not content with words, proceeded to blows, both with their hands and feet, and even spit upon him, turning him out of their church, as they called it." In 1652, he was sent, as we have seen, to York Castle for a similar disturbance, and here he lay for two years and a half, during which time he was not allowed to see his family. As he refused, at his trial before Judge Parker t to take off his hat, he was fined forty pounds, and com- mitted close prisoner till this was paid. It is possible that he might never have been released — for, having done no wrong, he was determined not to pay either fine or fees — but for an application made on his behalf to Cromwell, who ordered his liberation. Believ- ing tithes to be wrong, he consistently refused to pay them ; and his property was so often seized on this account that, towards the latter part of his life, he was much reduced in circumstances. About 1658, he, in company with a minister named Anthony Pearson, paid a visit to all the gaols in England in which Quakers were confined, to get copies of their commitments, and to find out how these prisoners for conscience sake might be relieved; and the two Friends laid the inform- ation they had so painfully procured, before the Pro- EARLY FRIENDS. 85 tector. Cromwell either could not or would not take any steps to release them ; and Aldam, disgusted at his coldness, was " moved to take his cap off his head in the Protector's presence and to say to him, ' So shall thy government be rent from thee and thy house.'" He only just lived to see this prophecy fulfilled, as he died in 1660. Personally, he seems to have been an agree- able man, honest and simple, but enthusiastic and fanatical to a high degree. 1 Perhaps the minister who, after Fox, shed most lustre upon the struggling infant society, was Francis How- gill, or Howgil. 2 In the matters of birth and education he was far above the average of his fellow-preachers, having received an University education, and been an Episcopalian clergyman. His stay in the Church of England was not a long one, as he was dissatisfied with the superstitions which he considered yet remained in it. He next became an Independent minister ; but even here he was not contented, as he did not obtain sufficient spiritual comfort, and left this body to join the less Puritanical Anabaptists. This change, however, did not produce the hoped-for result. When about thirty- four years old, he met with some members of, and joined, the Society of Friends, of which he soon became a leading minister. Howgill speedily suffered for the faith he espoused, for, at the beginning of 1652, he was, together with James Naylor, sent to Appleby gaol for a short time. Some years later (1663), the interval being filled with intensely earnest missionary work, he was, 1 A brief account of Thomas Aldam is to be found in Tuke's " Biographical Notices of Members of the Society of Friends," vol. ii. 5 Howgill was born at Todthorne, near Grayrigg, in Westmore- land, 1618. A short life of him has been written by Mr. Back- house. 86 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. tried at Appleby for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. While in prison, he occupied his time in writing in defence of his creed. His previous exertions and suf- ferings forbade the hope of his living till he should be released ; and towards the end of 1668 he was taken ill, and died very peacefully and "in perfect trust." A few days afterwards, George Fox, who wrote a " testi- mony " concerning him, said, " He was one of the Lord's worthies. He preached the everlasting Word of Life from about the year 1652 until the year 1668. . . . When John Audland and he had received money for preaching at a parish called Colton, in Furness Fells, in Lancashire, had received the Gospel freely, and the Word of Life from Christ freely, they were commanded of the Lord to go and return the money again to the parish and people from whom they had received it ; which they did, and this made the priests and the professors the more to rage." Howgill wrote largely, but his works are now totally neglected and almost forgotten by even the best-informed Friends ; the most valuable of his literary remains is a somewhat long and heavy account of his religious experiences. 1 John Audland is another of the early Quakers of whom little is known. Though a very poor man, he had no sooner made a profession of Quaker doctrines — which he did at the age of twenty-three — than he gave himself up entirely to the work of the ministry. After receiving much the usual treatment, and meeting with more than the usual amount of success, he was laid aside from active work by the failure of his health, to preserve which he had taken little care — a very common failing with these early preachers — and died from an attack of 1 Tuke. Backhouse. EARL Y FRIEXDS. 87 hectic fever in 1663. " He appears, indeed, by various accounts," says Tuke, in the brief account he gives of Audland in his " Biographical Notices of Friends," " to have been of a very amiable disposition and a comely person. He was also a man of good natural abilities, of a noble spirit and an humble heart. These accom- plishments being united with much religious know- ledge and experience, rendered his company pleasing and instructive. In short, he was abundantly furnished both with natural and spiritual gifts, which he exer- cised to the praise and glory of Him who gave them." Audland, like most of his fellow-preachers, wrote a few pamphlets, all of which are entirely forgotten. Of the early life of William Ames we have two widely different accounts. Croese tells us that he was ex- tremely lazy, and so went for a soldier in the Royalist army until Charles was taken prisoner, and adds that he enjoyed "all manner of wickedness," amongst " the most debauched wicked crew upon earth." He next became a marine soldier under Prince Rupert. In the admiral's ship, on board which he served, were several Dutchmen, from whom he learnt their language. 1 Tuke 2 affirms, that although in his youth he was of a cheerful temper and fond of society, yet he shortly became a close follower of priests and teachers, and he also adds that Ames had a quick understanding, and knew the Scrip- tures so well, that he was seldom at a loss to deduce rapid arguments from them. According to this latter account, he had joined and become a teacher amongst the Baptists before he entered the army, and then he was on the Parliamentary side, and not on the king's. 1 Croese, "The General History of the Quakers." 2 Tuke, " Biographical Notices of Members of the Society of Friends," vol. ii. ss GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. " In this capacity," says Mr. Tuke, "he was of a strict life himself, and kept his soldiers under severe discipline, and when any of them were guilty of immorality on the first day of the week, he presently had them put under confinement and restraint." In 1655, Ames, being then at Cork, was convinced either by Howgill or Borough and, joining the Friends, he at once became a zealous preacher. He elected to propagate his creed in Holland, and for attempting to preach in Amsterdam was expelled the town, and threatened with dire penalties should he return. Return he did, and was permitted to remain. Amongst his earlier converts were the father and mother of Sewel, the Quaker historian. He was also instrumental in founding the first meeting there. Not content with his work in Holland, Ames visited Ger- many, and was effusively received by the Elector, Charles Lodowick, who asked him to dine with him. Sewel tells us that Ames refused to take off his hat to this prince, who, when it was suggested to him that the offender " by omission " should be punished for his want of civility, sensibly replied, "No; for I expected it." Once the Elector made his chaplain and Ames dine together, and that the Quaker might reprove his chaplain for his time- serving, suffered the court-jester to come in too. Ames was disgusted at the levity he thought the Elector had shown, and, having reproved him roundly, called the chaplain a dumb dog for not doing the like. 1 Most of his life was spent abroad ; and, with the exception of being confined for three weeks in a madhouse at Rotter- dam, he seems to have escaped without much persecu- tion. In 1662 he came to London, and, in company with Samuel Fisher and some others, was sent to Bridewell, 1 Sewel, " History of the Rise, etc., of the Society of Friends," vol. ii. p. 74. EARLY FRIENDS. 89 where he was imprisoned so closely, that, although his confinement was of very brief duration, his health com- pletely broke down, and returning to Holland he died at Amsterdam, at the end of August in the same year. Among the many pathetic lives of these devoted men, none is so sad as that of James Parnel. Of himself, as a boy, he says : " I may well say, with Paul, that of sinners I was chief, for, according to my years, I was as perfect in sin and wickedness as any in the town where I lived ; yea, and exceeded many in the same." While still very young he was converted, and the change in his life made him such an object of contempt and ridicule, "that he was accounted as one not worthy to live, and some were so violent as to say that he who killed him would do God service." Young as he was he was dissatisfied with all the prevalent forms of worship, and at fifteen he joined the Seekers, but, during the next year, on meeting with some Quakers, went over to them. Hearing that the Quakers were strong in the North, Parnel went there to learn more about them, and at Carlisle visited Fox, who was then a prisoner in that city. In his Journal, Fox thus briefly records this meeting : "J. Parnel, a little lad about sixteen years of age, came to see me, and was convinced ; the Lord quickly made him a powerful minister of the word of life, and many were turned to Christ by him." In 1655 Parnel went to Cambridge, and being disgusted with what he saw there, published two papers, — the one against corrupt magistrates, and the other against cor- rupt ministers, — for doing which he was sent to prison. On his release he did not leave the town, but engaged in a violent dispute with the Baptists, and received some very rough usage at the hands of the scholars at the University, a set who appear to have borne a remarkably violent antipathy to the Quakers. 90 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. After preaching very successfully at various places, Parnel went to Coggeshall, and attending a service there, he warmly defended the Quakers from the slanders alleged against them by the Independent who preached. As Parnel left the church he was arrested and carried to Colchester, where he was confined a close prisoner in the castle, until the assizes, when he was tried. Although the trial seems to have been conducted with the most shameful want of fairness, the judge found him innocent of the alleged act of rioting ; but as. Parnel had published a paper calling attention to the errors in his mittimus, he was condemned by the judge to pay a fine of forty pounds. This the prisoner flatly refused to do, as he held — and rightly — that it would be tantamount to a confession of guilt, whereas he claimed to have done nothing illegal. Being remanded again to gaol, he was from this time treated with the most inhuman harshness by the gaoler's wife, who appears to have assumed the management of the place. His cell was a little hole in the castle wall, which was hardly big enough for him to lie clown in, and situated so high up, that the ladder by which he had to get up fell six feet short of it, and the remainder of the ascent he was compelled to make by means of a knotted rope. For everything he required the unhappy boy had to ascend and descend, as the gaoler refused to let him make use of the basket and rope the Friends in the town asked to be allowed to provide, so that he might draw up the food with which they kept him supplied. As the hole, termed by courtesy his cell, was unprovided with any means for making a fire, during the winter Parnel's limbs became so stiff with cold, that he had the utmost difficulty in climbing up and down, and one day, missing his hold on the rope, fell on the stones in the yard and was taken up for dead. Recovering a little, he was placed in a lower and still EARLY FRIENDS. 91 smaller hole ; but now the keeper refused to let him either take exercise, or have the door open, in order that he might get fresh air. For all this it is possible that he might have quite recovered, had it not been that while he was out of his cell one evening, the gaoler locked the door, and so forced him to spend — and this in the middle of the winter — the whole night in the open air. As might have been expected, this last outrage brought on an attack of illness which speedily terminated fatally. " He had," we are told, " great, but not wise, zeal against hypocrisy, and some of his expressions were irritating and violent. His appearance was so youthful and mean that his enemies called him the ' Quaking boy.'" 1 Edward Borough was, perhaps, of all the preachers in- timately associated with George Fox, both the most useful minister and the most humble-minded man. From his very infancy his character was deeply religious, although, with his customary self-depreciation, he declares that he was both wanton and light. As he became older he grew even more serious, and became a follower of the most rigid sort of Presbyterians. When about seventeen years old he met with, and listened to, George Fox, and, after hesitating for a short time, embraced his tenets, and offered himself as a minister, although this step so disgusted his father, a man of some wealth and an Episcopalian, that he turned his son out of doors. 2 One of his first journeys was to London, at that time a place in which there were very few Quakers. It was then customary for the citizens to meet in a field, after the work of the day was done, for wrestling matches and such- like sports. To one of these matches Borough, who was 1 Callaway, " Life of Parnel." Tuke, " Biographical Memoirs of Members of the Society of Friends," vol. ii. Parnel was born at Retford in 1636 or 37, and died when about eighteen. 2 Cunningham, " The Quakers." 92 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. barely eighteen at the time, went, and when a stout fellow, who had overthrown several competitors, chal- lenged all comers, he stepped into the ring, to the amazement of the champion and the spectators, for Edward was a youth of very inferior physique. But Borough had no intention of wrestling. He had chosen the ring as a coign of vantage from which to preach an earnest sermon on the vanity of such pleasures, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. If chroni- clers be correct, the sermon was a most effective one. For about seven or eight years he remained working in or near London, helping to build up the infant Church, until, in 1662, he went to do the like at Bristol. After staying a little while there, he called the Friends to- gether and took a solemn leave of them, saying he did not think he should ever see them again, for he "was going to lay down his life in London for the Gospel, and suffer among the Friends there, having some sense of his sufferings before." Unhappily this foreboding proved too true. At a meeting at the Bull and Mouth, Alders- gate, he was arrested, and with exceeding roughness dragged through the streets to Newgate, to which prison he was committed for the offence of holding a meeting. At the trial which subsequently took place, he was condemned to pay a heavy fine ; and being neither willing nor able to do so, he was directed to be kept a close prisoner. The order was carried out. He was put into the felons' dungeon, in which the imprisonment was so severe that some poor wretches actually died of sheer suffocation, while the majority of the remainder sickened, many subsequently dying from the effects of this cruel overcrowding. Borough was one of those who sickened. The Friends bestirred themselves in his favour so well that they procured an order for his release from the king ; but, on one pretence or another, the city EARL V FRIENDS. 93 authorities, who for some reason were bitterly incensed against their captive, prevented his making use of it, and, at the end of 1662, Edward Borough died, peace- fully and happily, in Newgate. He was not a voluminous writer, but his works were for a long time held in very high esteem by the body of which he was for ten years a minister. They were all collected in a volume pub- lished in 1672, under the title of "The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation." 1 Miles Halhead, whose name first appears as a pro- minent Quaker preacher in 1652, was a man of very different character to Borough. Unlike Borough, he was a man neitherof means nor family,and his manners appear to have been as rough as those of his fellow- labourer were conciliatory and gentle. Once, as he was passing the wife of a North-country justice, he refused to raise his hat at her wish ; and the woman, much incensed, or- dered her footman to turn back and cane him. This was accordingly done. But in Miles she had met her match ; for having borne the caning uncomplainingly, he faced her and cried out, " O thou Jezebel, thou proud Jezebel ! canst thou not suffer the servant of the Lord to pass by thee quietly ?" At this plain speaking the woman took offence, and resisting her impulse to strike him, spat in his face. " O thou proud Jezebel," exclaimed Miles, " thou hardenest thy heart and brazenest thy face against the Lord and His servant. The Lord will set in order before thee the things which thou hast done this day," and with this he went on his way to visit his friends at Swarthmore Hall. Three months later Miles felt moved to go and speak to this woman again, and so set off to Houlker Hall, where her husband resided. She opened the door herself, and recognising him, got See " Memoirs of Burrough." Published 1851. 94 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. another woman who was in the house to pass herself off as its mistress. But Miles, though at first somewhat puzzled, for he naively tells us she was not wearing the same dress she had on when she ordered him to be beaten, was not to be deceived, and said to her, " Woman, how darest thou lie before the Lord and His servant ? Thou art the woman I came to speak to." At this she was silent, and Miles, as he informs us, exhorted her after this fashion : " Woman, hear what the Lord's servant hath to say unto thee : O woman, harden not thy heart against the Lord ; for if thou dost He will cut thee oft" in His sore displeasure ; therefore take warning in time, and fear the Lord of heaven and earth, that thou mayest end thy days in peace." Miles, strange to say, was permitted to leave the house unhurt, but this was, as the woman herself subsequently confessed, only because she felt conscious of some unseen power which pre- vented her doing him the mischief she wished. 1 She would seem to have been a perfect savage, for she is known to have publicly hoped that George Fox might have " his tongue cut out and he be hanged," and it is probable that her husband, Justice Pearson, would never have been the severe persecutor he was but for her in- fluence. Sewel tells us that, some short time after this occurrence, she is reported to have died miserably. 2 The stern and somewhat fanatical temper of Halhead prevented him escaping persecution with the ease that some of the more gentle and winning of his fellow- labourers did ; and in this year (1653), both at Skipton and Doncaster, he was so severely beaten that he was 1 As Miles was leaving the house, he met the servant who had beaten him, and whom, as he now apologized humbly, Miles freely forgave. 2 Sewel, "History of, etc., the Society of Friends," vol. i. p. 193, et seq. EARLY FRIENDS. 95 left for dead. On both occasions, it is said, his wounds were miraculously healed in the space of a few hours. His wife, although a good and pious woman, was not at first of the same spirit as himself, and very strongly disapproved of Miles' wandering life. " Would God," she said, " I had married a drunkard, then I might have found him at the ale-house ; but now I cannot tell where to find my husband." Some time after, " God," so Sewel tells us, 1 " visited her by the death of her child" (in 1653); but before long she was comforted by a vision, which revealed to her that Miles was only obeying the commands of the God he served, and pro- mised that both she and her remaining children should be " prospered." Halhead once entered the church of Lampitt, the enemy and persecutor of George Fox, whilst he was preaching, and the priest at once stopped. A captain, who was in the congregation, asked him if he was unwell. Lampitt replied he was quite well, but he could not preach while — and here he pointed to Halhead — a dumb devil was in the house. Another priest being present, he was asked to address the congregation, and as he replied in the same way, poor Miles was turned out, although he had not said a word. Shortly after this he was sent to prison at Newcastle, but was speedily released, as the mayor was beset with troubles which he conceived came upon him for imprisoning an innocent man. In the following year Miles visited both Ireland and Scotland, and met with so much ill-usage in both places, that he returned to England. He had got no further than the border town of Berwick when the Spirit moved him to put his head into the shop of the mayor and warn him to desist from persecuting the 1 Sewel, " History of, etc., the Society of Friends," vol. i. p. 198. 96 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Quakers, for doing which he was lodged in gaol, but released at the ensuing assizes, only a little later on to be imprisoned several times in the West of England. Sewel informs us 1 that he was much persecuted by the Devonshire magistrates, and that most of his persecutors — as he implies in consequence thereof — fell into divers misfortunes. In 1673, Miles, being at Plymouth, felt moved to go and exhort Major-General Lambert, who was at that time a prisoner on a little island off that town. Miles commenced the interview by reproaching the fallen Major-General for having, if not actively per- secuted, at least consented to the persecution of, the Quakers. Lambert defended himself, not altogether unjesuitically, on the ground that he had only carried out laws with which he did not agree; and this explana- tion was so far satisfactory to the other, that he treated him to an address, which Lambert appears to have appreciated so highly that he made Miles share his beer, a thing he does not seem to have been loath to do. After a fairly long conversation, Lambert expressed the opinion that the Quaker cause was none the worse for the persecution its adherents had undergone. " That is very true," was Miles' rejoinder, "but, let me tell thee in the plainness of my heart, that is no thanks to thee, but glory to God for ever." When Miles died, as well as when and where he was born, is totally uncertain. He does not seem to have had the usual mania for authorship, which is one of the most strongly marked characteristics of the early Quaker preachers ; it is true he wrote a little, but with the exception of a short account of his sufferings, this little attracted no attention even among his own sect. As a 1 Sewel, "History of, etc., the Society of Friends," vol. iii. p. 342, etc. EARLY FRIENDS. 97 preacher, all accounts concur in representing him as being more than ordinarily successful. Of Camm very little is known except that he was a man of tolerably good birth and possessed consider- able property. From his early youth he was seriously, almost fanatically, inclined, and meeting with Fox, near Ulverstone, became a Quaker minister. About 1653 he, with Francis Howgill, felt moved to visit the Protector, by whom they were kindly received and patiently listened to, but whom, to their great chagrin, they did not persuade to become a Quaker. He was an untiring and fairly successful minister, but being a man of weakly constitution his efforts brought on a consumption, from which he died in 1656. His wife was also a minister, and suffered severely for her creed. She was falsely reported to have said that " God did not live," and being tried at Banbury for it, the judge threatened to have her burnt ; but instead of this she was thrown into a "filthy dungeon several steps below the ground, on one side of which ran the common sewer, emitting a horrible stench, and giving admission to frogs and vermin who invested her apartment, which was totally destitute of any convenience for making a fire to warm the in- mates." 1 When (in 1650) William Caton was fourteen years old, he was taken by his father to be educated at Swarthmore Hall with Margaret Fell's children, and it is recorded that he was much disgusted when, in 1652, he first made the acquaintance of George Fox, on account of his contempt for the usages of society. This disgust did not last long, for the boy was speedily attracted by George's sterling character, and gladly received the doctrine of Divine light. His education 1 "Library of the Society of Friends," vol. i. p. 475. H 98 GEORGE FOX AXD THE EARLY QUAKERS. was now complete, but he remained for some time at Swarthmore as the tutor of the younger children and the factotum of their mother. When only seventeen he was accepted as a minister, and took to the wandering life then so common amongst them. He met with the usual treatment, here being imprisoned and there beaten. At Maidstone, in 1654, he and John Stubbs were first stripped, then put in the stocks, and lastly severely flogged, and all this for having disturbed a congre- gation. 1 The next year he went to France, hoping to spread the light there, but only got as far as Calais, and then returned home, finding it impossible to succeed without a knowledge of the French language. 2 A little later he went to Holland, in company with John Stubbs, but here again their ignorance of the national language, and the impossibility of getting any reliable interpreter, forced them to abandon their efforts. After working for some time in England he again went to Holland, where, in 1662, he married Anneken Derricks, and where he finally settled down. Visiting England two years later, he was imprisoned with such severity for six months, for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance, that his health gave way, and on his release he only reached Amsterdam in time to die. Such were a few of the men who assisted Fox in his labours, and with whom he always kept up a warm and tender friendship. 1 Cooper, " Flagellation and the Flagellants," p. 154. ' 2 Sewel, author of the famous " History ofthe Society of Friends," tells us that his mother, Judith Zinspenning, while visiting England, was moved to speak at a Quaker meeting. She did not speak English, and was unable to get an interpreter. " Yet so sensible were her hearers of the power by which she spoke, that they de- clared themselves much edified by her speech. So she went on without an interpreter." CHAPTER VIII. THE FOUNDATION OF THE SECT Fox's troubles at Lancaster. — George goes to call on the judges. — Prophesies concerning the Parliament. — Eccentric conduct of some converts. — Fox's two miracles. — Puritan belief in super- natural agency. — Fox sent to Carlisle gaol. — Is discharged as innocent. — Robert Widders and William Dewsbury. — The Quaker sect assumes a settled form. — Cromwell exacts the Oath of Fidelity. EORGE stayed in Lancaster for a few days after v_T the warrant against him had been discharged, and held some meetings there. The rougher sort of the people were disgusted with a man who condemned their amusements as sternly as he condemned those of their richer neighbours, and determined to do him "a mischief." Their design was to get him out of his lodgings, and then to throw him over Lancaster Bridge ; but in this they were, for some unknown reason, unsuccessful. They next decided to whip him severely, and getting hold of an imbecile man, attempted to make him their executioner. They gave him some birch rods, " bound together like besoms," and brought him to a meeting which George was addressing. " I was moved to speak to them in the Lord's mighty power," says George, " which chained down the distracted man, — and made them calm and quiet. Then I bid him throw his rods into the fire and burn them, which he did. Thus the Lord's power being over them they departed quietly." The priests of the place, bitterly annoyed at the mis- carriage of justice which, according to their view, had 99 ioo GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. taken place when George was brought up before the bench, persuaded some Quaker-hating justices to issue another warrant against Fox, who, as soon as he heard of it, thinking it best to show himself openly, quietly went to call on the judges. He naively remarks that they smiled to see him. " What ! " said a friendly justice, "what, are you come into the lion's mouth?" For all the strong feeling against him, no one seemed inclined to take the initiative against him, so George stayed in Lancaster till the judges moved on to the next town, when he went again to Swarthmore. From thence he wrote a letter to Justice Sawrey, the strong language of which consorts but awkwardly with the greeting of " Friend." 1 He also wrote to the priest, Lampitt, and to the people of Ulverstone, letters, rambling and discon- nected, but full of cogent warning and stern adjuration. It is in one of these letters that we first hear of certain Quakers going about naked as signs to the people ; for in one to the priest he says, " but thou art manifest to all the children of light ; for that cloak (the scriptures) will not cover thee, but thy skirts are seen, and thy naked- ness appears. The Lord made one to go naked among you, a figure of thy nakedness and your nakedness, and as a sign amongst you, before your destruction cometh ; that you might see that you were naked and not covered with the truth." Who it was that went naked George does not say, 2 but Hume mentions a case of a female Quaker who went into a church stark naked, and told the people that God had commanded her to do so as a sign unto them. 3 1 Fox mentions in a note, that this Justice Sawrey was the first persecutor in that country. 3 Fox possibly refers to William Simpson. 3 In reading Quaker literature we meet with several instances of men and women going about either naked or nearly so, as signs unto THE FOUNDATION OF THE SECT. 101 Hitherto George had only had "openings" upon religious matters ; now he had one regarding current politics. One day while he was at Swarthmore, he was sitting quietly listening to Judge Fell and Justice the people ; thus, for instance, a woman, Mary Todd, who called her- self a Quaker, but who was not " owned " by the Friends, once went into Whitehall chapel in the midst of public worship in a state of nudity, when Cromwell himself was one of the worshippers (Marsden, " History of Christian Churches and Sects," vol. i. p. 420). They would appear to have done this in imitation of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah, chap. xx. 2-4). Fuller, in his dedication of vol. viii. of the "Church History of Britain" (Edition 1655), speaks as if these exhibitions were of common occurrence. " There is a genera- tion of people in our age called Quakers, which they disclaim as a nickname, though I see not how handsomely they can waive the name, whilst they wear the thing, having contracted a habit of quaking wherein they delight. . . . First the casting off of their clothes, which did it not more wound the modesty of others than their own, I could wish that their going naked might be their punishment for their going naked ; that what sometimes they affect of fancy, should be enjoined them by authority, till the cold con- verted them into more civility. In vain they plead for their practice the precedent of the prophet Isaiah going naked for three years, whose act was extraordinary and mystical, having an immediate command of God for the same. As well may they, in imitation of Hosea, take a known harlot to their wives ; which I believe they would not willingly do ; though they have made harlots of other men's wives, if all be true reported of them " (vol. iv. p. 126, Oxford ed. 1845). In a letter, sent in 1661 to Secretary Nicholas, it is affirmed that it was then common for Quakers to go riaked through the towns of Yorkshire on market days ("State Papers," 1660-1, p. 472). The last instance known of any of them indulging in these indecent exhibitions, of which, despite what one biographer of Fox has insinuated, we have no reason to believe Fox approved in any degree, appears to have occurred early in the eighteenth century. In a " curious account of the First Quakers," an exceedingly rare book, of which I have been unable to see a copy, it is stated that " at Kendal, the wife of Edmund Albighton went naked through the streets, and two other members of the Society, male and female, did the same, calling themselves Adam and Eve, and when ex- 102 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Benson, who were talking over the news. Presently something was said about the Long Parliament which was then sitting, and George tells us he was moved " to tell them that ' Before that day two weeks the Parlia- ment should be broken up and the Speaker plucked out of his chair ; ' " and that day two weeks Justice Benson told Judge Fell that now he saw that George was a true prophet, for Oliver had broken up the Parliament. "About this time," he says, " I was in a fast for ten days, my spirit being greatly exercised in the truth's behalf, for James Milner and Richard Myer went into imaginations, and a company followed them." At first George had been inclined to think or, perhaps more correctly speaking, to hope, that Milner's openings were real, but he shortly found out that they were merely caused by inordinate pride. One authority tells us that this deluded man at length actually declared him- self to be God and Christ, for which blasphemy he was imprisoned at Appleby, and an amusing (if saddening) anecdote is told of the wife of John Williamson, the Quaker renegade, going to see Naylor while in that gaol, amined concerning the same at the assizes, the man affirmed that the power of God was upon him, and he was commanded so to do." (I am indebted for the above extract to a notice of the " Curious Account" in the London Chronicle for 1778). During the present century, a sect which originally sprang out of, but which at the time was totally separated from, the Society of Friends, attempted to revive these extraordinary proceedings. In 1836, six members of this sect— the White Quakers — both men and women, attempted to parade Waterford arm-in-arm, in a condition of entire nudity. An interesting account of this peculiar sect is to be found in " Quakerism ; or, The Story of My Life," by Mrs. Greer. See also Notes and Queries, 1862, vol. i. pp. 384, 459, and 515 ; and the Irish papers, 1835-7. In his recent "Life of William Penn " (p. 29), Dr. Stoughton says he can find no instance of an approved Friend ever " going naked in this country, though two cases occurred in New England." THE FOUNDATION OF THE SECT. 103 when she professed herself to be the eternal Son of God. The men who heard her told her that this could not possibly be, because she was a woman ; but she replied, " Nay, you are women, but I am a man." A matter so serious as the errors which Milner and Myer were propagating, George felt impossible to pass over in silence, so he summoned them both to a meet- ing, at which he condemned them, when they, only temporarily in one case at all events, professed to repent of their errors. A few days after this, a meeting was held at Armside, at which Richard Myer presided, and to which Fox went. While there he noticed that one of Myer's arms was disabled, and he felt moved to tell him to stand up and hold it out, which the other did, crying out as he did so, " Be it known to you, all people, that this day I am healed." Myer's parents who were present, would not believe him until after the meeting was over, they had taken him aside, stripped off his doublet, and examined the limb for themselves. For all this, when some time after, Myer was com- manded by the Lord to go to York with a message from Him to the people, he, not liking the errand, was disobedient, " and," we are told, "the Lord struck him again, so that he died in three-quarters of a year." Nor was the foregoing the only miraculous thing Fox either did or fancied he did. Being at another meeting near the same place, he happened to cast his eyes on a woman and at once saw that she was possessed of an unclean spirit, and, being so moved of the Lord, told her so, whereupon she at once left the room. He would have thought no more about it, had not some people told him that this woman had long been accounted a very wicked person, which convinced him that for some unknown reason he had been permitted to exercise more than human insight into her character. " The Lord," io 4 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. he adds, "had given me a spirit of discerning, by which I many times saw the states and conditions of persons, and could try their spirits. Not long before, as I was going to a meeting, I saw some women in a field, and discerned an evil spirit in them, and I was moved to go out of my way into the field to them, and declare unto them their conditions. Another time there came one into Swarthmore Hall in the meeting time, and I was moved to speak sharply to her, and told her she was under the power of an evil spirit ; and the people said afterwards she was generally accounted so to be." There is no doubt Fox was perfectly earnest in believing that he had power both to work miracles and to discern spirits, and in his Journal he relates the cir- cumstances with the utmost appearance of honesty and without a tittle of pride. Yet few among his followers, at the present time, believe him to have been thus miraculously empowered. As the discerning of spirits was a gift claimed by many of the Anabaptists, Fox's pretensions excited no surprise, and in the cases he recounts, all that would appear to have been needed to tell what kind of women they were whose spirits he professed to discern, was an insight into character, and some little acquaintance with physio- gnomy. With regard to the miracles, however, it is a different matter. Certainly, if Fox had not the super- natural power he claimed, it is impossible to read his works without coming to the conclusion he was not the deceiver but the deceived, for he thoroughly believed that he was occasionally able to work signs and wonders, and was humbly thankful for the ability to do so. Had his claim been an imposture, it is probable that some corroborated non-Quaker testimony against him would have been extant, and, so far as is known, we have none whatever. That he should possess this power does not THE FOUNDATION OF THE SECT. 105 appear to have struck Fox as anything remarkably wonderful, and this, perhaps, may be accounted for by the well-known fact that a belief in the ordinary interposition of God was common among the Puritans, and that he is not the only one who claimed to be able to perform miracles during the 17th century. Fox now went to Carlisle, and there he held a meeting within the precincts of the cathedral, at which a Baptist preacher asked him, "What must be damned? " "That which spoke within thee must be damned," replied George immediately. Whether this reply was satisfactory or not to the man, his voice was heard no more; but a deacon of the same sect got into a great rage and made a disturbance in the meeting. When George looked at him, the effect of the Quaker's keen clear eyes was such, that the man put his hands before his face and cried out, " Do not pierce me so with thy eyes, take thy eyes off me." When, on the following Sunday, George went into the church, the people raised such a tumult against him, though he does not appear to have said or done any- thing, that the next day a warrant was issued against him, and he was committed to Carlisle gaol as a heretic, a blasphemer, and a traducer. The High Sheriff, Wilfred Lawson, incited the people to take his life, and bestirred himself to annoy him as much as possible, even offering to guard him to execution, if needs be. The gaoler, despite his having so powerful an enemy, offered to let Fox have what he liked in prison, and was at first disposed to be friendly ; but on his prisoner's warning him that he need expect no money from him, the man thrust him into a cell and kept him there for some time without any bedding. Though the Friends were refused admittance, impertinent and coarse-minded priests were brought in at all times, even in the middle of io6 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the night, to annoy him by their insulting remarks, and not a few great ladies gratified their curiosity by coming to stare at the man, who it was currently reported was doomed to die. The charge against Fox was so utterly foolish that the judges of assize refused to try the case, and the magistrates, to whom it was left to deal with him, were puzzled what to do with their prisoner ; so, after the judges had gone to another town, they gratified their malice by causing the gaoler to put him into a filthy dungeon, where his only companions were a lot of moss- troopers, thieves, and murderers of both sexes. Here again they were disappointed, for Fox converted all his fellow-prisoners, who were such hearty recipients of his teaching that before many days were past they were able to dispute with, and confute the priests, who were still welcome to torment George if they could. The gaoler and his assistant now became increasedly cruel to him. If a Quaker dared to stop at the window to speak to Fox, they r-ushed out to drive him away, and once the gaoler beat George himself, for, as he alleged, looking out of the window, though the other declares he was not near it at the time. When the man began to strike him, George began to sing. The other, furious at this, and knowing his dislike to secular music, fetched a fiddler, and bade him play loud enough to drown the singing, but the louder the man played, the louder George sang ; and, having a strong clear voice, in the end he fairly drove the musician away in despair. But George was not without some scraps of comfort. The wife of a justice, named Benson, came one day out of idle curiosity to see him, and went away deeply con- vinced of the vital truth of his doctrines. George tells us that she became so loving that she would eat no food that he did not share, and the two used to take THE FOUNDATION OF T//F SECT. 107 their meals in company at the window, with the iron bars between them. And here, too, came James Parnel, " the little lad of sixteen," so soon destined to yield up his life for the truths he learnt in the gloomy prison. As the magistrates refused to take any notice of the petitions the Friends got up for the release of Fox, an address was sent to the New Parliament, then recently elected, stating that a person "who was confined in Carlisle gaol for religion, was like to die of it." The Parliament at once despatched a letter on the subject to the sheriff, and the magistrates found it safest to set George at liberty, and to send the assistant gaoler to prison for his cruelty. Once released, George went on preaching in the North country with greater success than ever; and the Quakers soon grew into so numerous a body that they became formidable to the authorities, who dreaded lest they might throw their power into the scale with the Cavaliers. Thus the persecution they endured was not altogether a religious, but partially a political, one, and might have been in great part avoided had the persecutors taken the trouble thoroughly to investigate the tenets and practices of the rapidly growing sect. The first convert George made after his release from prison was a Baptist preacher who came to a meeting on purpose to oppose him, but being convinced, hastened to give practical proof of his change of views, by yielding up an impropriation of tithes which belonged to him. This man the same day accompanied Robert Widders, a Quaker, to a steeple-house, when both were nearly killed by the congregation. The Baptist preacher was suffered to go home, but Widders was sent to gaol. The same day at a neighbouring church, Wra. Dews- bury essayed to speak, and was also severely beaten ; ioS GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. but it is alleged his wounds were miraculously cured in a couple of hours. This Sunday seems to have been a field-day among the sect, for George tells us that "in that day, many Friends went to the steeple-houses to declare the truth to the priests and people ; and great sufferings they underwent, but the Lord's power sus- tained them." For some time George travelled about in the North country, holding many meetings and more disputes, getting into broils innumerable, and constantly having his life or liberty threatened, but meeting with no serious mischances. Indeed, by this time, though he had abated no jot or tittle of his earnestness or enthusiasm, he seems to have got more quiet and patient in personal dispute, and to have abandoned the habit he formerly had of calling his adversaries harsh or coarse names ; although, unfortunately, he did not abandon it in his letters for some little time after. Be the cause what it may, however, George seems to have suffered much less than might reasonably have been expected among a people so fierce and savage as the Borderers then were. In 1653-4, according to George's own account, the sect increased apace, and began to assume a settled form and acquire some degree of concreteness. This appears to have alarmed its enemies ; but the priests pooh-poohed the matter, and, as Fox quaintly says " fell to prophesying against them afresh." When first he began to preach, the priests prognosticated the converts would lapse in a month ; which, proving false, they increased the time to six months, and that being now long past, they affirmed that the sect would eat up one another. " For after meetings," explains George, " many tender people, having a great way to go, tarried at Friends' houses by the way, and sometimes more than there were beds to lodge in, so that some have lain on THE FOUNDATION OF THE SECT. 109 the hay mows." The fear which possessed the professors was, " that when we had eaten one another out, we would all come to be maintained by the parishes, and be chargeable to them." And indeed this fear appeared a by no means unfounded one, for usually when a man became a Quaker he found his business fall off consider- ably, as he could not bow or use flattering words to his customers, and many of the Friends who were tradesmen were reduced so low as to find great difficulty in obtain- ing bread. " But afterwards, when people came to have experience of Friends' honesty and faithfulness," adds George, " and found that their yea was yea, and their nay was nay ; that they kept to a word in their dealings, and that they would not cozen nor cheat them, but that if they sent a child to their shops for anything, they were as well used as if they had come themselves, then things altered so that all the inquiry was where was a draper, or shopkeeper, or tailor, or shoemaker, or any other tradesman that was a Quaker ? Insomuch that Friends had more business than many of their neigh- bours, and if there was any trading they had a great part of it. Then the envious professors altered their note and began to cry out, ' If we let these Quakers alone, they will take the trade of the nation out of our hands,' " and thus a fresh motive — self interest — arose for persecuting this honest little sect. During the year 1653, Cromwell was able to invest himself titularly as well as actually with the chief power in the country, and at the commencement of the next year he required, of both soldiers and officers, an oath of fealty to himself. There were at this time a consider- able number of Quakers in the army, who, though satisfied, as Sewel tells us, that military service was wrong, had not yet found a convenient opportunity of leaving it. Now the opportunity they desired was no GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. come. The oath was tendered to them, and as they believed they would be disobeying Christ's command in taking it, they refused it when tendered, and were dis- banded. All who refused, however, were not Friends, although they undoubtedly formed the great majority ; but, as I have already pointed out, many Baptists shared the same objection to oaths as did the Quakers. One of these disbanded soldiers was John Stubbs, a man who, so Sewel tells us, was skilled not only in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but also in some of the Oriental languages. 1 " Some of the soldiers," adds the same historian, who shares to the full the Puritan belief in earthly retribution, " who had been convinced in their judgment, took the required oath, but not long out- lived it ; for marching afterwards into Scotland, and passing by a garrison there, these, thinking they had been enemies, fired at them, whereby several were killed." 1 John Stubbs was convinced by George Fox whilst the latter was in Carlisle prison, and soon afterwards became a zealous Quaker minister in England and Holland. In 1660 he went with Samuel Fisher to Rome with a view to convert the Pope, which they were, of course, unable to do, though they were allowed to speak to some of the cardinals, to whom, we are informed, " they testified against the Pope's superstition." For all this the Friends were allowed to go free and to return unmolested. Stubbs' con- siderable learning made him of great use to Fox in compiling the " Battledore," though it is probable that the idea of the work is George's own. He died in London in 1674, from consumption, when 56 years old. CHAPTER IX. BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. Fox returns to Drayton. — His dispute with Stevens. — An inter- rupted meeting. — The Svvannington meeting. — Troublesome Ranters. — Fox is taken before Colonel Hacker. — Is sent to London. — His interview with the Protector.— Is offered a commission in the army. — Quakers in London. — Thomas Hammersley and the Oath. AFTER leaving the North, Fox continued his travels, totally unmoved by the premonitory eddyings of the storm which was now rapidly rising about him. At every place to which he went, he preached, and never unsuccessfully ; at nearly every place dangerous obstacles were thrown in his path; almost everywhere he was subjected to more or less ill-treatment. Just now, the Ranters, a considerable number of whom had joined the Quakers, to the great aggravation of the remainder, caused him much annoyance, by their extravagant conduct at his meetings ; their singing, whistling and dancing, causing him " great grief and indignation." Partly from feelings of natural affection, but more from the wish he had to strengthen the brethren in Leicestershire, he now bent his steps towards Drayton- in-the-Clay, the place of his birth. We can well imagine that his relations, from whom he been absent three years, would have received him with open arms, but of this Fox says nothing. After he has briefly recorded the fact " I went ... to visit my relations," he at once goes on with what he deems more important matter. "As H2 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. soon as I was come in (to Drayton)," he says, 1 " Nathaniel Stevens, the priest, sent to me to come to them ; for they could not do anything till I came. I, having been three years away from my relations, knew nothing of their design. But at last I went into the steeple- house yard, where the two priests were ; and they had gathered abundance of people. They would have had me gone into the steeple-house. I asked them what I should do there ? They said, Mr. Stevens could not bear the cold. I told them, he might bear it as well as I. At last we went into a great hall, Richard Farns- worth being with me ; and a great dispute we had con- cerning tithes." It is evident that George must have got by far the best of this lengthy and somewhat acri- monious disputation, for the people became "so vain and rude," that the meeting had to be broken up. George promised to continue the discussion that day week, and during the interval preached in the villages near. True to his promise, he returned in time for the debate, when a scene half-saddening, half-amusing, took place. Stevens had got seven other ministers to assist him in refuting the arguments of the whilom shepherd lad, and as he had given notice in a lecture of the intended discussion, most of the villages round had contributed their quota to what was probably the largest crowd quiet little Drayton had ever seen. The priests wanted Fox to go into the steeple-house, but that he firmly refused to do ; and getting on a hillock, commenced to harangue the people from it. The priests, he tells us, grew very light and the people rude ; but this neither disturbed Fox nor confounded his arguments. " So after they had toiled themselves {to answer) they went in a rage to priest Stevens' house to 1 "Journal." Ed. 1808, vol. i. p. 250. BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. "3 drink." The people tried to flatter him,. and wondered what he might not have been had he not chosen to become a Quaker, and then, finding this had no effect on him, " several lusty fellows," he says, " took me up in their arms, and carried me into the steeple-house, they in- tending to have carried me into the steeple-house by force ; but the door being locked, they fell down on a heap, having me under them. As soon as I could I got- from them to my hill again ; then they got me from that place, took me to the steeple-house wall, and set me on a box like a stool ; and all the priests being come back, stood under with the people. The priests cried, ' Come, to argument, to argument.' I said, ' I denied all their voices, for they were the voice of hirelings and strangers !' They cried, ' Prove it, prove it.' I directed them to the tenth of John, where they might see what Christ said of such. He declared, ' He was the true Shepherd that laid down His life for His sheep, and His sheep heard His voice and followed Him ; but the hire- ling would fly when the wolf came, because he was an hireling ! I offered to prove that they were such hirelings. Then the priests plucked me off the box again and them- selves got all upon boxes under the steeple-house wall." George attempted to prove that they were false pro- phets and hirelings, but the whole meeting seems to have now become very little better than a bear garden. George claims the victory, and in support affirms that the priests packed away, and many people were convinced that day. Judging from his own account, it is evident that the priests were anything but skilful in argument. One little incident in the meeting is somewhat touching. Though George and his father never appear — like Wil- liam Penn and the old Admiral — to have had an open rupture, one cannot read Fox's Journal without being I n+ GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. sure that the feeling between father and son was not a warm one ; for the elder was a hearer and follower of the priests, and up to now had not been brought to look upon his son's teaching with any degree of sym- pathy. But this day his father " was so well satisfied," that he struck his cane upon the ground, and said, " Truly I see, he that will but stand to the truth, it will bear him out." A week after, another meeting was appointed, this time at his father's house, and only of those who had embraced Quakerism. Stevens, who had got some troopers with him, sent for Fox to come to him ; but he returned word that the meeting was appointed, and they might come to it if they chose. They did not choose, but sent the soldiers instead, who took the names of those present, and warned them to go home. Coming to Fox, they gave him the same warning, but as he replied that he was then at home, they did not trouble him further. He seems to have stopped a few days longer, for he tells us that Stevens made up several contradictory stories about him, and that he declined to go into the church to a service. The next place he visited, after leaving Drayton, was Swannington, and here he held a meeting, which was destined to be one of the most famous in Quaker annals. Yet there was little in the meeting itself, ex- cept for its large size, to attract attention ; the Ranters were somewhat troublesome, though many were con- vinced, but these were now common occurrences. The great importance of the meeting lies in the simple fact that certain busybodies in the shape of Justices cither took, or professed to take, alarm, lest under this religious gathering there should be a political meaning ; and they took upon themselves to write to the Protector twice, to give him information regarding what they BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. "5 evidently considered a Royalist meeting. 1 There is no doubt that there was reason to suspect that a plot against the life of Cromwell had been formed, and many people considered the Quakers were implicated in it. Some Franciscan friars were supposed, probably not without fair grounds, to have come from Rome to manage it, and they were believed to be going about in the guise of Quakers. 2 What gave colour to this otherwise absurd report, was that the Quakers refused to take the oath or to enlist as soldiers, and so were con- sidered, if not actively disloyal to the commonwealth, but very lukewarm friends to it at best. Few among the better informed of the people could have really credited a rumour so improbable ; but the magistrates, the priests, the soldiers, in fact all — and they were many — who disliked the Friends, eagerly took advantage of it to annoy and spoil the quiet sect, who aimed at perfect equality and true Christian fraternity. Whether Fox heard of these letters is unknown ; if 1 Both these very remarkable letters, interesting on account of their subservient tone and the narrow bigotry they display, are given in note D. 2 It was commonly reported that the Quakers were Roman Catholics in disguise, and, absurd as this story appears to us, it was swallowed by many persons whose education should have secured them against such ludicrous credulity. In Thurlow's " State Papers," vol. iii. p. 117, it is said that a man in Bristol laid in- formation in January, 1654, that he had been told by one Coppin- ger, an Irishman, that while in Rome, he had been a Franciscan friar, and that the "Quakers of the Quakers" in London, were friars, and also that this Coppinger, learning that there were no Quakers in Bristol, offered that, if this informant would give him five pounds, he " would make it five hundred pounds, if some Quakers did not come to Bristol within three weeks or a month then following ; and on the morrow the said Mr. Coppinger departed from this city (Bristol) to Ireland, his native place ; and about eighteen days after, there came to this city two persons that did bear the name of Quakers." 1 16 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. he did, they certainly made no difference to him, for he neither left Derbyshire nor ceased to hold meetings. The day after the foregoing meeting, he held another To this meeting, with intent to disturb, came one Jacob Bottomley, a great Ranter from Leicester, but the Lord's power stopped him, and so came over the meeting, that it was indeed a blessed one; and a priest, who hoped for a victory over the man who had foiled so many of his order, was also " confounded by the mighty power of the Lord." " About this time," Fox adds, 1 " the priests, Baptists, Ranters, and other pro- fessors, were very rude, and stirred up rude people against us. We sent to the Ranters to come forth and try, their God. Abundance of them came, who sang, whistled and danced ; but the Lord's power so prevailed over them, that many of them were convinced." After leaving Swannington, he went on to Whetstone, where he had arranged to hold another large meeting, but, as it was about to' commence, seventeen troopers of Colonel Hacker's regiment seized him before the as- sembling people, and carried him before the colonel and the officers of the regiment, " and," says Fox, " a great deal of discourse we had about priests and about meet- ings." Fox seems to have so favourably impressed the colonel, who had probably not received any orders to interfere with the Quakers at that time, that he listened quietly while the other expounded his doctrine of the Divine Light, and then told him that he might go home, but he was not to hold any more meetings. " What have I done ? " demanded George. The colonel did not at- tempt to explain, but contented himself with asking him to promise not even to go to meetings in future. " If I promise so," replied George, " it will be manifest 1 "Journal." Ed. 1765, p. 121. BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. 117 that I have been guilty of something to make my home a prison, and if I go to meetings, then it will be said I have broken thine order." He therefore told Colonel Hacker boldly, that, when the Lord told him, he should certainly go to meetings, nor would he submit to his requirements; " but," he adds, " I said, we were a peace- able people." " Well then," was the colonel's reply, " I will send you to-morrow morning, by six o'clock, to answer for yourself to my Lord Protector, by Captain Drury, one of his lifeguards." Considering the coldness of the weather, for it was winter, the hour of starting was an early one; still, before setting out, Fox asked leave to speak to the colonel, who admitted him to his bedroom, and again entreated him to go home and leave meetings alone. This George still refused to do, and insisted that he ought to have liberty to serve God after his own fashion. " Then you must go before the Protector," was all the answer he got ; thereupon Fox knelt down by the colonel's bed- side, and, to the other's chagrin, besought the Lord to forgive Hacker for acting like Pontius Pilate, "since he was set against him by the priests, as Pilate was against the Lord by the Jews." Captain Drury was certainly no cruel guardian, and on his road to London, Fox was allowed a degree of liberty which is astounding to us, who are accustomed to see even political suspects guarded with jealousy and rigour; nor when they arrived in London did Captain Drury take him to a prison, but sending to Cromwell to know when it would suit him to see George, let him live unfet- tered at an inn. All the Protector required was a written promise not to take up arms, either against him or his Govern- ment, and this, a promise after his own peaceloving heart, Fox at once gave with more than readiness in a n8 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. letter addressed " to the Protector, by name of Oliver Cromwell." Cromwell was not ignorant of the tenets of a people whose name was just then in everybody's mouth; for Francis Howgill, who seems to have been the first Quaker to apply for his favour, had sought an inter- view with him, and not obtaining this, had, as he says, been moved to write to him. The letter, the intention of which was to obtain some relief for the Quakers from the obnoxious oath and the penal laws, was written in a style which, in its intemperate language, is hardly in keeping with the object for which it was written. Howgill tells the Protector, that though he had been chosen and exalted to be a ruler, yet that, " unless he abrogated the laws concerning religion, by which the people who were dear in the Lord's sight were oppressed, and unless he ceased to stint the eternal Spirit, his power should not be established, but he should be trodden down in the mire, or scattered as dust before the wind." 1 There is no record that Cromwell took the slightest notice of this epistle ; certainly he did not comply with its petition. No laws, as Sewel points out, 2 were made against the Quakers during the commonwealth ; but those which were in force were permitted to be used without let or hindrance. Even at this time, though to nothing like the extent they were a few years afterwards, Quakers " were imprisoned for refusing to swear, or for not paying tithes to maintain the priests ; they were whipped like vagabonds for preaching in markets or other public places ; or they were fined for not taking off their hats to the magistrates— for this was called contempt of the magistracy — and when for conscience 1 Watson, " Life of George Fox," p. 187. i Sewel, " History of the Rise," etc. BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. 119 sake they refused to pay such a fine, either the spoiling of their goods or imprisonment became their share." 1 As the Protector wished to see the founder of what he considered so troublesome a sect, Captain Drury took George one morning to Whitehall, where Cromwell, before he was dressed, admitted him to his room. " When I went in," says George, in the graphic account he gives us of this interview, " I was moved to say, ' Peace to this house,' and I exhorted him to keep in the fear of God, that he might receive wisdom from Him, that by it he might be ordered and with it might order all things under his hands to God's glory. I spake much to him of truth, and a great deal of discourse I had with him about religion, wherein he carried himself very moderately. But he said, 'we quarrelled about priests,' whom he called ministers. I told him I did not quarrel with them, but they quarrelled with me and my friends. ' But,' said I, ' if we own the prophets, Christ and the Apostles, we cannot hold up such teachers (as) prophets and shepherds as the prophets, Christ and the Apostles declared against ; but we must declare against them by the same power and spirit.' " George then spoke strongly against preaching for hire, and remarked that though all Christendom had the Scriptures, they wanted the power and spirit that those had that gave them forth, and this was the reason that the different sects had not fellowship with one another. Cromwell seemed to be much interested, and several times interrupted the speaker in order to remark that what he said was both good and true. " Many more words I had with him," continues George, " but people coming in I drew a little back. As I was 1 Sewel, " History of the Rise," etc. 120 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. turning he catched me by the hand and with tears in his eyes said, ' Come again to my house; for if thou and I were but an hour of the day together we should be nearer one to the other,' adding that he wished me no more ill than he did to his own soul. I told him if he did he wronged his own soul ; and I bid him hearken to God's voice, that he might stand in His counsel and obey it ; and if he did so, that would keep him from hardness of heart ; but if he did not hear God's voice, his heart would be hardened. He said it was true. Then I went out, and Captain Drury came out after me ; he told me I was at liberty and might go whither I would. Then I was brought into a great hall, where the Protector's gentlemen were to dine. I asked what they brought me thither for. They said it was by the Protector's order, that I might dine with them. I bid him let the Protector know I would not eat of his bread nor drink of his drink. When he heard this, he said, ' Now I know that there is a people risen that I cannot win either with gifts, honours, offices, or places, but all other sects and people I can.' " Cromwell did not make this remark without good reason ; he had tried to win Fox and failed. Ever alive to the importance of keeping up the religious enthusiasm of the army, and conscious of the vast in- fluence Fox had over the minds of people with whom he came in contact, the Protector thought him a fitting person for his purpose, and in order to induce him to become a soldier, offered him a commission. It is hardly necessary to say that the offer was at once sternly refused. The only warfare the Quaker would wage was against the world, the flesh and the devil ; the only banner under which he would consent to fight was the banner of the Cross. Cromwell had assured Fox that he wished him no BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. 121 more ill than he did his own soul, and praised the Quakers in no sparing manner; yet but a short time elapsed before he sent for the corporation of London and sternly directed them to put the laws in force against the Friends. "This week," says Richard Hub- berthorn in a letter to George Fox, " did the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Councilmen of this city go to Whitehall to Oliver, and he made a speech among them, concerning the danger of enemies, and of Charles being ready in Flanders to come over with an army into England, and in his declaration he spoke more against Friends than ever before he bravely expressed, saying that there was a good law against the Quakers, and they did well to put it in execution, and he would stand by them, for he said they were against both magistracy and ministry ; so that he and all is hardened against the Truth, and all their pretences of setting Friends at liberty, which they were once about, is now ceased at present, and they only plotting how to exalt themselves in the earth." 1 It may be true that Cromwell never initiated any persecution ; but the above anecdote shows that he had no objection to persecution, especially if he could gain anything by it, and was not above the meanness of setting others to do a thing in which he was ashamed to appear. When set at liberty, Fox continued to stay at the Mermaid, the inn at which Captain Drury had lodged him, and there flocked to see him great numbers of priests and professors, military officers and curious idlers, and many a noisy discussion and keen interchange of argument the walls of the old inn heard. Most of the people who came were civil, but some were violent and troublesome, particularly some Ranters, who tried to 1 Swarthmore MSS. 122 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. insist on his regaling them with drink and tobacco. George attended and held many meetings both in and about London, to which the people flocked in such numbers that the streets were often impassable near the place where it was rumoured the man in the leathern breeches was to preach. He was once asked to go to Whitehall and preach to the Protector's bodyguard, which he did. At this meeting an Independent minister, who was reported to be a great favourite with Oliver, opposed him, and being defeated in argument, maliciously spread false reports about Fox, some of which were of a sin- gularly ridiculous character. One, that he wore silver buttons, seems to have annoyed George considerably; and in his Journal, he protests that they were only alchemy. Another rumour was, that he hung ribbons on the arms of his followers. On the whole, George's visit to London was most successful, and amongst the many he convinced were several members of the Pro- tector's own family and immediate servants ; but the Protector he was unable to see again — perhaps because he had called his favourite priest a liar. As he could not see him, Fox wrote to Cromwell, warning him to beware " of craft, of subtilty, and of policy." He also occupied his spare time in writing addresses to a num- ber of other persons, including one to the Pope. Quakers were now very numerous in London (although their meetings only dated from the commencement of this year) as well as in the provinces ; and, despite the Protector's friendly feelings towards their leader, they continued to be persecuted. 1 Indeed, the council became 1 A curious instance of the growth of this sect is given in the following extract from a letter written by the French Ambassador in England, to Cardinal Mazarin, on the 4th of February, 1655. " I cannot yet get speech of the Protector. It is said that he is agreed with the Anabaptists, whom he will be forced to favour a BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. so much alarmed at their increase, that we find in June this year (1654) a committee was appointed to consider the best way to suppress tumultuous meetings of persons who represented themselves to belong to the " Children of the Light;" and on the same day a letter was sent to Colonel Saunders, in Derbyshire, ordering him "to scatter such meetings, and in future to prevent them if possible," even by force of arms if necessary. He was also directed to apprehend their ministers if he should have reason to suppose them to be enemies to the commonwealth. 1 I cannot close the record of this year, so momentous in the annals of Quakerism, without noticing the success their protest against oaths had in one instance. In his Journal, 2 Fox mentions that one Thomas Hammersley little, since he hath distasted the Presbyterians. Here is a new sect on foot whom they call Quakers. Their number is consider- able throughout the provinces. They do pretend here that it is for the advantage of the present state that there are so many divisions in their religion, to the end that no one body should grow very considerable ; and also the discourse of the Lord Pro- tector doth hint that he never fought against monarchy, but rather for liberty of conscience." Thurlow, " State Papers," vol. iii. p. 123. 1 " Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1654," pp. 210, 211. ■ "Journal," Ed. 1808, vol. i. p. 249. Sewel (" General History," vol. iv. p. 67) gives an amusing anecdote of the way in which the compulsion of a thing which is against the conscience, will lead to an attempt to keep the letter while violating the spirit of a com- mand. Erasmus Dole, he tells us, " bore the name of a Quaker. He having said that he scrupled not to declare the contents of the Oath of Allegiance, it was contrived that he should speak after the clerk, and skip over such words as he disliked, and pronounce another in its room, as, I declare, instead of, I swear. This went on, and whilst he was thus speaking, the jailor held his hand to the book, and when Erasmus had said all, put it to his mouth to make this pass for kissing it. With this the court was satisfied, and the Bishop of Bristol, seeing these apeish tricks, told the court that it altered it not from having been an oath, at which they gloried, 124 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. was summoned to serve upon a jury, and admitted to serve without being required to take the usual oath. Thomas was foreman of the jury, and when he brought in the verdict, the judge declared, " That he had been a judge many years, but never heard a more upright verdict than that -the Quaker had then brought in." This was the more important, as it formed a good pre- cedent when the Quakers asked and obtained leave to make an affirmation in lieu of taking an oath in all legal matters. The permission to make affirmation was a thing Fox strove anxiously to obtain ; for not only did he consider that to take an oath, under any circum- stances whatever, was an act of positive sin, but he also held that it created two kinds of truth; and to take an oath even in a court of justice he looked upon as a slur cast upon his general veracity. In most cases when lie was called on to do so, he expressed his readiness to suffer the penalties of perjury, in the same manner as if he had been legally guilty of forswearing himself. At the beginning of this year Quakerism, which had already such a strong hold in the northern and midland counties, was in the southern and western but little more than a name, and even in London its adherents were so few that they had not assembled themselves together or formed any species of society. 1 Howgill, as having obtained a conquest. But it was but a pitiful one ; for Erasmus being a man of irregular life, the Quakers had but little cause to regret the loss of such a member, who grew so dissolute that, in process of time, they found themselves necessi- tated to deny him because of his offensive conversation." 1 The first Quaker who is known to have visited London was Gervase Benson, a North-country justice of the peace, and a friend of Judge Fell's. His visit took place in 1653, shortly after his conviction. He does not seem to have made any systematic effort to propagate his creed. See Beck and Ball's " The London Friends' Meetings," page 19. BEFORE THE PROTECTOR. 125 who on one of his preaching journeys had come to the Metropolis, determined to rectify this error, and early in the year got one of the Friends to allow a meeting to be held in his house in Watling Street, at which he presided. A little later a regular meeting was estab- lished in Aldersgate Street; and a woman named Anne Downer seems to have been its minister, and in a general way to have taken charge of the infant society. 1 Before the year closed the scene was changed, and Quakers were numerous both in London and all the country for at least thirty miles round. Much of this was no doubt due to Fox, but probably still more to Howgill and some of the other ministers who came to his assistance. 1 Anne Downer, who had the honour to be the first woman who preached (publicly at all events) in London, married successively two famous Quaker ministers, Benjamin Greenwell and George Whitehead. After a life of suffering, she died in 1686. There are few things more beautiful in early Quaker history than the death of this truly pious woman. CHAPTER X. IN LAUNCESTON GAOL. Fox's travels. — Is taken before a justice. — The Oath of Abjuration. — Drayton-in-the-Clay. — Quakerism in the West. — General Desborough. — The judge and the hat. — The trial at the assizes. ■ — Foxin Launceston gaol. — Increase of Quakerism. — AFriend's offer. — Release of Fox. \li 7"HEN Fox next left London, it was to travel V V through the south-eastern counties, in the desultory manner in which he was accustomed to prosecute his preaching journeys ; for he never seems to have formed any plans beforehand, but merely to have gone wherever the Spirit led him. He met with a good deal of opposition, principally from the Ranters, but with an almost total absence of that rough ill-usage with which he was so frequently treated in the North. At Reading, where two of Judge Fell's daughters came to see him, and cheer him with accounts of the family at Swarthmore he so loved, he held a meeting, to which many Baptists and Ranters came, and disputed noisily and violently with him and his friends. The Ranters insisted that God made the devil, but George replied that Satan only became the devil because he left the Truth, and that as God had blessed all He made, and certainly had not blessed the devil, He could not have made him ; an argument which, admitting the truth of George's hypothesis, is incontestable. Where George met Richard Hubberthorn, the then IN LAUXCESTON GAOI. 127 famous Quaker preacher, is uncertain ; but we hear of them being at Lynn, and going together to some town, about thirty miles distant, of which the name is not mentioned. Having directed the landlady of the tavern at which they stayed to have their horses ready by nine the next morning, they retired to rest, only to be woke up a few hours later by a constable and two officers, who were in search of a couple of men who had stolen a horse, and to whom they thought the travel- lers answered. Both Fox and Hubberthorn protested they knew nothing about the matter; but they answered so well to the description, that the constables felt justified in taking them before a justice the first thing on the morrow. The justice was much offended at not re- ceiving the customary " hat honour," but George coolly asked him why, as he had not taken it off in the presence of the Protector, should he uncover to him ? Of course the justice was not very well pleased at receiving such a rebuff; but after examining them, had to allow that there was nothing against them, a cir- cumstance, he said, which caused him much regret, and so allowed them to proceed on their journey. Fox and a Friend now went to Cambridge, a town notedly hostile to Quakerism, for which George accounts by the number of students preparing for the ministry. These students naturally were displeased at the pro- pagation of a creed, one object of which was to deprive them of the principal means by which they hoped to subsist, viz. tithes. Some of the roughest of the collegians met them at the entrance to the town, and were so hostile that Fox had much difficulty in keeping on his horse, while his companion, Amos Stoddart — for he appears to have parted with Hubber- thorn somewhere — was not even as fortunate as this. When they got to the inn matters became still worse, 128 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. for, remarks Fox in his Journal, " the lads were so rude, that miners, colliers, and carters could not have been ruder." " They knew," he adds, " I was so against the trade of preaching, which they were as apprentices to learn, that they raged as bad as ever Diana's craftsmen did against Paul." At last the mayor interfered, and the Friends held a quiet meeting that night, but they left as early as they could on the following day. "This year" (1655), sa Y s George, "came out the Oath of Abjuration, by which many Friends suffered ;" for, as has been noticed in the last chapter, the Quakers con- scientiously objected to take any oath whatsoever, and consistently refused to do so, be the cost to themselves what it might. Many are the stories which are related of Friends having things stolen from them, and the thief going scot-free because the prosecutor refused to swear to his own possessions ; and very frequently we find that the magistrates would seize the opportunity to tender the oath to the unhappy men who they were aware could not take it, and then fine them for re- fusing. 1 Fox at once wrote to Cromwell, begging him to exempt him and his followers from the operation of this oath ; but, as he complains, " the Protector hardened himself" against his appeal. And now he once more turned his steps towards Drayton. At the meeting he held on his arrival, to his great surprise, he was not opposed by a single priest. The reason of this unusual event was not that they had 1 In the two huge volumes Joseph Besse compiled of the suffer- ings both great and small of the members of this much-abused sect, we see that this cruel courseof proceeding was one frequently adopted for the purpose of fining or otherwise spoiling its adherents. /.V LA UNCESTON GAOL. 129 altered their opinion of him, or that they had been so severely beaten in argument as not to care to break another lance with the ex-shepherd, but that one of their number who had held a fat living was dead, and the rest were all gone to see if they could not get it. Amidst all these records of selfishness, it is pleasant to know that Fox was affectionately received by his rela- tions. An amusing instance of George's method of taking the bull by the horns, which it must be confessed some- times verged on foolhardiness, is afforded by the fact that while he was at Drayton he heard that the magis- trates at Evesham were putting up a new pair of stocks for his especial use. He went there at once. Fortu- nately the stocks were not ready, so he held his meeting, and was suffered to leave unmolested. With all his travelling, he had never been, and as yet his principles were little known, in the West of England ; but now he felt moved to go there. Accompanied by several companions, for by this time he seldom was under the necessity of travelling alone, he made his way to Topsham, then a thriving little port, preaching, as was his wont, at every town and village he passed through. The party got to Topsham late on Saturday night, and put up at an inn, at which they stayed all the following day. On Monday, after they had left, George missed a girdle he generally wore, and which through forgetfulness he had left behind, and sent for it. The innkeeper, who had throughout treated his guests with great incivility, refused to give it up. Afterwards, the man being troubled in his mind about it, burnt it, lest it should bewitch him ; but, as George says drily, " when he had burnt it he was more troubled than before." At St. Ives, Fox wrote a paper to admonish the K 130 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. people, a copy of which he gave to a man he did not know, and the man, who was a servant of Major Ceely, a neighbouring justice, showed it to his master. The justice, apparently not liking the principles of the Quakers, of whom he could have had no personal know- ledge, sent the constables to bring Fox and his friends before him. When the constables came, Fox was out, but learning on his return that his friends had been taken, he at once followed them. As usual, he com- menced by offending the justice, for he demanded whe- ther there was no magistrate in the place to keep the people in order, and on Ceely replying that he was one, Fox gravely admonished him to do his duty. This was not a propitious opening to the proceedings, and it is not surprising that Ceely, after inquiring and being informed that George had written the paper his servant had shown him, should have tendered him the Oath of Abjuration, which both Fox and his companions refused to take, the former showing a copy of the letter he had written to the Protector on the subject. A priest, who was present, now interrupted the pro- ceedings, and vexed George by teasing him about his hair, asking him why he wore it so long, and many other " foolish questions." It was the custom of the Quakers to cut their hair short, and Fox once disgusted some of his weaker followers by his habit of wearing his long, and by his having replied to their admonitions on the subject, that as he had not put his hair there, he took no pride in it. The justice, after carefully examining him, to see what fault he could find, directed him to be taken to Penden- nis Castle, or, if the governor of that place was not at home, to Launceston gaol ; but the soldiers, anxious to save their steps, appear to have taken him to Launceston first. On the road the guards were very impertinent, IN LAUNCESTON GAOL. and it was not till he appealed to the constable in charge, that he was able to procure anything like a civil answer to a civil question. The constable also told him that General Desborough was coming into Cornwall, and that in all probability he would set the prisoners at liberty. As they were getting near Bodmin they saw the general himself coming in his carriage. The officer who was riding before him was slightly acquainted with Fox, and drawing rein as he spoke, said, — " Oh, Mr. Fox, what do you do here ? " " I am a prisoner," replied George. " Alack," said the other, "and for what ? " " Then I told him," says George, " that I was taken up while travelling," and the man, riding up to Desborough repeated what he had heard, and explained who the prisoner was. George was called up and, having given his own account of what had occurred, Desborough inveighed violently against the doctrine of Divine Light. George, who was ever instant in season and out of season, and whom certainly his worst enemies could not accuse of being a respecter of persons, as warmly defended it, and treated Desborough to a lecture of such length, that the general impatiently told the soldiers that they might carry him to Launceston, for he would not stop to talk to the prisoner lest his horses should get cold. The gaoler at Launceston found them a room, for which, and the keep of their horses, they were to pay seven shillings a week; and he offered to provide them with food for seven shillings a week extra. Contrary to their usual custom, the Quakers agreed to pay this im- post, and they appear to have lived in some degree of comfort till the assizes came round, some nine weeks later. 132 GEORGE FOX AXD THE EARLY QUAKERS. When George was taken before the judge, Lord Chief Justice Glyn.he looked round the court, and then said, — " Peace be amongst you," keeping his hat on all the time. " Who be these you have brought into court ? " de- manded the judge angrily of the gaoler. " Prisoners, my lord," was the answer. " Why do you not put off your hats ? " asked Glyn, turning towards the prisoners ; but there was no reply. The judge waited a few minutes. " The court commands you to put off your hats," he said at length. " Where ? " demanded George, " Where did ever any magistrate, king, or judge, from Moses to Daniel, com- mand any to put off their hats when they came before them in their courts, either amongst the Jews — the people of God — or amongst the heathen ? And if the law of England doth command any such thing, show me that law, either written or printed." The judge, who was by this time very angry, re- plied, — " I do not carry my law-books on my back." " But," pursued George, " tell me where it is printed in any statute book, that I may read it." "Take him away, prevaricator," exclaimed the judge, furiously ; " I'll jerk him." " So they took us away," says George, " and put us among the thieves. Presently after he called to the gaoler, — " ' Bring them up again.' " ' Come,' said he, as we entered ; ' Come, where had they hats from Moses to Daniel ? Come, answer me ; I have you fast now.' " "Thou mayst read in the third of Daniel," replied Fox readily, " that the three children were cast into the IN LAUNCESTON GAOL. 133 fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar's command with their coats, their hose, and their hats on." The judge had nothing to answer, so he directed the gaoler to take them away again. In a short time the prisoners were called up once more, when George, while waiting, saw, to his grief, several people taking the usual oath. He wrote a few words condemnatory of the practice on a slip of paper, which he then passed round the court, and the paper, unfortunately for Fox, fell into the judge's hands. He at once declared it to be seditious, and demanded whether Fox had written it. George, anxious that the contents should be as widely diffused as possible, said that if it was read aloud to him he could tell whether it was his or npt, and if it was, he would own it, and prove what was in it from the Scriptures. For some time the judge would not permit this, but at length, seeing no other way out of the difficulty, he consented ; and the paper having been read aloud by the clerk of the court, George acknowledged that he had written it, and pro- ceeded to justify it as he had said. He had not spoken many minutes when the judge stopped him, and recurred to the old question of the " hat." "Take off their hats, gaoler," said the judge. The gaoler obediently took off the obnoxious hats, and handed them to their owners, who immediately put them on again; whereupon Fox began a lengthy haran- gue on hat honour, and ended by demanding reparation for their nine weeks' imprisonment. The judge, in re- venge for all this lecturing, directed an indictment to be framed against the prisoners for their behaviour in court, and Major Ceely charged them with a ridiculous plot, so utterly unfounded, that even the judge, anxious as he was to seize upon any charge against the Quakers, did not see fit to notice it. '34 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. And now George demanded to have his mittimus read aloud to him. This the judge resisted for a long time, but at length he permitted one of the three pri- soners to read it. Among other things the document showed that they might have been unmolested if they would but have consented to give security for their good behaviour, and on this point Fox seized. Turning to the judge, he asked whether it was likely that, had Major Ceely's story been true, they would have refused to give securities, and then gone on afresh with their business anent the plot ; and the judge, seeing that Major Ceely, in his efforts to appear loyal to the Pro- tector, had only committed himself, declined to take any notice of the accusation. Major Ceely, who seems to have been bent on making himself ridiculous, now got up again, and, addressing the judge, said, " If it please you, my lord, to hear me, this man," pointing to Fox, " struck me, and gave me such a blow as I never had in my life." " Then I laughed in my heart," writes George, " and said, ' Major Ceely, art thou a justice of the peace, and a major of a troop of horse, and tellest the judge, in the face of the court and country, that I, a prisoner, struck thee and gave thee such a blow as thou never hadst the like in thy life ? What, art thou not ashamed ? Prithee, Major Ceely,' said I, ' where did I strike thee, and who is thy witness for that.' " Ceely replied that the place was the Castle Green, and that a Captain Bradden was his witness. Captain Bradden being in court, George turned to him, and asked him if this story was true, but the captain, a cautious man, declined to answer the question ; and the judge, getting impatient, ended a scene disgraceful to a court of justice even in those lax times, by fining each of the prisoners twenty marks apiece for the contempt IN LAUNCESTOX GAOL. 135 shown to the court by refusing to remove their hats, and ordering them to be kept in prison till the money was paid. On the original charge he does not appear to have given any verdict, so we may presume it was so shallow and false that he thought it best to take no notice of it. The same evening Captain Bradden, with some seven or eight other justices, went to see Fox in his room at Launceston gaol, and in course of conversation told him that neither the judge nor any one else believed a word Major Ceely had said against him. " But, Captain Bradden," said Fox, " why didst thou not bear witness for me or against me, seeing that Major Ceely produced thee for a witness that thou sawest me strike him ? " " Why," replied the captain, " why, when Major Ceely and I came by you, as you were walking on the Castle Green, he put off his hat to you, and said, ' How do you do, Mr. Fox ? Your servant, sir.' Then you said unto him, ' Major Ceely, take heed of hypocrisy, and of a rotten heart, for when came I to be thy master and thou my servant ? Do servants use to cast their masters into prison?' This was the great blow you gave him." There was now no immediate prospect of release, or even of anything like a speedy termination of their imprisonment ; and had not their commitment been so worded as to imply that they must expect to lie for some length of time in gaol, they would never- theless have been prepared to do so. There is little doubt that the payment of their fines and some small dues to the gaoler would have at once opened the doors ; but this, probably not through inability, they were un- willing to do, as it would have virtually placed them in the position of guilty persons ; in fact would have been practically an acknowledgment that they had in some 136 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. way committed an offence against the law — a thing which by no amount of straining they can be shown to have done. Neither did the prisoners feel justified in paying for their own board, and so giving the gaoler notice that they would no longer pay him the money they had previously done, they sent their horses to the care of some Friends in the country. Thereupon, George informs us, the gaoler, who had previously been very civil, " grew very wicked and devilish, and put us down into Doomsdale, a nasty stinking place where they used to put witches and murderers after they were con- demned to die. The place was so noisome that it was observed that few that ever went in did ever come out in health. The floor was like mire, and the water stood ankle deep in places, for it had not been cleansed for ten years." Yet the chagrined gaoler refused either to let the prisoners cleanse it themselves, or even to have a little clean straw on which to lie. On the first night of their imprisonment in this horrible pit, some of the friendly townspeople (for there must have been several Quakers living at Launceston) brought them a candle, and some straw which they set on fire to take away the stench. The head gaoler slept in the room above, with which Doomsdale communicated by a hole in the ceiling, and the smoke getting into his room it woke him up and enraged him so extremely that he threw a lot of such filthy water on their heads that they could neither bear to touch one another nor to lie down, and, having thus wreaked his revenge, the gaoler abused them in language as violent as the water was foul. In this wretched dungeon they were compelled to remain for some days before they were allowed to cleanse it, and as the gaoler would not permit them to receive the food the Friends continually brought them, they were almost starved, and they only procured the water they IN LAUNCESTON GAOL. 137 required to drink with extreme difficulty. It will bear out Macaulay's description of the condition of prisons at this time, when it is mentioned that the gaoler and the under gaoler of Launceston gaol, and their wives, had all been burnt in the hand for theft. 1 The gaoler at first also did his best to prevent these unhappy prisoners from seeing their friends, even through the window of the dungeon. Sewel records that a young girl brought Fox some food, and in order to pass it to him tried to bend one of the iron bars of the window slightly. 2 For this offence, if such it was, she was actually sued for prison-breaking. Incredible as it may appear, a report was also set about that the dungeon was haunted, in order to terrify its inmates, which, however, it did not do. After a time, leave was given that the prisoners might buy their meat in the town, and Fox sent for Anne Downer, the young Quakeress who was the first female minister in London, to come and wait on him and his companions in misery. As soon as he was able, Fox sent a letter to Crom- well, giving a detailed account of his arrest and subse- quent sufferings, upon receipt of which the Protector sent an order to Captain Fox, the governor of Penden- nis Castle, to enquire into the whole case, and report upon it to him. Captain Keat, who had distinguished himself by his brutal treatment of Fox, and his brother, who once struck him, were, we are told, brought before 1 Speaking of the prisons in the seventeenth century, Macaulay, in his " History of England," says they were "hells on earth, semi- naries of every vice, and of every disease. At the assizes the lean and yellow culprits brought with them from their cells to the dock an atmosphere of stench and pestilence which sometimes avenged them signally on bench, bar, and jury." 2 Sewel. "General History of the Rise of the Society of Friends," vol. i. p. 363. 138 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the authorities and " much threatened " ; and Fox was informed that, if he would but change his principles sufficiently to take an oath, he might recover substan- tial damages from them. This, of course, he firmly refused to do. The great benefit of the Protector's inter- ference was, in preventing the Cornish Quakers being seriously molested for some time after ; and it is re- ported that one of Cromwell's own chaplains said, the greatest service which could be rendered to Quakerism was keeping George Fox in prison. Fox in all his misery, however, had the consolation of knowing that his principles were spreading so fast that in 1656 there were seldom less than a thousand of its adherents in prison at one time. While in prison, Fox lost no opportunities of exhort- ing the many who came to see him, and of preaching to the townspeople who flocked on Sundays to the Castle Green, on which he had liberty to walk. The whole of that part of the West country had hitherto " been very dark," he tells us, " but now the light broke forth, and shined over all, and many were turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God." "Many were moved to go to the steeple-houses, several were sent to prison to us, and a great convincement began in the country." 1 Many of these converts were immediately made to taste the discipline of suffering, both as suspi- cious persons and as evil doers. A Devonshire justice of the peace was cast into Exeter gaol as a Jesuit, and some other Friends, who were people of considerable substance, were taken up and whipped, on the pretext of vagrancy, although not more than four or five miles from their own houses. The Mayor of Launceston took up every Friend he could, and, in an indecent 1 "Journal, " vol. i. p. 324. Ed. 1808. TN LA UNCESTON GAOL. 139 manner, searched young women, on the plea that they might have treasonable documents upon them. A young man coming to see him, George, as he himself tells us, " drew up all the gross, inhuman, and unchristian actions of the mayor, gave it him, and bid him seal it up, and go out again the back way, and then come into the town through the gates. He did so, and the watch took him up, and carried him before the mayor, who presently searched his pockets and found the letter, wherein he saw all his actions characterized, which shamed him so that, from that time, he meddled little with the Lord's servants." 1 At the time when the assizes were on, the justices came to view the prison, and amongst them came Captain Fox, the governor of Pendennis Castle. After looking George steadily in the face, he turned to the people who were with him, and remarked, in an audible tone, " I never saw a simpler man in my life." " Stay," said George, who overheard him, " stay, man ! and we will see who is the simpler man." But the governor of Pen- dennis Castle had no mind for a theological argument, and so went his way, and the prisoner informs us that he was but a "light chaffy person." Amongst others who came to see him were two women of high station, the one the wife of a judge, who subsequently used his influence in favour of the Quakers, and the other the daughter of a baronet, whose conversion " mightily exas- perated " all her friends and the priests. While in prison Fox, as usual, occupied a good part of his time in writing letters and admonitions. One of his fellow- prisoners, Edward Pyot, a man of some position and education, wrote a long letter to the Chief Justice, who had so unfairly conducted their trial — a letter full of 1 "Journal," vol. i. p. 342. Ed. 1808. 140 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. sound common sense and some legal acumen — protest- ing against his conduct. A very pleasant incident happened about this time. "A Friend," says George, "went to Oliver Cromwell, and offered himself, body for body, to lie in Doomsdale in my stead, if he would take him and set me at liberty, which thing so struck him, that he said to his great men and council : 'Which of you would do as much for me, if I were in the same condition ?' And though he did not accept the Friend's offer, but said he could not do so, for it was contrary to law, yet the truth mightily came over him." Some short time after this, Cromwell sent Major-General Desborough to see what could be done ; and the general offered the prisoners their liberty on condition of their going home and not preaching again ; but this they could not promise. During the summer evenings Desborough used often to come to the Castle Green to play at bowls with the justices and others ; and many Quakers, distressed that " men so eminent should be so. light, were moved to remonstrate with them, for spending their time so vainly and for taking their pleasure while God's servants were lying in prison, and to warn them that the Lord would visit them for these doings." Yet, for all this, George quaintly remarks, apparently without an idea that it might possibly be in consequence of this, " Desborough left the place without setting the Friends at liberty." When the general left Launceston, he handed over the matter, with the charge of the gaol, to Colonel Bennet, who, within a few days, offered the Quakers liberty on the sole condition of paying the gaoler's fees. They answered, " they could give the gaoler no fees ; for, as they were innocent sufferers, no fees could be expected of them after they had already unjustly suf- fered so much." For some time Bennet was disposed IN LAUNCESTON GAOL. 141 to hold out for the payment of the fees ; but at length " the power of the Lord so came over him " that, on the 13th of September, 1656, he set them at liberty freely and unconditionally. Although he had been seven months in prison, Fox sent for his horses, and, without any pause for rest, plunged into his heaven-appointed work as if it had never been interrupted, and (apparently on the very night of his liberation, and after a ride of some length) met the Friends at the house of one Thomas Lower, and held a " fine precious meeting, whereat many were convinced." CHAPTER XI. THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. James Naylor. — His escapade at Bristol. — Tried by a Committee of Parliament. — His horrible sentence. — Petitions against Quakers. — Naylor's repentance and subsequent history. — Fox in the West country. — Returns to London. — Meets the Protector in the park.- — Interview with Cromwell at Whitehall. — Quakers and the sacraments. — Establishment of meetings for discipline. AFTER leaving the neighbourhood of Launceston, Fox went to Exeter. Here he met James Naylor, one of the earliest and most enthusiastic of his converts. For some time after his convincement, to use a favour- ite word of Quaker writers, James had devoted himself to the arduous life of an itinerant preacher, and his labours met with such success, that he became lifted up by it, and, in his leader's own words, " ran into imaginations." Although an uneducated man — for in his youth he had been a ploughman — he was personally so captivating, and his preaching was so eloquent, that he was both much admired and sought after, and in- vidious comparisons were drawn between him and his less gifted associates. This unwise praise was, unfortu- nately, more than his not over strong mind could bear, and he seems to have fully believed all that was said in his favour. James also was convinced that he occupied a similar position to the prophets of old, and that he should be treated with the same amount of honour they used to receive. In fact, he seems to have imagined that he was positively inspired. A band of foolish 142 THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. '43 people followed him, and by their plaudits and sub- servience fed this absurd vanity. One woman even claimed to have been raised to life by him. With this nonsense Fox had no species of sympathy, and took the first opportunity he had, to speak to Naylor somewhat sharply on the matter ; but the reproof fell unheeded, for George tells us he was " dark and much put out" When Fox was leaving Exeter, Naylor came to him and was anxious to put their friendship on its old warm and cordial footing, and in proof of his desire, tried to kiss him ; but George replied, that, as the other had turned against the power of God, he would have none of his kisses, and the two parted, if not enemies, at least but lukewarm friends. The rest of Naylor's life is perhaps the saddest thing in the whole history of Quakerism. Undeterred by Fox's warning, the unhappy man willingly received the almost Divine homage his weak-brained followers paid him, and permitted them to address him in terms of blasphemous reverence. While in Exeter gaol, women came and kissed his feet; when he left, a man walked bareheaded before him. In that stern Puritanical age, such an imbecile display of fanaticism could have but one ending — an ending of bitter suffering. A few weeks later, Naylor rode through the suburbs of Bristol, accompanied on foot by a man and three women. The man still walked before him bareheaded, and one woman led his horse while the other two spread their scarves and handkerchiefs in the road for the horse to tread on. As they did this they cried, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts ! Hosannah in the highest ! " This terrible mockery naturally disgusted all sober-minded people, and as soon as Naylor reached the city he was taken before the magistrates and sent to prison. 144 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. When Fox heard of Naylor's arrest at Exeter, he wrote him a letter, the most severe he ever penned to a follower of his own. "James," said the letter, "thou must bear thy own burden, and thy company's with thee, whose iniquity doth increase, and by thee is not cried against. Thou hast satisfied the world, yea, and their desires which they looked for. Thou and thy disciples and the world are joined against the truth, it is manifest through thy wilfulness and stubbornness, and this is the word of the Lord God to thee. Many did not expect that thou wouldst have been an en- courager of such as do cry against the power and life of truth, but would have been a nourisher of truth, and not have trained up a company against it. And what is that which doth fulfil the world's prophecy, and their desires ? Therefore consider and search thyself if this be innocency. The light of God in you all I own, but this I judge." G. F. 1 As the miserable man's crime was considered one of blasphemy, he was carried to London to be examined by the Parliament, or a Committee of the House, and the consideration of his case occupied several days. Terrible as the punishments for such a crime always were in the seventeenth century, Naylor's stands almost alone in its severity. Although there was no positive proof that he had wilfully committed the crime alleged, 1 The letter from which this extract is taken was found upon Naylor when he was arrested at Bristol. A few weeks after writing it, Fox determined to make another effort to arrest the other's folly : "James," says this second letter, "thou hadst judged and written thy scrub and false letters against him thou shouldst not. Thou should not deal so presumptuously against the innocent. . . . And, James, it will be harder for thee to set down thy rude company than it was for thee to set them up (if ever thou dost come to know and own Christ), whose impudence doth sport and blaspheme the truth." — Swartlunore MSS. THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. 145 he was sentenced to stand for two hours in the pillory ; he was to be whipped through the streets from West- minster to the Old Exchange ; to again stand in the pillory for two hours more ; to have his tongue bored with a red hot iron, and to be branded on the forehead with the letter B. Nor was this all. He had outraged the feelings of the Puritans at Bristol, and they too must see him punished, so he was also to be whipped there, and carried through the streets on horseback with his face turned to the horse's tail, and then, when this was done, he was to be brought back to London, and, during the pleasure of the Parliament, to be imprisoned in Bridewell, kept hard at work, and rigidly excluded from the society of his fellow-creatures. The strangest part of the affair is that his accomplices went totally unpunished. While Naylor's case was under discussion by the Parliament, petitions were presented to the House from Devonshire, Northumberland, Durham, Newcastle, Cheshire, Bristol and Cornwall, all praying that measures might be taken against the Quakers, whose proceed- ings were viewed with great alarm. " It is high time," said Chief Justice Glyn, " to take a course with them. They daily disturb our courts of justice ; their persons and pamphlets daily pestering of us. I was, in my private opinion, against punishing old offences with a new punishment, and am also for tender consciences. But those that openly profess against the ministry and ordinances, and magistracy too, it is fit they should be taken a course withal, for they grow a great number." The learned and sagacious lawyer, Bulstrode White- locke, took the same view, and Major-General Skippon, who had been one of those most anxious to increase the severity of Naylor's punishment, was also for prompt repression. " I, too, am for tender consciences," he said. L 146 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. " If a man be a Turk, or a Jew, I care not, so he do not openly hold it forth." Member after member spoke in favour of repressive measures, and of strengthen- ing the hands of the magistracy ; but a few were for treating the matter in a more enlightened and tolerant .way, and urged that the petitions should be referred to a committee. "You will not find in all your Statute Books," urged Strickland, " a definition of Quakers or blasphemy. Other states never do it further than as disturbers of the peace. We know how laws against Papists are turned against honester men. We may all in after ages be called Quakers. It is a word nobody understands. I would have it left to your committee to consider the heads of the petitions and represent them to you, and then you may make a law against them. But we all know the edge of former laws against Papists have been turned upon the best Pro- testants, the truest professors of religion, the honest Puritan, as they called him, a good profession, but hard to be understood, as the word Quaker will be in after ages." The petitions were ultimately referred to the committee which had had charge of Naylor's case, and it was directed to report to the House the heads of a bill to prevent the spread of the obnoxious doctrines and practices. 1 1 Price, " Protestant Nonconformity in England," vol. ii. p. 598. An account of the proceedings in Parliament will be found in Bur- ton's "Diary," vol. i. pp. 168-173. In his "Parliamentary History of England," vol. iii. p. 1487, Cobbett says, that "a very singular account of Naylor's escapade is given in a little tract published by the authority of Parliament, and called, ' A Brief Account of James Naylor, the Quaker, and the uttering of many horrible blasphemies, the like, for all circumstances, never heard of in any age before, with the judgment pronounced upon him by Mr. Speaker, he being brought to the bar in the Commons' House, for these high crimes whereof he had been guilty, December 17th, 1656.' The THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. 147 Serious as the crime of which Naylor had been found guilty was deemed, and stern as was the temper of the time, the sentence sent a thrill of horror through all that heard of it. Not only a portion of the Quakers, but also many of other denominations, petitioned Par- liament to remit, at least, a part of the punishment ; but their request was indignantly spurned. 1 Naylor bore his punishment uncomplainingly, almost gladly ; and while in the prison in which he was detained for two years, he became so deeply impressed with a sense of the heinousness of his offence, that on his liberation he took a journey to Bristol, and there voluntarily made a public confession of it. The Quakers, whose cause in the West there is no doubt he had seriously injured, forgave him, and Fox, to whose nature enmity was utterly foreign, received him again into favour. But Naylor was not destined to suffer much more. The rigorous confinement he had undergone had utterly broken down his health, and rendered him incapable of performing the work of a Quaker minister. In 1660, he determined to visit his friends in Yorkshire, but only got as far as Huntingdon, when he was taken ill on the road. Some robbers met him, and taking all he had, bound him and left him to die ; fortunately, however, he was discovered and taken to a Friend's house, where a very short time after he died in perfect peace." 2 front of the tract is ornamented by a print engraved by Hollar, representing the sentence being executed." 1 Neal, in his " History of the Puritans," considers that Naylor ought to have been sent to a physician for madness rather than to a gaol for blasphemy. 3 James Naylor was born at Ardsley near Wakefield, about the year 1616. His father, who was a farmer of some substance, gave him the best education which lay in his power, but which, judging 148 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. From Exeter, Fox went to Bristol, where he announced his intention of holding a meeting. He was warned that if he did so, a "rude" Baptist, named Paul Gwynne, would disturb it. Fox held the meeting and, although the man did his best to spoil it and the attendance was but small, " a very glorious one it was." Some years afterwards, when in Barbadoes, Fox met this same man again, who, we are informed evinced his " lightness " by asking how the word Cain was spelt, and not getting a satisfactory answer, went off in a huff. Having sown from Naylor's writings, was not much. When the civil war broke out, he joined the Parliamentary army, and served first as a foot soldier under Lord Fairfax, and afterwards as a quartermaster under Major-General Lambert. After serving eight years, his health compelled him to leave the army, and he then married and settled down as a farmer. In 165 1 he met with Fox, and having pre- viously been slightly inclined towards Quaker doctrines, he joined the infant Society of Friends. In an account he has himself given us of the chief events in his life, Naylor says that, one day while he was at the plough, and meditating on the things of God ; " he heard a voice bidding him go out from his kindred and his father's house, having a promise given with it, that the Lord would be with him." When he went home he made preparation for his journey, but being afterwards disobedient, the " wrath of God," he says, " was upon him, so that he was made a wonder to others, and it was thought he would have died." " Being made willing to go, he got better." We next hear of him at Walney as a sufferer with George Fox, and then as a party in a trial at Lancaster. He after- wards suffered much from the violence of the priests, and was, together with Francis Howgill, committed to Appleby gaol for blasphemy, in 1652, where, notwithstanding their evident innocence, they were illegally detained for five months. The rest of his history has been sketched above. A short account of Naylor's life is given in Henry Tukes' " Biographical Notices of Members of the Society of Friends," vol. ii., and much valuable information re- garding him is to be found in Naylor's " Works," Neal's " History of the Puritans," Sewel's " History of the Rise, etc., of the Society of Friends," Croese's " General History of the Quakers," and G. Beaven's " Life of Naylor." THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. 149 the good seed which was destined to yield so bounteous a harvest — for Bristol was for many years a stronghold of Quakerism — Fox proceeded through Marlborough and Reading, to Kingston-on-Thames. " Leaving Kingston," he tells us, " we rode to London. When we came near Hyde Park, we saw a great concourse of people, and looking towards them espied the Pro- tector coming in his coach." "So I rode by the coach side with him," continues George, " declaring what the Lord gave me to say to him, of his condition, and of the sufferings of the Friends in the nation, showing him how contrary this persecution was to Christ, His Apostles and to Christianity." The Protector listened with great patience, and, at parting, desired George to go and see him, and when he reached the Whitehall, he told one of his maids who was a Quakeress, that he had good news for her — George Fox was come to town ; which news, George records with the nearest approach to glee he ever exhibits, delighted the girl so much, that she could not believe for joy until she had been to his lodgings and seen him with her own eyes. The following day, George, accompanied by Edward Pyot, a Friend with whom he had lain in Launceston gaol, went to Whitehall, and was admitted to see the Protector, who had another visitor with him. This visitor was Dr. Owen, the Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Oxford. George commenced the conversation by complaining of the sufferings the Friends were con- tinually undergoing, and then went on to discourse on the " Light which lightens every man who is born into the world." Cromwell allowed that there was such a light, " but," said he, " it is merely a natural light." George answered that it was more, it was both Divine and spiritual, and proceeded only from Christ, the spiritual and heavenly Man. Cromwell, who was either not in 153 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the humour for religious conversation, or did not like the course it was taking, tried to turn it, and came up to the table by which George was standing, and sitting down on it, laughingly remarked that "he would be so high as Fox was ; but for all this," George says, " he still continued to speak against the Light, and after awhile went away in an unconcerned manner." But his indifferent manner was only assumed, for he told his wife immediately after, that he " had never parted with them so before." " For," adds Fox, " he was judged in himself." Leaving London, George went through the Fens to Yorkshire on a preaching tour ; and after holding a few meetings and visiting some friends in the North, he returned to London by way of Oxford, where he found the scholars quite as rude, though not as obstreperous, as those at Cambridge. Although he went to some places not very far off, he does not appear to have visited the Fells at Swarthmore. Fox tells us that after he was released from Launces- ton gaol he was " moved of the Lord to travel over most parts of the nation (the truth being now spread and finely planted in most parts of the nation), that he might answer and move out of the minds of people some ob- jections which envious priests and professors had raised and spread concerning the Friends, for what Christ said of false prophets and antichrists were applied to them by malicious detractors." In order to prove that he was sent " to preach the everlasting gospel, which had been preached before to Abraham and in the apostles' days, since when there had been apostasy," George made a prolonged preaching tour, starting from London. He wanted, he tells us, to show the people clearly, that the Levitical priesthood being for ever at an end, tithes ought no longer to be paid. THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. The Quakers, it was now commonly reported, " denied the sacraments "; and there was some truth in it. Christ truly had said, " Do this in remembrance of Me " ; but, argues Fox, He did not say how often it was to be done, or whether it was to be continued for ever, or was only to be a temporary ordinance. To take a cup and to break bread, and divide it amongst them, was a common custom at Jewish feasts, therefore the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine were but Jewish rites, and not intended to last for ever. The real sacrament, Fox taught, was a spiritual one ; the bread to be eaten was that which came from heaven ; the wine to be drunk was that from the cup of salvation. " So the fellowship," he writes, " that stands in the use of bread, wine, water, circumcision, outward temples, and things seen, will have an end. But the fellowship which stands in the Gospel, the power of God which was before the devil was, and which brings life and immortality to light, by which people may see over the devil that has darkened them ; this fellowship is eternal and will stand." With regard to baptism, Fox argued in the same way. This also was a mere outward ordinance, a survival of a Jewish cere- mony. 1 St. Paul discouraged baptism, for had he not thanked God, that, with the exception of a very few persons, he had baptized none ; for he was sent not to baptize but to preach. The true baptism was the bap- tism of the Holy Ghost, the love of God shed abroad in the heart. " Thus," Fox says, " was the obstructions of priests and professors to the Friends answered, and the stumbling blocks which were laid in the way of the weak removed." The year 1656 is a famous one in Quaker annals, for it was in this year that the first regular periodical meet- 1 See Wheatley, " On the Common Prayer." GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. ings were set up. Some years before Fox had fore- shadowed the establishment of these meetings, for he had written to his friends, " Be faithful to God, and mind that which is committed to you as faithful servants labouring in love, some threshing, some ploughing, some to keep the sheep ; he that can receive this, let him, and all watch over one anotlier in the Spirit of God." 1 And now he felt that the time was come for him to advise the establishment of meetings in the different districts in which there were sufficient Friends residing to make them possible — meetings which would enable their members to watch over one another. The object of the meetings was, there is little doubt, primarily less for worship, than for the purpose of relieving the destitute, and admonishing those whose lives were not in accord- ance with their Christian professions. 2 The first meeting of which any records are extant, was one held at Balby (Boultby), a village near Don- caster, in 1656, 3 which at once showed its vigilance by issuing a set of instructions addressed "to the Brethren in the North." 4 1 "Collection of the Epistles of George Fox," page 15. Ed. 1698. 2 "Journal," vol. i. p. 512 ; and vol. ii. p. 87. Philadelphia, Ed. 1808. " It cannot be said that any system of discipline formed part of the original compact of the Society of Friends. There was not to human appearance anything systematic in its formation." — Hist. Sketch of the Origin of Christian Discipline" p. 1. 3 There had been a meeting, evidently somewhat similar in character to that at Balby, held at Walton in 1653, at which at least two hundred people were present. In a letter to Margaret Fell, Farnsworth says, the people " met to wait upon the Lord, and did continue three or four days together, and did scarce part day or night." — Swarthmore MSS. 4 This paper, which is interesting from the fact of its having been the first of a long and useful series, contains instructions as to the Gospel order of proceeding with delinquents, and offers THE CASE OF JAMES NAYLOR. 153 Soon after this, meetings for discipline appear to have become comparatively numerous in the North. At first they were held quarterly, but afterwards, when the Quakers increased so enormously, it was found necessary to divide the districts, and to appoint subsidiary monthly meetings, subject to review by the quarterly ones. The quarterly meetings were, in fact, small courts of appeal, to re-hear disputed decisions of the monthly meetings, and they were composed of Friends deputed by the members of the different Societies within the county. It is highly improbable that Fox, even after the Society had increased largely in numbers, wished to establish any meetings other than those which were held for the simple purpose of worship ; in fact, in the opinion of the Society itself, 1 he never intended to found a sect at all ; but the tenets his followers held, — which, while precluding them from joining any other sect, inculcated the necessity of worshipping together and relieving their own poor, — literally forced him to form them into an organized community. advice to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, as to the manner in which they should discharge their duties to each other. It also urges the duty of strict justice in dealings, and of a faithful performance of all the civil offices of citizenship. See " Hist. Sketch of the Origin of Christian Dis- cipline," p. 10. This meeting was what was termed a district meeting. Janney ("Life of George Fox") is of opinion that in the North meetings for discipline were held as early as 1653, and considers that he can deduce this from Fox's journal. I am, however, unable to discover any passage capable of bearing such an interpretation. 1 Extracts from "The Minutes and Epistles of Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends." CHAPTER XII. THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. The drought of 1657. — Fox visits Wales. — A "light" lady and her priest. — Troubles in Scotland. — A Presbyterian commination service. — Fox ordered to leave Scotland. — He disobeys. — The Friends called Butterflies at Newcastle. — Durham College. — ■ Yearly meeting. — Dispute with a Jesuit. — Interview with the Protector.— The time of suffering. — Fox's last "speech" of Cromwell. TOURING the year 1657 there was so great a JLy drought that Cromwell felt it incumbent to order a fast, on account the sins of the people, to be observed in the hope that God might be pleased to send rain. Such a proceeding was thoroughly in keeping with the intense belief in the sterner attributes of God's nature, which prevailed among the stricter sort of the Puritans ; but it was totally out of harmony with Fox's creed ; dwelling, as it does so emphatically, on the beneficence of the Creator. To Fox, a fast was a thing right and proper under the Mosaic dispensation, but useless and therefore wrong under the present ; and he at once wrote a paper, which was circulated among his followers, condemning fasts. 1 1 For the first few years after the foundation of Quakerism, fasting does not seem to have been regarded objectionable, and was certainly practised to some extent. William Caton, writing to George Fox from Swarthmore, in 1659, says : "Friends here are well and quiet, and marvellous in ye worke of ye Lorde in this ffamily, where several have been exercised and yet are in fasting ; THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. •55 He also was moved, he says, to write an answer to the Protector's proclamation, wherein he told him, " If he had come to own God's truth, he should have had rain," and that " the drought was a sign of their barrenness and want of the water of life." Fox also adds that, " as far as the truth had spread in the North there were pleasant showers and rain enough ; but in the South, in many places they were almost spoiled for want of rain," thus implying, though not actually saying, that the drought was a sign of God's displeasure with the people for not having at once adopted the Quaker creed. After disputing somewhat angrily with a priest at Leominster, Fox went into Wales, accompanied by John ap John, a Welsh Friend, who, for wearing his hat in church, was cast into the prison at Tenby. When Fox went to the governor of the gaol to inter- cede for his friend, the governor remarked that " the hat business was a very frivolous thing." " Why then," retorted Fox, " hast thou cast my friend into prison for such frivolous thing ? " The man had no answer for this question, so turned the subject, by asking Fox if he owned election and reprobation. " Yea," was the response, " and thou art in the repro- bation." It is hardly surprising to learn that the governor got Bridgetl ffell fasted 12 dayes, Issabell hath fasted about seven and is to fast nine, little Margaret hath fasted five, and a little maide that is a servant in ye house called Mabby hath fasted 20, and one Mary Atkenson of Cartmell hath fasted above 20, and two more in this family are exercised in the same thing And blessed be Lord they are and have been wonderfully preserved, and some of them are come very well through it, and others are kept in the faith and patience, and all is pretty well ; blessed bee the Lord." — Swarthmore MSS. 156 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. into a great rage at this reply, and threatened that Fox should also be sent to prison until he could prove the correctness of what he said ; but George, quietly re- marking that he would prove it quickly, asked whether wrath and anger were not signs of reprobation ; and in the end, after a short discussion, the other confessing that he had been hasty, set John ap John at liberty, and the two friends went on their way rejoicing. In his account of this tour, Fox relates an anecdote which has been frequently quoted, yet is worth again re- peating. He tells us that at one place the friends ordered an innkeeper, at whose house they put up, to give their horses a peck of oats; but, whilst their backs were turned, the man put the oats in the rack and took them out again. A few days later they detected another innkeeper in a similar act. "A wicked thievish people," is George's comment on this, "to rob the poor dumb thing of his food; I would rather they had robbed me." If this story does nothing else, it shows Fox's kindness of heart. At this period the finances of the two friends appear to have been at a very low ebb, for, by the time they arrived at Wrexham, George and Ap John between them could only muster a groat. How they managed for money is unknown ; but they went on just as usual, and do not seem to have made a sufficiently long pause anywhere to have permitted money to have been sent for. In all probability their food, and occasionally their lodgings, were given them by friendly people, but they must by some means or other have procured money to pay the expenses which always occur in travelling. At Wrexham, Fox, with a touch of unconscious satire, tells us, he was sent for by " one called a lady." This lady was a woman of wealth and position, for she kept a private chaplain. THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. '57 In response to her request, Fox says, " I went to her house, but found her and her preacher very light and airy, too light to receive the weighty things of God. In her lightness she came and asked me if she should cut my hair. I was moved to reprove her, and bid her cut down the corruptions in herself with the sword of the Spirit of God ; and after I had admonished her to be more grave and sober, we passed away. Afterwards, in her frothy mind, she made her boast that she came behind me and cut off the curl of my hair ; but she spoke falsely." Leaving Ap John behind, Fox now went to Swarth- more; from whence, after spending a fortnight in quiet retirement with the affectionate family there, he went into Scotland, a journey he had for some time felt moved to make. With him went Robert Widders, a Quaker minister, and " a thundering man against hypocrisy, deceit, and the rottenness of priests." Fox was met on the borders by "one Colonel William Osborn, of Scot- land," to whom he had previously written, asking him to do so, and to whose house in the Highlands he subse- quently paid a brief visit. Fox held so many disputes, and his meetings were so successful, that the priests, greatly disturbed at the spreading of truth and the consequent loss of their hearers, joined together to draw up a series of curses against Quaker principles, which they caused to be read in the kirks, and to which the people were enjoined to say " Amen." There appear to have been a great many of these " curses " ; but Fox only records the three follow- ing :— " Cursed is he that saith, ' Every man hath a light within him sufficient to lead him to God,' and let all the people say ' Amen.' " 158 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. " Cursed is he that saith, ' Faith is without sin,' and let all the people say ' Amen.' " " Cursed is he that denieth the Sabbath day, and let all the people say, ' Amen.' " It is sufficiently curious that these rigid Presbyterians, who hated the very name of the Episcopal Church, should have borrowed this form from the Commination Service in the Prayer-book they so heartily detested. But this was not the only " revenge " these opponents of " cursed toleration " took. Some who were more "greatly disturbed," complained to the Council against Fox, who, as soon as he arrived in Edinburgh, 1 was served with an order to appear before the authorities. " When the time came," says Fox, "I appeared." " When I was come in and had stood awhile, and they said nothing to me, I was moved of the Lord to say, ' Peace be amongst you, and wait in the fear of God that ye may receive His wisdom from above, by which all things were made and created, that by it ye may all be ordered, and may order all things under your hands to God's glory.' "After I had done speaking, they asked me, What was the occasion of my coming into that nation ? I told them I came to visit the seed of God, which had long lain in bondage under corruption ; and the intent of my coming was, that all in the nation that did profess the Scriptures, the words of Christ, and of the prophets and apostles, might come to the light, Spirit, and power that gave them forth, that so in and by the Spirit they might understand the Scriptures and know Christ and God aright, and have fellowship with them and one with another. They bid me withdraw, and the door-keeper took me by the hand and led me forth. In a little time ' See note E. THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. they sent for me again, and told me I must depart the nation of Scotland by that day seven-night. I asked them, Why ? What had I done ? What was my trans- gression, that they passed such a sentence upon me to depart out of the nation ? They told me they would not dispute with me. Then I desired them to hear what I had to say to them ; but they said they would not hear me. I told them Pharaoh heard Moses and Aaron, and yet he was a heathen and no Christian ; and Herod heard John Baptist ; and they should not be worse than these. But they cried, ' Withdraw, with- draw.' Whereupon the doorkeeper took me again by the hand and led me out." No one who knows anything of Fox will suppose for one moment that he troubled himself to obey this command, nor does the Council appear to have con- cerned itself whether the order was obeyed or not. Fox stayed for some time longer in Edinburgh, and then returned to the Highlands with his friends Osborn and Widders. Although the colonel was a man of mark and author- ity, and threw around him what protection he could, Fox was roughly treated by the Highlanders, who once even attacked him with pitchforks, and would have slain him, but " by the Lord's goodness " he managed to escape without injury. In the Highlands he found that the Friends had suffered much while he was in Edinburgh. The Presbyterians had not only excommunicated, but had also given strict charge that no one should either trade or eat, with them. " So," he adds, " they could neither sell their commodities nor buy what they wanted, which made it go very hard with some of them." On his journey back to England, he was told by an innkeeper at Leith, that the Council had issued warrants against him, because he had not obeyed the order i6o GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. about leaving the kingdom in seven days, and several friendly people, anxious about his safety, came and corroborated the man's tale. " To whom I said," relates Fox, "what do you tell me of their warrants against me ? If there were a cart- load of them, I do not heed them, for the Lord's power is over them all." True to his policy of bearding the lion in his den, he went once more into Edinburgh, and there publicly held a meeting, to which many officers and soldiers came, but none attempted to disturb him. Some short time before, Fox had been thrust out of Perth. Hearing, however, that there was a Colonel Davenport now at that place, who was friendly disposed towards the Quakers, he determined to visit it again ; and he so convinced the colonel, that a little while after, for not rendering hat-homage, and for saying " thee " and " thou," the unfortunate man was turned out of some office he held. And now, passing once more through Edinburgh, where he was ignored in a dignified manner by the authorities, he rode to Dunbar, and there held his last meeting in Scotland. At Berwick some officers questioned him a little, and then "becoming loving," let him go. At Newcastle a novel charge was made against the Friends. " One, Ledger, an alderman of the town," George tells us, " was very envious against truth ; he, and also the priests said, ' The Quakers would not come into any great towns, but lived in the fells like butter- flies.' " This imputation Fox felt he could not allow to go uncontradicted ; so taking a friend with him, he went to the town authorities, and asked them, as they had written so much against the Quakers to let a meeting THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. 161 be held in "their great town." This request they at once refused, nor was he permitted to argue with any of them except with the man who had raised the "scandal," and with one other. " I queried," says Fox in the account he gives us of his conversation with Ledger, " had they not called Friends butterflies, and said ' we would not come into any great town,' and now we were in their town they would not come at us, though they had printed books against us : who are the butterflies now ? " Then Ledger began to plead for the Sabbath day. I told him, they kept markets and fairs on that which was the Sabbath day, for that was the seventh day of the week, whereas that day which the professed Christians now meet on and call their Sabbath, is the first day of the week. " As we could not have a public meeting among them," he continues, " we got a little meeting among Friends and friendly people at the Gateside. . . . As I was passing by the market-place, the power of the Lord rose in me to warn them of the day of the Lord that was coming upon them. And not long after all those priests of Newcastle and their profession were turned out when the king came in." "From thence," he tells us, "we came to Durham, where was a man come down from London, to set up a college there to make ministers of Christ, as they said. I went with some others to reason with the man and to let him see, That to teach men Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and the seven arts, which was all but the teachings of the natural man, was not the way to make them ministers of Christ. Then we showed him further, That Christ made His ministers Himself, and gave gifts unto them, and bid them pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth labourers. And Peter and John, M i6 2 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. though unlearned and ignorant (as to school learning), preached Jesus Christ the Word, which was in the be- ginning. Paul also was made an apostle, not of man nor by man, neither received he the Gospel from man, but from Jesus Christ, who is the same now, and so is the Gospel, as it was at that day. When we had thus discoursed with the man, he became very loving and tender, and after he had considered further of it, he never set up his college." 1 It would be unjust, and utterly erroneous, to accuse Fox of being lukewarm in the cause of education on account of this action, for, although so uneducated him- self, he fully appreciated the benefit of it to others, and constantly endeavoured to have schools set up for the children of Friends. There can be no doubt that had this man intended his college to be a secular one, Fox would have wished him God speed with the utmost heartiness. It would be equally erroneous, too, to sup- pose that he objected to a ministry of educated men, for but a little later, Keith, Barclay, and Penn — all educated men — were honoured ministers of the Society. What Fox did object to, was the common notion that earthly learning was a necessity to a preacher, a notion the founding of such a college would tend to promulgate and perpetuate. If a minister happened to be a culti- vated man, well and good, but all his cultivation did not make him one whit more fitted for his Divine work than if he had been a totally uneducated man. The only thing that fitted a man to be a minister, he held, was that God had been pleased to call him to be one ; the only language he required to know was the language by which the Spirit spoke through him ; 2 the only learning 1 Cromwell founded Durham University in 1656-7. 3 " All language began at Babel, and to the Greeks that spoke Greek as their mother tongue, the preaching of the Cross of Christ THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. 163 which he wanted was to know Christ and Him crucified. These conditions were absolutely essential, but all other knowledge was so immaterial as to be without impor- tance one way or other. George now conceived it to be his duty to return to London, and accordingly bent his steps thitherwards stopping on the way to attend what he terms the Yearly Meeting, a gathering which, while no doubt the fore- runner of the present conferences, must have differed in some way, inasmuch as the existing series of Yearly Meetings was not, in the opinion of the most competent authorities, established till about 1661. The meeting was probably only one for worship, and to decide such questions as had arisen at the now numerous minor meetings ; but whatever its special object may have been, we know that it was attended by Friends — Fox says to the number of some thousands — from all parts of the kingdom, and lasted no less than three days. It was held at the house of a Quaker named John Crook, and Fox was evidently its president, and very touching and beautiful was his address, which unhappily is too long for the pages of so small a work as this. The meeting was hardly over when a constable came to seize George, who was walking in the garden ; but the man not finding him in the house, fortunately did not trouble to seek further. The next day he left the place, and, visiting several friends in the districts he went through, got to London without any other adventures. Before Fox had been many days in London, he heard was foolishness ; and to the Jews, that spoke Hebrew as their mother tongue, Christ was a stumbling block. The Romans who had the Latin, persecuted the Christians, and Pilate set Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, atop of Christ when He crucified Him. . . . Dost thou think to make ministers of Christ by these natural con- fused languages which sprung from Babel, and were set atop of Christ the Life by a persecutor ? "—Fox's Journal, p. 265. 164 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. that a Jesuit, who was attached to the suite of the Spanish ambassador, was challenging all Quakers to hold a dispute with him at the Earl of Newport's house. The Jesuit, too, was soon made aware of the arrival of Fox, and sent him word that he would dispute with the twelve wisest Quakers that could be got together ; but in a few days, repenting of his rashness, he reduced the number to six, and subsequently to three. When they heard of this last reduction, the Friends made all haste to get a meeting settled, lest the Jesuit should manage to shuffle out of the contest altogether. The three ministers chosen by the Quakers were Fox, Edward Burrough, and Nicholas Bond ; and, as one of the stipulations was that all assertions on either side not supported by Scripture were to be considered nuga- tory, it is hardly probable that a better choice could have been made. When the day fixed for the contest arrived, the three Friends went to Lord Newport's house together, but Fox, who thought it advisable that Burrough and Bond should commence the discussion, remained out- side while the others went in. It had been arranged that the first question put by the Quakers, should be, whether the Church of Rome, as it then stood, had not degenerated from the true primitive Church in life and doctrine, and whether it had not also become desti- tute of its original power and spirit ? This they asked ; and received the answer that the Church of Rome was still in the virginity and power of the primitive Church. Fox, who by this time had come into the room, asked the Jesuit whether they still had the Holy Ghost poured out upon them as the apostles had ? and was told they had not. " Then," remarked George, " if ye have not the same Holy Ghost poured forth upon you, and the same power and Spirit that the apostles had, ye are degene- THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. rated from the power and Spirit that the primitive Church was in." " There needed little more to be said to that," is the only comment he makes in his journal. The next question was, what Scripture the Church of Rome had for setting up " cloisters for nuns and abbeys for men ; for all their separate orders ; for prophesying by beads and to images ; for making crosses ; for for- bidding meats and marriages ; and for putting people to death for religion ? " "If," asked Fox, "ye are in the practice of the primitive Church in its purity, let us see by Scripture wherever they practised such things." The Jesuit answered by affirming that there was both a written and an unwritten word. The first, he said was the Scriptures ; the second, what the apostles had spoken by word of mouth, and which had been handed down orally from generation to generation. In support of this statement he quoted the text, " When I was with you, I told you these things " (2 Thess. ii. 5). " That is," explained the Jesuit, " I told you of nunneries and monasteries, and of putting to death for religion, of praying by beads and to images, and all the rest of the practices of the Church of Rome." George justly considered this answer vague and unsatisfactory in the highest degree, and explained by reference to the con- text the true meaning of the text the other had quoted. As the Jesuit could find no other Scripture to bear out what he had said, George quietly told him that this showed another instance of the degeneracy of the Church of Rome. The next point on which they disputed appears to have been transubstantiation. Fox brought forward the stock arguments against this doctrine, and contended that if the words of our blessed Lord, " This is My i66 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. body," were to be taken literally, so also must be the words in which He refers to Himself as a " Vine," a " Door," or a " Rock." The disputants next passed on to the question of persecution. When Fox accused the Church of Rome of being a persecuting Church, the Jesuit begged the question by asserting that the Church did not persecute, but that the magistrates were the persecutors ; but he allowed that the magistrates were among the faithful, and therefore that the Church virtu- ally acquiesced in their deeds. The debate appears to have been a public one, for Fox tells us that he here turned to the people and asked them to judge, from the Jesuit's own confession, whether the Church of Rome did or did not persecute ; and the people, whose sympathies all through the debate seem to have been strongly with the Quakers, gave no half-hearted expres- sion to their opinion that the Church the Puritans hated and detested above all others was a persecuting one. Here the debate ended, leaving the Quakers undisputed masters of the field, they " having," as Fox remarks, " confounded subtilty by simplicity." There can be no doubt that the Quakers conducted their part in the debate with very considerable skill, and were careful to ask such questions as the Jesuit could not answer by direct references to Scripture ; but the victory they gained was but a sorry one, for their op- ponent, judging from his answers as reported by his adversaries, must have been both an ignorant and a conceited man ; and, even if we make the most ample allowance for the fact that he has not been able to give us his version of the contest, also a man utterly destitute of the commonest skill in argument. " Now, during the time I was in London," Fox tells us, " I had many services laid upon me ; for it was a time of much suffering. And I was moved to - THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. 167 O. Cromwell and lay before him the sufferings of Friends both in this nation and in Ireland. There was also a talk about this time of making Cromwell king ; where- upon I was moved to go to him, and warn him against the same and of divers dangers, which, if he did not avoid, I told him he would bring shame and ruin upon himself and his posterity. He seemed to take well what I said, and thanked me ; yet afterwards I was moved to write to him more fully concerning that matter." At the same time he wrote a letter of consolation to Mrs. Claypole, the Protector's daughter, a lady who had long been in some degree in sympathy with the doctrines of the Friends, and who at this time was lying dangerously ill. The letter, Fox tells us, had such effect in " staying her mind," with its comforting and encouraging words, that he caused it to be printed, and copies were distri- buted in England and Ireland, to any who were in trouble, with the same good result. The letter certainly is a masterly compendium of Christian advice and com- fort. Its whole burden is summed up in the text, " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." " Now was it a time of great suffering, and many Friends being in prisons, many other Friends were moved to go to Parliament to offer up themselves to lie in the same prisons where their friends lay, that they that were in prison might go forth and not perish in the stinking prisons and jails. And this we did in love to God and our brethren, that they might not die in prison ; and in love to them that cast them in, that they might not bring innocent blood upon their own heads, which we knew would cry to the Lord and bring His wrath, vengeance, and plagues upon them. But little favour could we find from these professing parliaments, but instead thereof they would be in a rage, and sometimes 168 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. threaten those Friends that thus attended them, that they would whip them and send them home. But they went not off without being forewarned ; for I was moved to write to them in their several turns, as I did to the Long Parliament, unto whom I declared before they were broken up, that thick darkness was coming over them all, even a day of darkness that should be felt." About the beginning of August, 1858, Fox went to Hampton Court, to once more bespeak the Protector's favour on behalf of the many Friends who were now lying in prison for the truth's sake. " I met him," says Fox, " riding into Hampton Court Park, and before I came to him, as he rode at the head of his life-guards, I saw and felt a waft (or apparition) of death go forth against him ; and when I came to him he looked like a dead man. After I had laid the suffer- ings of the Friends before him, and had warned him as I was moved to speak to him, he bid me come to his house. So I went back to Kingston, and the next day went up to Hampton Court again, to have spoken further with him. But when I came he was sick, and Harvey, who was one that waited on him, told me the doctors were not willing I should come in to speak with him. So I passed away and never saw him any more. " From Kingston I went to Isaac Pennington's in Buckinghamshire, 1 where I had appointed a meeting, 1 Isaac Pennington was a Quaker of good lineage and education, who had married the widow of Sir William Springett, a distinguished captain in the Parliamentary army. His step-daughter, Gulielma, married William Penn. Pennington's house was always open to the Quakers, and though he can hardly be called a minister, he was an active and useful member of the Society. A beautiful picture of his happy home life has been given by Maria Webb, in the " Penns and Penningtons," and a very interesting life of him was written by Joseph Guiness Bevan. Pennington's works were once much esteemed by the Friends. THE JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. 169 and the Lord's truth was preciously manifested amongst us. After I had visited Friends in those parts I returned to London, and soon after went into Essex, where I had not been long before I heard that the Protector was dead, and his son Richard made Protector in his room. Whereupon I came up to London again." CHAPTER XIII. THE RESTORATION. The Savoy Conference. — Increase of persecution. — Its causes. — Quakers before Parliament. — Cambridge. — Case of Barbara Blagdon. — Persecution of Rigg at Southampton. — Petty perse- cutions. — Whitehead's reasons why the Quakers suffered. — Cromwell and the Quakers. — Visions of the King's return. — Quaker sufferings collected. — Parliament warned. — Unclean spirits. — Anxiety in England on account of what the Restora- tion might bring forth. — Meetings at Balby and Skipton. — The doctrine of non-resistance. — Barclay and Fell and high- waymen. IN his Journal, Fox now gives us an anecdote of the Savoy Conference. It has been previously remarked that he was often very slipshod in the matter of chron- ology, but nowhere else has he made so serious a blunder as to antedate an account of an occurrence by two years; which is the case in the present instance, unless there were two Savoy Conferences, one of which was so un- important as to have escaped the notice of all well-known authorities — a most unlikely thing. He tells us that this Conference published a book as the result of its labours — "the so-called book of Church faith." Somehow or other Fox managed to get hold of a copy of this volume before it was openly sold, and wrote what he terms an answer to it, pointing out what he considered to be its defects. 1 This answer he caused to 1 Something in ANSWER to that Book called the Church-Faith : set forth By Independents and others ; agreed upon by Divine Messengers, at the SAVOY in London. And also to that Book j 7° THE RESTORATION. be printed and published, " so that when the one was sold up and down the streets, the other was sold with it." This proceeding very naturally incensed both the Inde- pendents and the Episcopalians, and one member of the Parliament threateningly told him, " They must have him to Smithfield." " I am over your fires, and fear them not," was the calm reply. 1 intituled The Confession of Faith, approved of by the Church of Scotland. 4to, 1660. As the Conference was not held till 1661, this date appears inaccurate. 1 The Savoy Conference is only important in the history of Quakerism because it led to the Act of Uniformity. " The King had promised," says Lingard ("History of England," vol. ix. chap. 1), " preparatory to the comprehension of the Dissenting brethren, the Book of Common Prayer should be revised by a committee of divines of both Communions. In 1661 they met at the Savoy, the residence of the Bishop of London. Preliminary debates respect- ing forms and pretensions occupied a considerable portion of time ; but at length the discussion formally commenced with written papers, and was subsequently continued in personal conferences. But the Presbyterians demanded so much, and the Bishops were disposed to concede so little, that no progress was made ; and when the Commission (the Conference had been limited to the duration of five months) expired, it was amicably agreed to dismiss the minor subjects of controversy and to confine the discussion to eight points in the book which, in the apprehension of Dissenters, could not be adopted without sin." The eight points which the Presbyterians held to be contrary to the Word of God, Carwithen (" History of the Church of England," vol. ii. p. 308), gives as follows : — The sign of the cross in Baptism ; the use of the sur- plice ; calling all baptised persons regenerate ; administering the Communion to impenitent sick ; the general absolution ; returning thanks in the Burial Service indiscriminately on all ; and demand- ing from preachers subscription to the Book of Common Prayer. To all these things, though for different reasons, the Quakers were as averse as the Presbyterians. " With this view," continues Lingard, " the following question was proposed for debate : — ' Can a command be sinful enjoining what is not in itself unlawful' After a long and fretful altercation neither party was convinced, and both joined in a common answer to the King that they agreed 172 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. And now, while England was within measurable dis- tance of anarchy, came a time of fierce persecution. Friends were imprisoned in large numbers ; meeting after meeting was broken up. Since the death of the Protector, little as he had been loved or regretted, men had had to learn what it was to be without a firm government. The Parliament was a collection of cowardly would-be despots ; the Royalists were pluck- ing up heart. Ever since the overthrow of the Church of England, Puritanism had been slowly on the wane '} by its severe asceticism it had alienated most of the lower classes of the people, whose thoughts turned longingly backward to the gayer days before the Re- bellion. But it was not so with the upper classes of Puritans, or with the Presbyterian and Independent ministers. For the first, the Restoration meant depriva- tion of the wealth they had abstracted from the Cava- liers, and perhaps personal punishment for themselves ; for the others, that they would be forced to leave their pleasant rectories and vicarages, and lead a life but little removed from beggary. To cry, " Religion is in danger," and to rouse up a spirit of fanatical persecution would, they hoped, go far to restore the old enthusiasm to their now lukewarm followers ; so they raised the cry and stirred up — only too successfully — the persecuting spirit ; as to the end, but could come to no agreement as to the means." The conclusion was both expected and desired, and to Convocation was assigned the task the Conference had failed to perform. Some amendments were adopted, and a few additions (chiefly in a direc- tion obnoxious to the Puritans) made to the Book of Common Prayer; several of the Bishops, however, dissenting. This was followed by the Act of Uniformity (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4), which enjoined that the revised Book of Common Prayer should be used in all places of public worship. See Neal, " History of the Puritans." Hallam, "Constitutional History," chap. xi. p. 523. 1 Marsden's " History of the Early Puritans." THE RESTORATION. 173 but the result was far other than they had hoped. It would seem that the Quakers should have been the very last body who ought to have been persecuted, holding, as they did, the non-justification of violence, and the necessity of loyal submission to the sovereign power of the time. It must not, however, be forgotten that the Friends were also suspected by some of the more ignorant and unreasoning Puritans, and especially by the Presbyterians, of being Jesuits in disguise ; nor that those who were, in most cases, averse to persecution on religious grounds, would be ready to join in persecuting the Quakers because of their levelling tendencies and social peculiarities. Be the causes what they may, the fact remains, and is admitted on all hands, that the Society of Friends has been more severely oppressed than any other known body of Christians since the com- mencement of the seventeenth century. Fox tells us that at this time one meeting near London was constantly disturbed by people, who came from considerable distances that they might abuse the Friends, and who often used to beat them severely. " One day," he says, " they beat and abused about eighty Friends that went to that meeting out of London, tearing their coats and clothes from off their backs, and throwing them into ditches and ponds ; and when they had besmeared them with dirt then they said ' they looked like witches.' " The next First-day after this I was moved of the Lord to go to that meeting, though at that time I was very weak. When I came there, I bid the Friends bring a table and set it in the Close where they used to meet, to stand upon. According to their wonted course the rude people came, and I, having a Bible in my hand, showed them theirs and their priests' and teachers' fruits, and the people came to be ashamed, and was quiet. 174 GEORGE FOX AED THE EARLY QUAKERS. So the meeting ended gloriously, and the Lord's power came over all, to His glory. " But it was a time of great sufferings, for besides the imprisonments (through which many died in prisons) our meetings were greatly disturbed. For they have thrown rotten eggs and wildfire into our meetings, and have brought in drums beating and kettles to make noises with, that the truth might not be heard ; and among these the priests were as rude as any, as may be seen in the book of the ' Fighting Priests,' wherein a list is given of some of the priests that had actually beaten and abused Friends. " Many also of our Friends were brought up to London prisoners, to be tried before the Committee, where Henry Vane being chairman, would not suffer Friends to come in, except they would put off their hats; but at last the Lord's power came over him, so that, through the mediation of some others that persuaded him, they were admitted. Now many of us having been imprisoned upon contempts (as they called them) for not putting off our hats, it was not a likely thing that Friends who had suffered so long for it from others should put off their hats to him. But the Lord's power came over them all, and wrought so that several Friends were set at liberty by them." Severe as the persecutions were near London, they were as bad, if not worse, in the country. For some years past the anger of the " priests " and their followers had been growing rapidly, and as early as 1656 there were seldom less than a thousand Quakers in prison at one time ; principally for not paying tithes, absenting themselves from the churches, or for refusing to render hat homage or to take oaths. Even in 1654, two un- fortunate women, who had been made fun of by the scholars of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and THE RESTORATION. who had severely reproved their annoyers, were ordered by the mayor to be beaten till the blood ran down their bodies. The women were stripped to the waist, their arms thrust into the whipping-post, and the mayor's warrant executed with more severity than was usually shown to the worst offenders. " So savagely were they beaten, that their flesh was miserably cut and torn." 1 In the same year Barbara Blagdon, a female minister, was taken before the Mayor of Great Torrington, and the priest of the place, being very anxious to have her whipped as a rogue and a vagabond, persuaded the mayor to send her to be tried at the assizes at Exeter. She was tried, and sentenced to be whipped. The sentence was immediately carried out, and whipped she was till the blood ran down her back in " perfect streams." She suffered the punishment so cheerfully, we are told, that " the spectators were more affected than she was ; and she afterwards declared that she would not have been terrified had the punishment been even unto death." 2 About the same time Caton and Stubbs were whipped with almost equal severity at Maidstone ; and a young lady, of good family, was also beaten with extreme cruelty, by order of the Lieutenant of the Tower, merely because she refused to attend the "public services of a church she thought heretical." 3 In 1656, the Mayor of Southampton was greatly annoyed by a Friend named Rigg, who persisted in coming to visit the Friends imprisoned in that town. Without going through the form of a trial, or even of an examination, the mayor ordered Rigg to be fastened to the whipping-post in the Market-place. After the man 1 Besse, " A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers," vol. i. p. 85. s Cooper, " Flagellation and the Flagellants." 3 Ibid. 176 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. had received a savage flogging, he was placed in a cart and taken out of the town, and was forbidden to enter it again under penalty of a similar whipping and being branded on the shoulder as a rogue and vagabond. Undismayed at these threats, Rigg did return, and the mayor was anxious to keep his word, but his brother magistrates prevented him. *' Not long after," Sewel records, " the mayor died of a bloody flux." Happily the persecution was not always of so cruel a character as this ; but the cases in which Quakers were whipped and imprisoned for the slightest offences (if offences those deeds can be called which violate neither the precepts of God nor the formally enunciated laws of man) are too numerous to record. Besse, whose patiently and laboriously collected accounts of the sufferings of the early Friends fill two huge volumes, has probably not mentioned nearly all. There was much persecution which was too trivial to take formal notice of, but which was very hard to bear ; evil words, cold looks, ill turns slily done, and property wantonly destroyed because the perpetrators knew that retalia- tion was against the sufferers' principles. Croese has given us a vivid picture of Quaker life in a Leicestershire village : — " Some young men and boys," he says, 1 "watch'd to disturb their (the Quaker's) meeting ; and at other times, when with silence and constancy they met, they immediately assault them unawares, take 'em, pull the men's hats and the women's upper coats from 'em, push 'em out of the house, throws mud upon 'em, and chases 'em abroad. At a certain time the labourers joyn'd with the company of boys, and falling on the Quakers, crowded together, beating 'em with many blows, and dragging 'em out by the necks, roll 'em in 1 Croese, " General History of Quakerism," part ii. p. 97. THE RESTORATION. 177 the clay, and then thrust 'em into prison. At another time some young men and boys (who tho' little chitts yet flew at 'em with manly boldness) filled one of the women's mouths so with clay and water, that by their villany they almost bereaved her of her life. These youths said they began to do it at the command of a certain parish minister : this last was done in presence of one of their ministers, that looked on and yet did not dis- suade them from their rudeness." This, there is only too good reason to fear, is a faithful picture of what went on in many villages and small towns throughout the length and breadth of England. " The people would," says Croese, in another place, " upon the least cobweb pretence of information, run all to the (meeting) house, break the door, beat out the women and children, with- out respect to sex or age, driving and dragging 'em to jayl." Not only did these abuses go on unchecked, but those whose better sense would have led them to prevent such outrages, were restrained and humiliated. An instance of this was shown at Hereford, where, we are told, 1 " it was well known that the head-master of the town school was displeased at the extravagant insolency of some of his children, so it is reported also, that he was forbidden to correct them for it ; and that the college priests had set them on, and said they would bear them out in what they did, for some of these brutish boys were choristers." George Whitehead gives a curious catalogue of the reasons for which the Quakers suffered. " We suffer," he says, " because we cannot pay tithes and the clerk's wages that turns the hour-glass ; because we do not go to the Steeple-house ; set open our shops on Fast- 1 Sewel, "History of the Rise, etc.," vol. iii. p. 115. N 178 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. days ; do not put off our hats ; say Thee and Thou to particular persons ; do not follow the national worship, and the world's friendship ; because we cannot sing, nor repair the churches ; because we speak in the synagogue, temple, or steeple-house ; because we cannot swear ; because we meet together and worship God ; because we deny all games, sports and plays, costly apparel, powdered hair, etc. ; and because many women speak abroad." Any one who reads Besses " Sufferings," or even Sewel's " History " — a book Charles Lamb declared to be worth all other ecclesiastical histories put together — will allow that this catalogue is not one whit over- drawn. Cromwell, with all his faults, certainly cannot be accused of having persecuted the Quakers (he even in some measure protected Fox) ; but though no fresh laws were passed against them during his administration, he did not see his way to preventing those already in existence being used for this purpose. 1 While he was alive, the soldiers troubled the Friends very little, but now he was dead, they too gave way to the persecuting spirit which had overspread the land, and treated the Quakers as roughly as did others. Pepys tells us that at Whitehall he saw " Monk's soldiers abuse Billing and 1 " But, as to laws concerning religion, none were made in Cromwell's time to constrain the people to frequent the worship of the public or national Church, but there were many existing laws which he allowed to remain unaltered, and by which Quakers were imprisoned for refusing to swear, or for not paying tithes to maintain the priests ; they were whipped like vagabonds for preaching in the markets, or other public places, or they were fined for not taking off their hats before the magistrates, for this was called contempt of the magistracy ; and when, for conscience sake, they refused to pay such a fine, either the spoiling of their goods or imprisonment, became their share." — Jewel's Historv of the Rise, etc., of the Society of Friend's. THE RESTORATION. 179 all the Quakers that were at a meeting-place there, and indeed the soldiers did use them very roughly, and were to blame." 1 Fox, or some other " weighty " friend, on hearing of this complained to Monk, who at once issued the following order : — " I do require all officers and soldiers to forbear to disturb peaceable meetings of the Quakers, they doing nothing prejudicial to the Parliament or the Common- wealth of England. 9th, 3 mo., 1659. "George Monk." This order, we are told, had an excellent effect on the soldiers. " I had a sight and sense," says Fox, in his Journal, "of the King's return, a good while before it happened, and so had some others. I wrote to Oliver several times and let him know, that while he was persecuting God's people, they whom he accounted his enemies were preparing to come upon him. When some forward spirits, that came amongst us, would have bought Somerset House, that we might have meetings in it I forbade them to do so, for I then foresaw the King's coming in again. Besides, there came a woman to me in the Strand, who had a prophecy concerning the King's coming in again, three years before he came, and she told me she must go to him and declare it. I advised her to wait on the Lord, and keep it to herself ; for if it should be known that she went on such a message they would look upon it to be treason : but she said she must go and tell him that he should be brought into England again. I saw that her prophecy was true, and that a great stroke must come upon those in power ; for they 1 Pepys' " Diary," vol. i. p. 22 (7th February, 1659). Edition 1848. iSo GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. that had then got possession were so exceeding high, and such great persecution was acted by them that called themselves saints, that they would take from Friends their copyhold lands because they would not swear in their courts. Sometimes when we laid these sufferings before Oliver Cromwell, he would not believe it. Wherefore, Thomas Aldam and Anthony Pearson were moved to go through all the gaols in England, and get copies of Friend's commitments under the gaoler's hands, that they might lay the weight of their sufferings before Oliver Cromwell. And when he refused to give orders for the releasing of them, Thomas Aldam was moved to take his cap off his head and rend it in pieces before him, and to say unto him, ' So shall thy govern- ment be rent from thee and thy house.' Another Friend also, a woman, was moved to go to the Parliament (that was envious against Friends) with a pitcher in her hands, which she broke in pieces before them, and told them, ' So should they be broken in pieces,' which came to pass shortly after." Fox adds, that he also plainly saw that God would bring down the high and exalt the low over them, a thing that he considers came to pass at the Restoration. Fox now [1659] went to Reading, and while there had a serious illness, caused by his grief and sorrow of mind. His body became thin and emaciated, his spirits were depressed, and his strength failed him. A com- pany of " unclean spirits " in the town told him that the plagues of God were on him, but he was satisfied that it was the same spirits that spake so of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Then he tells us these people left him, and his body and face swelled out again when he was able to go into the fresh air. The same bad spirits now accused him of getting fat, and he saw that whatever THE RESTORATION. 181 condition he was in was equally disagreeable to them. " So the Lord raised him up again," and he once more returned to London. A little while after, he went to Norwich, and while there heard that a warrant was out against him. He sent one of his friends to the mayor to ask if it was true. Hearing that it was, the man reasoned about it, until he persuaded the mayor to let Fox hold his meetings without molestation, and before long Norwich became one of the head-quarters of Quakerism in the Eastern counties. Fox now returned to London. The rest of this year passed off very quietly. Early in the following spring he prepared to leave London on a prolonged tour in the West, and just before setting out, he had a vision, "wherein he saw the city lie in heaps and the gates down, and it was then represented to him just as he saw it several years after, lying in heaps when it was burned." While in Cornwall he was much distressed by the way in which the people, both rich and poor, regarded the shipwrecks which were of such frequent occurrence on their inhospitable coast. When such an event occurred it was regarded as a godsend, and every one hastened to get as much out of the wreck as possible, without troubling to save the lives of the people who might be in the ships ; indeed it was commonly said that murders were frequently committed to prevent the property being claimed by any survivors. Fox wrote a paper, which he sent to all the magistrates and priests, reproving such actions, and exhorting them to endeavour to save what lives they could, and, if possible, to assist in preserving the ships. Passing through Worcester, where he tells us he " never saw the like for drunkenness, for they had been choosing Parliament men," he went to Derby, and there visited many of the Friends, finding amongst them the i§2 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. gaoler who had a few years before been so cruel to him during the first part of his imprisonment in that town. Everywhere he went he found the people looking for the Restoration, and full of anxiety about the changes which that event would cause. " They would ask me what I thought of these things," he says. " I told them the Lord's power was over all, and His light shined over all, and that the fear would take hold only on the hypo- crites, such as had not been faithful to God, and on our persecutors . . . and whether the King came in or no, all would be well to them that loved the Lord, and were faithful to Him." The yearly meeting was fixed to take place this year at Balby, and, as it was estimated, some thousands of Friends were present ; it was held in an orchard. Al- though he had received information that a troop of horse had been despatched from York to break up the meet- ing, and was perfectly aware that he would probably be arrested, he went to it, and, standing on " a great stool, preached for some time." Before he had finished his sermon, however, the soldiers arrived, and the captain bidding Fox descend, announced that he had come to disperse the meeting ; but on Fox's explaining the object for which the Friends were gathered together, and saying that the people intended to return to their homes that same night, he agreed to allow them to continue their worship for an hour longer. " Then went the captain away with his troop," says Fox, " and Friends gave those soldiers that stayed and their horses some meat. When the captain was gone, the soldiers that were left told us, We might stay all night if we would. But we stayed but about three hours after, and had a glorious, powerful meeting. And after the meet- ing was done, Friends passed away in peace." Another meeting which he attended about this time THE RESTORATION. was held at Skipton : this " was a general meeting of men Friends out of many counties, concerning the affairs of the Church." Fox tells us that several years before, when in the North, he had recommended that a meeting should be held to manage the business of the Society both at home and abroad, but the one held this year (1660) appears to be the first of which we have any certain record. Till this time " many Friends suffered in divers parts of the nation, their goods were taken from them contrary to the law, and they understood not how to help themselves or where to seek redress ; but after this meeting was set up, several Friends that had been justices and magistrates, and others that under- stood something of the law, came thither, and were able to inform Friends, and to assist them in gathering up the sufferings, that they might be laid before the justices, judges, or parliament. The meeting," he adds, " had stood for several years, and divers justices and captains had come to break it up ; but when they understood the business Friends met about, and saw Friends' books, and accounts of collections for the use of the poor, how we took care one county to help another, and to help our Friends beyond the sea, and provide for our own poor, so that none of them be chargeable to their parishes, the justices and officers confessed we did their work and would pass away peaceably and quietly." Nor was it only their own poor the Quakers took thought for. Many of the indigent of other sects who lived near would come and wait till these meetings were over, knowing that if the bakers' shops did but hold out each one would have a loaf to take home, as a practical proof of the Quakers' universal charity. That this should have been the case will not surprise any one who knows the impartiality with which the Quaker creed teaches its adherents to 1 84 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. regard the beliefs of those who come to them in need ; but when we remember the narrow-minded bigotry of the age, it is certainly surprising that men who had only adopted the more liberal doctrines of the Friends comparatively recently, should have been able to eman- cipate themselves so entirely from the intolerant ideas in which they had been bred. Nor while thus providing for the wants of the poor at home did the meeting forget those abroad still without a knowledge of the Divine Light, for by a document which has been pre- served, we find that this meeting recommended a collec- tion to be raised " for the service of the truth abroad." At Skipton, Fox informs us, " a Friend went naked through the town declaring truth, and he was much beaten." It is somewhat surprising that Fox, who was careful to warn his followers, as may be gathered from his epistles, to be quiet, orderly, and decent, should mention this incident without any expression of disapproval ; but it is probable that he, never hesitating to do anything whatever which he deemed to be in accordance with the " guidings of first wisdom," con- sidered that the man was actuated by the same motives. Certainly no one who knows anything of the history of the early Quakers can for one moment believe that they, with their almost excessive notions of prudery, would in any way countenance such an exhibition, had they not believed that the man was as veritably inspired as was the prophet Isaiah. The people of Skipton were at that time a wild, rough set, and more than one Friend came to Fox to show the bleeding wounds he had received at the hands of the mob ; and one desperate fellow even attempted to injure George as he was walking in the street, but was forcibly prevented. The meeting itself was undisturbed, owing probably to the large number present, who over- the restoration: awed the unruly spirits desirous of creating a dis- turbance. Leaving Skipton, Fox went to Arnside, and there held another quiet meeting. Some serving men belong- ing to a Sir George Middleton, a justice of the peace, made up their minds to disturb the Friends, but when they arrived at the place it was just over ; not to be baulked of their sport, they bravely annoyed three women Friends who were returning home, and one, more coarse and rude than his fellows, behaved very abusively and indecently towards them. This same man also abused some other Friends, and grew so violent that had he not been restrained by his fellows, he would have attacked them with " an axe he carried," and at another time, finding that he could maltreat these peaceable people with impunity, attacked six Friends who were going to a meeting at Yelland, " and beat and abused them so, that he bruised their faces and shed much of their blood, wounding them very sore and one of them in several parts of his body ; yet they lifted not an hand against him, but gave him their bodies and cheeks to beat." " Resist not him that is evil ; but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," is the command of our blessed Lord, and this command the Quakers held it incumbent to carry out in its fullest and most literal sense. Resistance, so long as it was peaceable, they did not object to, but to return blow for blow they held a positive sin. No doubt in many cases, particularly as men have become more tolerant and enlightened, this doctrine of passive non-resistance has been a protection to them ; for all reasonable people must see the cowardice of abusing those whose religion forbids them to return, and almost to defend themselves from, the outrage ; but in the earlier days of the Society 1 86 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. cowards abounded and the Friends suffered proportion- ately. And their religion not only prohibited physical retaliation to the assaults of their enemies, but also forbade them to swear an information against their assailants, and thus deprived them of legal redress. Nor did even public opinion support them, for we find from the literature of the time to "bait a Quaker" was a fair and approved game, and accounts of their being abused and beaten were received as exceedingly hu- morous practical jokes. Not only in cases of ordinary petty persecution did they refuse to resist or retaliate, but they also preferred to be robbed sooner than defend themselves by a blow. The robber did not always get the best of it however, for we are told that once a highwayman levelled a pistol at Robert Barclay, and made a determined de- mand for his purse. Calm and self-possessed, Barclay looked the robber in the face, and with a firm but meek benignity, assured him that he was his and every man's friend ; that he was willing and ready to relieve his wants ; that he was free from a fear of death through a Divine hope in immortality ; and therefore not to be intimidated by a deadly weapon, He then appealed to him whether he could have the heart to shed the blood of one who had no other purpose than to do him good. The robber was confounded ; his eye melted, his brawny arm trembled, his pistol fell to his side, and he fled away. 1 A somewhat similar anecdote is also told of Leonard Fell. When travelling alone, a highwayman demanded his money, which was at once given up. The man next required his horse, and Leonard dismounting, let him take that also. But before the robber rode away the 1 Pike, " Quaker Anecdotes." THE RESTORATION. 187 Quaker solemnly warned him of the evil course he was pursuing. The highwayman, in reply, threatened to blow out his brains. " Though I would not give my life for my money or my horse," replied the other, " I would give it to save thy soul." This answer so affected the robber that he declared he would have neither the money nor the horse of such a man, and returned both to their astonished owner. 1 1 "Biographical Memoirs of Friends." CHAPTER XIV. PERSECUTION. Fox visits Swarthmore. — Is apprehended. — Committed to Lan- caster Prison. — Taken to London to be tried. — Is liberated by- order of the king. — Rising of the Fifth Monarchy Men. — Fox again apprehended. — Quaker Declaration to the King. — Ex- citement in the nation about Nonconformity. — Persecution of the Quakers. — Act passed against them. — Their sufferings. — Warnings to the commonwealth. — The Execution of King Charles' Judges. — The " Battledore." — George Fox the Younger and Charles II. 1 ."'OX next went with two friends, Francis Howgill and -L Thomas Curtis, to Swarthmore, to visit Margaret Fell, whose husband had been dead about two years. While here, he was apprehended by four constables, whom a neighbouring justice of the peace, one Major Porter, had sent for that purpose. The charge alleged against Fox was that he was a " a common disturber of the peace of the nation, an enemy of the king (then just restored), and one of those who were desirous to raise a general insurrection, and to imbrue the nation again in blood." A few months before he had been suspected of being a royalist and desirous of bringing back the king by force of arms, and now that the king was enjoying his own again, his enemies, obliged to abandon that charge, chose to deem him an ardent republican ! Without any attempt at resistance, Fox suffered the men to . u e him to Ulverstone, where they kept him all night at a constable's house. They seem to have considered that PERSECUTION. he had superhuman powers of escaping, for he tells us, that they " set a guard of fifteen or sixteen men to watch me ; some of whom sat in the chimney for fear I should go up it." One man declared that if George had resisted, he did not believe that a thousand men could have taken him, a statement which shows the almost superstitious influence he had acquired. Early in the morning, knowing he was to be taken before the justices, Fox put on his spurs, intending to ride his own horse ; but the men pulled off the spurs, and forced him to mount a horse so small that it was totally unequal to his weight, and to ride without a bridle. Perceiving that Margaret Fell and her children had come to see how it fared with their friend, the crowd cried that a rescue was to be attempted and closing round Fox, they threatened him with violence. " There is my back, here are my cheeks," cried George ; " strike on ! " Shamed at this spirited reply, the mob moved off somewhat, and did him no harm. While crossing a brook called Carterford, the little horse gave way entirely, and the men were compelled to let Fox have his own animal again. One " wicked fellow " made use of the pause to kneel down, and, lifting up his hands, thank God Fox was a prisoner. The men thought they had done a very clever thing in capturing one sup- posed to be so capable of resistance, and were mightily triumphant ; though they were somewhat disconcerted by their captive being moved " to sing praises to God for His triumphing power over all." At length the fourteen miles between Ulverston and Lancaster were accomplished, and Fox was quickly taken before Major Porter, who accused him of being an enemy of the king, and endeavouring to stir up strife. " I have never learned the postures of war," answered the prisoner, " but am clear and innocent as a child con- 190 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. cerning these things, and therefore am bold." The clerk then came in with the mittimus, and Fox was committed to the care of the gaoler, who was commanded to put him into the Dark House, and to let none have speech with him, till he should be delivered by the king or the parliament. So into the Dark House Fox was put, and the under-gaoler, " a very wicked man, was so exceed- ingly rude and cruel," that at times he refused to let his prisoner have any food save that which could be forced under the door. Perhaps the gaoler might have been different, had Fox taken the trouble to propitiate him by a bribe, for he returned George the knife the con- stables had taken from him, and then when he would have begged it as a present, was refused on the ground that he had not been civil and therefore deserved no reward. While in prison George passed part of his time in writing a paper declaring his innocence, which was subsequently published. Margaret Fell was also moved to write a similar paper, substantiating all that Fox had said. Soon Margaret Fell determined to take more active measures to obtain the release of her friend, and for that purpose resolved to go to London and per- sonally intercede with the king to set him at liberty. With her went a Quakeress named Ann Curtis, whose father, when sheriff of Bristol, had been hanged near his own door, for complicity in a royalist intrigue, and whom, for this reason, it was hoped the king might con- sent to hear. Nor were these hopes disappointed. As soon as the king understood whose daughter she was, he saw her, and commanded his secretary to direct Fox to be brought to London in order that he might examine into the matter himself. When the two friends went to the secretary to fetch the order, however, they were dis- appointed to learn that the king had promised what was PERSECUTION. 191 not in accordance with the law, and that the case must go before the judge in the usual way. Major Porter, whose arrest of Fox appears to have been merely a move to curry favour with the king, was much alarmed at hearing of Margaret Fell's journey, and set off in haste so as to be in London before her, " but when he came to court," says Fox, " he was so well known as having been an active supporter of the Parliament, that he was re- ceived very coldly, several courtiers boldly accusing him of having plundered their houses." So he soon had enough of London, and returned to the country so deeply chagrined that when the gaoler went to him to apologise for not having been more severe with Fox, he replied that he heartily wished he could set him at liberty. At first the appeal to the king seemed to have done Fox harm rather than good. An order transferring the cause to London arrived shortly before the assizes, and prevented his being tried, when he would probably have been released, for the evidence against him was of the flimsiest character possible. Then it took some time to persuade the justices to send George to London without a promise that he would bear all charges, which the prisoner refused to give. " If I be such a man as you have represented me to be," said Fox sarcastically, " you had need send a troop or two of horse to guard me." As this suggestion, which they took in good faith, was too expensive to put in practice, the authorities deter- mined to send only the gaoler and some bailiffs with him ; but on further consideration this also was con- sidered too " great a charge " for them to go to, and, sending for Fox, they offered that if he would put in bail to be in London on a given day, he should go ac- companied only by his own friends. Fox's reply was characteristic. He was an innocent man, wrongly im- prisoned, and so would give no bail. " If, however," he 192 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. added, " you will let me go up with one or two of my friends to bear me company, I may go up and be in London such a day, if the Lord permit, and if you desire it, I, or any of my friends that go with me, shall carry up my charge against myself." As there seemed no other cheap way out of the difficulty, this offer was gladly accepted. As soon as he was out of prison, Fox went to Swarth- more, but he only stopped there two or three days, and then, visiting Friends and attending meetings on the road, wended his way towards London, where he arrived about three weeks later. Two Friends accompanied him, Richard Hubberthorn and Robert Withers. The first thing Fox did when he arrived in London, was to call on Justice Mallett, who being busy, and con- sequently cross, told him to go away and come some other time, but he does not appear to have ever gone again. On the day fixed for the trial, he attended the court as he had promised. The people, he tells us, were moderate, the judges cool and loving, and his defence was patiently heard. An officer of the king's bedchamber attended the court, and informed the judges that as no accuser had come against him, the king's pleasure was that Fox should be set at liberty. The judges sent the sheriff's return to Charles, who examined it, and being satisfied of George's innocence, directed the judges to set him at liberty, which of course was at once done. During the time Fox was in London awaiting his trial, Richard Hubberthorn applied to the king on behalf of the Quakers, and was permitted to have an audience. Charles, in the presence of several lords, closely questioned Hubberthorn as to Quaker tenets, and being satisfied that there was nothing to fear from so " peaceably inclined a people," promised on the word of PERSECUTION. 193 a king that they should not be molested so long as they remained quiet and orderly. Several Quakers were also admitted to the House of Lords, and there ex- plained their reasons against swearing, paying tithes, or going to church, to which the house listened courteously, " But as for the king's promises," says Sewel, " he was, though a good-natured prince, so misled, that he seemed, in a short time, to have utterly forgotten to what his royal word had been pledged." 1 There still remained some seven hundred Quakers in prison, most of whom had been placed there during the protectorates of Oliver and Richard Cromwell. All these Charles now set at liberty, and, both he and his councillors feeling well disposed towards this " quiet peaceable sect," an instrument was drawn up to confirm their liberty, and to prevent them being again ill-treated. 2 Before this instrument could be signed, the insurrection of the Fifth Monarchy Men or Millenarians, took place, and the uproar this caused in the nation prevented the good intentions of the king being carried into effect. The Fifth Monarchy Men were a small company of infatuated enthusiasts, who believed that the millennium 1 Sewel, " History of the Rise, Increase, etc., of the Quakers." - About the end of 1660, the Quakers had circulated a Declara- tion, to the effect that, though their consciences did not allow them to swear, and consequently they were liable to be misunderstood and persecuted, they acknowledged Charles II. as rightful and supreme magistrate, and were willing to " yield him due obedience in the Lord." They also promised not to conspire against him or the peace of the kingdom, and added that if anything was required of them contrary to their consciences, they would rather suffer than " sin by resistance." On the same day they made an offer that, in order " to avoid all jealousies and for the preservation of peace, six of their number in each county, God-fearing and sufficient men, should engage that their meetings be kept free from plots and insurrections." "State Papers, 1660-61," p. 361. O 194 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. was about to commence. 1 For some years prior to this famous outbreak, a similar idea had been common among several sections of the Puritans, but with none, except the fanatics, of whom Venner — an obscure wine cooper in the city of London — was the leader, was it an all- important dogma. Venner and a few half insane fol- lowers used to meet in a room in Coleman Street, and there work each other up to a pitch of enthusiasm bordering on madness. In 1661, after a more exciting meeting than usual, led by Venner, they rushed into the street, and proclaimed that they were about to overthrow the government of King Charles and set up that of King Jesus. The whole party, which only numbered some three or four and twenty men, were immediately secured, but the feeble rising caused a panic of which the government were only too glad to take advantage. The whole affair was only lifted out of the category of an ordinary street brawl, by the curious fanaticism which gave rise to it ; and it is probable that it would have been, as it undoubtedly ought to have been, treated accordingly, but for the opportunity it gave of crushing the Puritans, then, perhaps, at the height of their unpopularity. How serious the Non- conformists considered the matter is shown by the fact that, though their hatred of the Fifth Monarchy Men was well known, the Presbyterians, Independents and Anabaptists, thought it necessary to protest their abhorrence of these principles, and their attachment to the throne, in addresses of subservient loyalty. 3 " This was on a First-day night," says Fox, in his ac- count of this "wicked rising," "and very glorious meet- 1 See Rev. xx. 2 Marsden's " History of the Later Puritans," and Neal's " History of the Puritans,'' vol. iv. chap. 6. See also " Calendar of State Papers, 1 650-60." PERSECUTION. 195 ings we had had that day, wherein the Lord's truth shined over all, and His power was exalted above all. But about midnight, or soon after, the drums beat, and the cry was, Arm, Arm. I got up out of bed, and in the morning took boat, and landing at Whitehall Stairs, walked through Whitehall. They looked strangely on me there ; but I passed through them, and went to Pall Mall, whither divers Friends came to me, though it was now grown dangerous passing the streets. For by this time both the city and suburbs were up in arms, and exceeding rude the people and soldiers were, inso- much that a Friend, Henry Fell, going to a Friend's house, the soldiers knocked him down, and he had been killed, if the Duke of York had not come by. Great mischief was done in the city this week, and when the next First-day came, that Friends went to their meetings as they used to do, many of them were taken prisoners." Fox was at this time staying in Pall Mall, where the Quakers then had a meeting-house. On the Saturday night following the rising, a company of troopers came and arrested him on suspicion of being connected with a plot. One of his captors, whom he recognised as having served under the Parliament, put his hand to George's pocket and demanded whether he had any pistols. " I told him," says Fox, " that he knew I did not use to carry pistols. Why did he ask such a question of me, whom he knew to be a peaceable man ? " Some of the soldiers who went to search the sleeping apartments were surprised to find a gentleman of the king's bedchamber sleeping in the house. " Squire Marsh," as this gentleman was termed, had a warm affection for Fox, and fearing that, in the excited state of the populace, some evil might befall his friend, had taken lodgings in the same house in order to throw over him the shield of his court influence. This discovery 196 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. considerably disconcerted the soldiers, who decided that there was no reason for molesting Fox further, and would have gone away but for the representations of the man who had made the inquiry about the pistols, that George was the very head and chief of the Quakers. Marsh now thought it time to interfere, and sending for the leader of the party, desired them to let Fox alone, as he would be answerable for his appearance the next morning. " In the morning," says Fox, "before they could fetch me, and before the meeting was gathered, there came a company of foot to the house, and one of them, drawing his sword, held it over my head. I asked him, Why he drew his sword at a naked man ? at which his fellows being ashamed, bid him put up his sword. These soldiers took me away to Whitehall before the troopers came for me. As I was going out, several Friends were going in to the meeting, whose boldness and cheerful- ness I commended, and encouraged them to persevere therein. " When I was brought to Whitehall, the soldiers and people were exceedingly rude, yet I declared truth to them ; but some great persons coming by, who were full of envy : ' What,' said they, ' do you let him preach ? Put him into such a place where he may not stir.' So into that place they put me, and soldiers watched over me." Owing to the interposition of " Squire" Marsh, George was released after two or three hours' detention. 1 Fox tells us that with the help of one or two others 1 Fox tells us that on his being discharged, the Marshal de- manded fees, which, in accordance with the Quaker practice, he refused to pay, but adds that of his own free will, he offered him twopence that the soldiers might drink. At this there was a roar of derisive laughter ; so George, buttoning up his pockets, and remarking that if they did not like to take it they need not, de- parted without any further effort being made to detain him. — " Journal," page 315. PERSECUTION. he drew up a " Declaration against plots and fightings, to be presented to the king and council. But when it was finished, and sent to the press, it was taken in the press." Whether he wrote another, or had kept a copy of the one he refers to, we do not know ; but a paper declaring the innocency of the body was presented to the king in January, 1661 } " Our principle is, and our practices always have been," said this document, " to seek peace and ensue it ; to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God ; seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all. We know that wars and fightings proceed from the lusts of men, as James iv. 1, 2, 3, out of which lusts the Lord has released us, and so out of the occasion of war. The occasion of war and the war itself (wherein envious men, who are lovers of themselves more than lovers of God, lust and kill, and desire to have men's lives or estates) ariseth from the lust. All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, strife and fighting with outward weapons for any end, or under any pre- tence whatsoever ; this is our testimony to the whole world." The declaration then goes on to defend the doctrines and practices of the Quakers, and winds up with a strong exhortation " not to offend the Lord 1 An account of this document, which is called "A Declaration from the harmless and innocent people of God, called Quakers, against all plotters and fighters in the world ; for the removing the ground of jealousy and suspition from both magistrates and people in the kingdom concerning wars and fightings, . . . and for the clearing of their innocency," is to be found in " Kennet's Chronicle," page 366. The " Declaration " was signed by George Fox and eleven others. 193 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. and His little ones, neither afflict His people, but con- sider and be moderate." Margaret Fell also went to the king, and personally told him " what sad work there was in the nation, and showed him the Friends were an innocent people," and that whatever they might suffer they intended to hold their meetings as they had been wont to do. She showed him as well " that it concerned him to see that peace was kept, so that no innocent blood was shed." That these protests had a good effect there can be no doubt, for not very long afterwards the king ordered that all Friends then in prison should be set at liberty, without even being required to pay the usual fees to the gaolers. 1 But in the meantime much mischief had been done ; much " innocent blood had been shed." A cry was raised against the Presbyterians and the Quakers, both of whom, without a shadow of reason, were charged with the puerile outbreak of the Fifth Monarchy Men. 2 Day after day fresh plots were rumoured to have been discovered, and the nation was in so wild a state of excitement that no report was too absurd to be credited. Even Baxter was believed to be party to an intrigue to assassinate the king and overthrow the government. The excitement was made the pretext for issuing a proclamation (in which both Anabaptists and Quakers were specially named), to suppress all unlawful conven- ticles or meetings for religious purposes ; and this was 1 In the " Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1660-61," p. 587, there is a notice of the issue of a Proclamation, command- ing the liberation of all Quakers who were then in prison for con- science sake, or for not taking the oaths, etc., without their being at the trouble or charge of sueing individually for pardons. This Proclamation was issued on the nth May, 1661. 2 Those of the Fifth Monarchy Men who were put to death, before their execution, exonerated the Quakers from any com- plicity in their plot. Sewel, " History," etc. vol. ii. p. 233. PERSECUTION. 199 seized upon by the populace as an excuse to assail meetings and treat the frequenters with ignominy and outrage. "A time of trouble in the nation," writes Philip Henry at this time, and from his quiet retreat. " I am yet at peace, blessed be God, but expect suffering." Great troubles followed for all, or nearly all, Non- conformist sects, and they fell with horrible severity upon the Friends, the most peaceful, quiet, and philan- thropic of them all. No other sect of Christians, with the exception of the Waldenses, has ever been so severely persecuted, 1 and no other has ever borne it with such continuous patience, " accounting," as Lord Langdale said in the letter he wrote to the Secretary of State about this time, "persecution an honour." 2 The persecution came in large part from the magis- trates, who punished the Friends for every act they could by the utmost straining of the law construe into an offence, either against what they deemed to be their dignity, or the temporal welfare of the Church. No doubt much of their action was, however mistaken, honest ; but there remains plentiful evidence that the greater part arose from spite against those who held lip-service a dishonour, or was done in order to prove to the government that they were now intensely loyal ; and in their action they were urged on by the people, who were anxious to avenge themselves against some one, no matter who, for the decorous reign of dulness they had endured under the rule of the Com- monwealth. " Oh ! the daily reproaches, revilings and beatings we underwent amongst them," says Fox. " Even in the 1 Schaffe's " Creeds of Christianity," Sect. Society of Friends. 2 " Calendar of State Papers, 1660-61," page 466. In this letter the Quakers are said to be people of " most exemplary lives." 200 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. highways, because we would not put off our hats to them, and for saying Thou and Thee to them. Oh ! the havoc and spoil the priests made of our goods, because we could not put into their mouths and give them tithes ! besides casting into prisons ; and besides the great fines laid upon us, because we could not swear ! But for all these things did the Lord God plead with them." Many of the actions — for by no stretch of malignity can they be termed offences — for which the unhappy members of this sect suffered, were ludicrous in the extreme. William Dewsbury, one of the most in- fluential of the Quaker ministers, was imprisoned merely for returning thanks after supper, when staying at an inn. This was construed to be " preaching at a conventicle." 1 At another time a woman was sent to gaol because she had not prevented her husband holding a meeting in the house. That she was sick in bed at the time was held to be no excuse. 2 A women in Sussex, named Mary Akehurst, was kept chained for a month, and furiously beaten and ill-treated by her husband, for having reproved a priest who had falsely accused her. 3 At Bristol a young girl was sent to gaol for having resisted a boy who endeavoured to take liberties with her. 4 In the same town a woman went to gaol for having walked through the streets clothed in sackcloth, 5 and several shared the same fate for keeping their shops open on fasts or holidays. Fox had enjoined on the Friends the necessity of their keeping records of all who suffered in any way, and this coming to the ears of the authorities, it was 1 Smith, " Life of Dewsbury," chap. xiii. 2 Besse, "A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers," vol. i. p. 27. 3 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 11. 1 Ibid., vol. i. p. 54. 5 Ibid., vol. i. p. 41. persecution: 201 deemed an offence. It is only too easy to multiply these instances. Besse, whose narrative of their sufferings fills two huge volumes, computes that before the Act of Toleration was passed, no less than 13,258 suffered im- prisonment, torture, or mutilation in England, Scotland, and Ireland alone, and of this number more than 360 died in prison. 1 " The Quakers through the whole kingdom were assailed with frantic violence," says Mr. Marsden. " Men and women were imprisoned without a moment's warning ; the sick were torn from their beds, and some who were unable to walk were dragged with brutal violence along the pavement by their legs. 2 An Act was passed forbidding their assemblies, under a penally of £5 for the first offence, £10 for the second, and transportation to the plantations for the third. 3 The signal once given, the demon of persecution raged fu- riously. A well-attested statement was published in 1661, signed by twelve Quakers, showing that more than four thousand two hundred of their body were then in various prisons in England. Many of them had been whipped ; some lay in stinking dungeons not fit for dogs ; some prisons were so crowded with both sexes, that there was not even room for all of them to sit down at once." 4 In Yorkshire, out of the five hundred and thirty-five Quakers who were prisoners, five hundred and five were in York Castle, which was so crowded that five died of the effects of the impure air. In Cheshire, sixty-eight were confined in one small chamber. In 1 Computed from Besse, by Dr. Schaffe, "History of the Creeds Christendom," sec. Society of Friends. 2 "Sewel,"p. 261. 8 13 & 14 Car. II. cap. i. 4 Marsden, " History of the Later Puritans," p. 445. 202 GEORGE EOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Berkshire, twenty-two were thrust into the felon's dungeon, which was so close that the gaoler said he thought it would breed an infection amongst them, yet, for all that, he refused to allow the Friends to walk in the yard during the day, a privilege he granted to every other prisoner. In London, the five hundred prisoners were treated worse than felons, in some instances being packed so close that all could not lie down at once. Many died in silence ; a few who dared to re- monstrate were beaten to death. Those who escaped prison fared but little better. Some who could not pay the fines imposed on them, had their goods, even their tools and clothes, taken from them. Women were seized and, under pretence of their being witches, inhumanly pricked with bodkins ; others, going to their meetings were constantly waylaid and beaten with frightful severity, or daubed with filth. Even children did not escape. A girl, not sixteen, was tried in the county of Middlesex for the heinous offence of being a Quaker. Although she pleaded her youth in mitigation of her punishment, and a certificate to prove her age was shown, the magistrate, brutally remarking she was a liar, ordered her to be transported as a slave to the plantations. Happily for her, she died in prison before the sentence could be carried out. 1 A few years later eleven boys and four girls were sent to prison in Bristol, and the gaoler was ordered to provide a cat-o'- nine-tails for their benefit, which, however, never seems to have been used. A constable named Helliar — a man for whom the strongest possible terms of reprobation and disgust would be too mild — used to go about beat- ing all children he could find going to or leaving Quaker meetings ; at one time flogging no less than fifty-five 1 Besse's " Collection of Sufferings." PERSECUTION. 203 of both sexes, and at another setting eight boys in the stocks. 1 Dreadful as the sufferings of the Quakers were at other places, they nowhere seem to have been so severe as at Bristol. In many of the Friends' houses, none but servants and young children were out of prison, yet the meetings went on uninterruptedly, for the children now performed what their parents were hindered from doing, and gathered for the purpose of worship, though many of them arrived at the meeting-house black and blue from the blows of the rabble who had waylaid them. 2 In the prison, the Friends were so crowded together, that four physicians testified that their lives were en- dangered by it, and many, who were nearly starved — for the authorities refused to allow them to work for their own support, though they were anxious to do so — almost welcomed the approach of the fever which released several from their sufferings. 3 There can be no doubt that many of the Quakers, more especially among the women, brought in some measure, at least, persecution upon themselves, for it cannot be denied by their most enthusiastic defenders, that their conduct was frequently irritating and ag- gressive. 4 But no amount of special pleading will 1 Besse's " Collection of Sufferings." 2 Barclay's " Select Anecdotes." 3 It is said that the gaoler caught the fever, and when dying, be- lieving it to be a judgment on him for his treatment of the Friends, sent to beg their forgiveness, which was at once accorded. 4 Fox has frequently been charged with conniving at and excusing the fanatical eccentricities of some of his weak-brained followers, and, more than once, with actually encouraging them. I confess I can see no grounds for this accusation, and it would be easy to cite instances in which he had discouraged such exhibitions, and, as in the case of Naylor and others, even sternly reproved them. In a letter from Thomas Aldam to Margaret Fell, an account is given 204 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. condone the wholesale persecution of a sect for the absurd conduct of a few who can hardly be seriously regarded as responsible for their actions, or can justify the terrible severity with which the barbarous laws against the Friends were carried out, and perhaps there are few greater blots in all the dark pages of our history than the treatment of the " Religious Society of People called Quakers." " Why," asks Fox, in his account of this troublous time — and although he seems rather to refer to a previous persecution than to the one under which the Quakers were then suffering, the remarks are equally true — "should we have been so persecuted by the professors in the time of the Commonwealth ? We never resisted them when they took our ploughs and our oxen ; when they beat us and cast us into prison, because we said ' thee and thou ' to them, and refused them hat homage, and, worshipping God in the spirit, could not conform to their religious customs and fashions. When they were cast down from their high places they threw the blame on us, while it was owing to themselves, their priests and their blind prophets, and who would not take the warn- ings God sent them of their impending destruction. Many ways were these professors warned, both by writ- ing and sign, but they would believe none till it was too late. William Simpson was moved of the Lord to go at several times for three years naked and barefoot before them, as a sign to them in markets, courts, towns, and of a female minister who promised to a widow to restore her dead son. " She tooke him from the grave," we are told, and " imitated the prophet (Elijah), and that not doeing, went to prayer, and nothinge prevailing, they buried him again, and soe the enemy gott advantage." This letter was shown to Fox, who wrote on the mar- gin the brief comment, "mad whimseye." [Swarthmore MSS.] See note F. PERSECUTION. 205 cities, to priests' houses and to great mens' houses, tell- ing them ' so should they be stripped naked as he was stripped naked ! ' And sometimes he was moved to put on sackcloth and to besmear his face, and tell them ' so would the Lord God besmear all their religion as he was besmeared.' Great sufferings did the poor man undergo ; sore whippings on his bare body, grievous stonings and imprisonments, in three years time, before the king came in, that they might have taken warning ; but they would not, and rewarded his love with cruel usage. Only the Mayor of Cambridge did nobly to him, for he put his gown about him and brought him into his house." 1 "Another Friend, Robert Huntingdon, was moved of the Lord to go into Carlisle steeple- house, with a great sheet about him, amongst the great Presbyterians and Independents there, to show them that the surplice was coming up again ; and he put a halter about his neck to show them that a halter was coming upon them, which was fulfilled upon some of our persecutors not long after." 2 1 William Simpson was born and bred in Lancashire, where he first met with the Quakers, and embraced their tenets. He is said to have been a "faithful servant and professor of the Word to the nations." He went " through great tribulations and sufferings, and went into many steeple-houses and declared against their false worship, and was ofttimes imprisoned for the truth, and underwent cruel and hard sufferings by the gaolers." In "A Short Relation of the Life and Death of William Simpson," it is stated after leaving Cambridge he went about in London naked as a "sign." He was once so furiously beaten with thorn bushes on his naked body that, as it is quaintly related, when his service was done, Friends were first to pluck the thorns out of his flesh. A little later he was moved to visit Barbadoes, where he died. Simpson's most known work is called " Going Naked a Signe." 2 Richard Sale is also mentioned as having warned the people, but in his case the warning does not seem to have been prophetical. Sale was a constable at Westchester, who had a Quaker committed 206 GEORGE FOX A.VD THE EARLY QUAKERS. One remark that Fox makes upon this time of per- secution is remarkable as showing his intense dislike to rendering evil for evil in any way or to anybody. " Much blood was shed this year," he says. " Many of them that had been the old king's judges were, hanged, drawn, and quartered. And amongst them that so suffered, Col. Hacker was one, he who sent me prisoner from Leicester to London in Oliver's time, of whom an account is given before. 1 A sad day it was and a repaying of blood with blood. For in the time of O. Cromwell, when several men were put to death by him, being hanged, drawn, and quartered for pre- tended treasons, I felt from the Lord God that their blood would not be put up, but would be required, and I said as much then to several. And now upon the king's return, when several of them that had been against the king were put to death, as the others that were for the king had been before by Oliver : this was sad work, destroying of people contrary to the nature of Christians, who have the name of sheep and lambs." Whilst Fox was a prisoner in Lancaster Castle, a book, which is one of the curiosities of literature, was published, and during his stay in London attracted an amount of attention its merits scarcely deserved. This book was the " Battledore," a work written to prove — by copious references to Scripture and extracts from grammars in thirty different languages — that it was con- trary to common sense, and opposed to the custom of to his charge as a vagabond, and being convinced by his prisoner, so far forgot his duty as to set him at liberty. "After this, on a lecture day, Sale was moved to go into a steeple-house at the time of their worship, and carry these persecuting priests and people a lantern and candles, as the figure of their darkness, and like dark professors, as they were, they put him into their prison called Little Ease, and so squeezed his body therein that not long after he died." 1 See page 1 73. persecution: 207 the rest of the world, to use " ye or you," when speaking to a single person. George Fox was often accused by the vituperative crew of enemies which his Quakerism raised up against him, of claiming this book as his own, but he nowhere really does so ; for although in several places he refers to it as his own, it is evident from the direct way he in one place ascribes its authorship to John Stubbs and Benjamin Furly, that he only so refers to it as is natural for a person to do to a thing that has been done at his suggestion, and for which he supplied much of the material. And this George did. Not only was the book written at his request, but he superintended its production, and added largely to it. The book got its certainly inappropriate name, from the fact that a mark resembling a battledore was placed at the com- mencement of each paragraph. As soon as the book was published, copies of it were presented to the king and the council, to the two Univer- sities, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London. Charles, who was usually outspoken in expressing his opinions on any matter, said that the book proved " thee and thou " to be the " proper lan- guage for all nations." When the Archbishop was asked what he thought of it, he was, we are told, at such a stand that he did not know what to say. The book had a fair, if not a large, sale, and it is satisfactory to know that few were afterwards as much abused as they had previously been for saying "thee and thou." " But ' thee and thou ' was a sore cut to proud people, and them that sought self-honour," remarks George; those, " who though they would say it to God and Christ, would not endure to have it said to themselves. So that we were often beat and abused, and sometimes in danger of our lives for using the words to proud men, who would say, ' What ! you ill-bred clown ; do you 2o8 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. " thou " me,' as though there lay Christian breeding in saying you to one, which is contrary to their gram- mars and reading-books by which they instructed their youth." 1 One little incident, which occurred either this year or the next, is too characteristic of the king to be passed by unnoticed. There was a minister in the Society of Friends whose name was the same as that of the founder, but who for the sake of distinction was, though a much older man, generally referred to as George Fox the Younger. 2 This man thought it his duty to write to the king, complaining very strongly of the treatment the Quakers were receiving, a proceeding which bitterly offended the Duke of York, who advised the king to use severity against the author. This Charles refused to do. " It were better to amend our lives," he said. 1 It must not be forgotten that the expression thoic was offensive for another reason besides those which Fox has given. In the earlier part of the seventeenth century, it was used as a term of in- sult. Thus in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh for high treason (1603) Sir Edward Coke said to the prisoner " I thou thee, thou traitor." (Cobbett "State Trials," vol. ii. p. 10). Shakespeare ("Twelfth Night," Act iii. Sc. 2) seems to use the word in the same sense ; — " If thou thou'st him some thrice it shall not be amiss." 2 George Fox the Younger was a native of Charsfield, in Suffolk, and though bearing the same name, was no relation to the founder of Quakerism. He was imprisoned four or five times, and seems to have been a devoted, earnest, and simple-minded, though an illiterate and somewhat freespoken, man. Isaac Pennington says of his ministry, that it was " as thunder to the rocks and mountains, and streams of sweet milk, wine, and honey, to the blessed living babes of the blessed living God." Fox joined the Society of Friends in 1655, and died at Hurst, in Sussex, in 1661. His collected works 11 an octavo volume of some 280 pages. CHAPTER XV. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES.. Quaker missions. — Missionary movement in 1661. — Stubbs and Fell in Alexandria. — Robinson visits Jerusalem. — John the Quaker at Constantinople. — Quaker attempts to convert the Sultan. — Mary Fisher's interview with the Sultan Mahomet. — Other Quaker missionaries. — The Quakers in America. — Persecution in New England. — The foundation of the Puritan States. — Puritan hatred of toleration. — Early Quakers in New England. — The ill-treatment of Mary Fisher and Ann Austin. — Laws against Quakers. — Sufferings of the Friends in America. — The five martyrs. — Marmaduke Stevens. — Fox's " sense " of these sufferings. — Burrough's interview with Charles II. — The persecutions stopped. — Fox accuses the New England deputies of murder. — Fresh persecutions. ALTHOUGH the Society of Friends at the present time supports small missions in Madagascar, in Palestine, and in India, it has long ceased to advance any claim to be called an evangelizing body. But in earlier times it was not so ; for we find that many of the Friends, often very poor and unlettered, were filled with a burning desire to spread the " truth " they so much valued, in countries of which they knew little more than the names, and that they endeavoured to do this in the teeth of obstacles and discouragements which would have daunted them had they been more learned and less enthusiastic. "This year [1661]," says Fox in his Journal, "several Friends were moved to go beyond the seas to publish truth in foreign countries. J. Stubbs, Henry Fell, and 209 P 2io GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Richard Costrop, were moved to go towards China and Prester John's country; but no masters of ships would carry them. With much ado they got a warrant from the king, but the East India Company found ways to avoid it, and the masters of ships would not carry them. Then they went into Holland, hoping to have got pas- sage there, but no passage could they get there neither. Then John Stubbs and Henry Fell took shipping for Alexandria, in Egypt, intending to go by caravans from thence. Meanwhile, Daniel Baker, being to go to Smyrna, drew Richard Costrop, contrary to his own freedom, along with them ; and in the passage, Richard falling sick, Daniel Baker left him sick in the ship, where he died : but that hard-hearted man afterwards lost his own condition. " John Stubbs and Henry Fell got to Alexandria, but they had not been there long before the English consul banished them from thence ; yet before they came away they dispersed many books and papers there, for the opening of the principles and way of truth to the Turks and Grecians. They gave the book, called ' The Pope's Strength Broken,' to an old friar, for him to give or read to his people, which book, when the friar had perused, he clapped his hand upon his breast and con- fessed that what was written therein was truth, ' but ' said he, ' if I confess it openly, they will burn me.' So John Stubbs and Henry Fell, not being suffered to go further, returned to England again ; and John had a vision that the English and Dutch, who had joined to- gether not to carry them, would fall out one with the other, and so it came to pass." In his " History," Sewel gives a long account of the visit of a Quaker, named George Robinson, to the East. Robinson felt that he had a Divine call to preach the " word " in Jerusalem, and to admonish the people there THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 21 I to turn from the false prophet to the true God. By way of Leghorn he got to St. Jean d'Acre, and, with but little molestation from the Turks, managed to find his way from thence to Joppa, where his meekness and amiability attracted the notice of an Armenian merchant, who was both useful and kind to him. When he arrived at Ramoth he was surrounded by a number of monks from Jerusalem, who demanded tribute, and required him to conform to the usual practices of the pilgrims who visited the holy places. This his principles of course forbade him to do, and, in revenge, they caused him to be sent back to St. Jean dAcre. Robinson was not to be deterred from his mission by such an adven- ture as this, and so, with considerable difficulty, made his way back to Ramoth again. When he arrived there he was seized by some Turks, who, taking him into a mosque, examined him, and finally insisted on his embracing the Mohametan faith. According to another account, he was found in a mosque, and the Turks who discovered him, believing that he desired to become a Mussulman, entreated him to give some proof of this desire. Both accounts, however, agree that he refused to be either forced or persuaded into changing his religion, declaring that he would rather die first. The Turks replied that he should die, and preparations were being made to burn him to death with camel's dung, when a Turk of some position interfered, and, judging him to be a harmless fanatic, kept him in his house for some days. While there Robinson discovered he had been betrayed into the hands of the Turks by some monks, whose malice he reported to the Pacha. This official condemned them to pay a considerable fine, and added the disagreeable duty of conveying Robinson to Jerusalem in safety, which was accordingly done. Arrived at Jerusalem, Robinson addressed a considerable 212 GEORGE FOX A.VD THE EARLY QUAKERS. number of friars, but, with the exception of exhorting them to turn from their evil ways and to worship God in spirit and in truth, he appears to have had little to say. When he had delivered his message " from the Lord " to a Turkish magistrate, he "felt his mind clear;" and, under the protection of some Turks and at the expense of the friars, he was conveyed back to Ramoth, from whence he returned to England, where he published an account of his adventures. 1 At or about the same time, John Kelsey, a Friend, who was usually known by the soubriquet of " John the Quaker," felt moved to go to Constantinople to con- vert, or attempt to convert, the Sultan himself. When Kelsey, who was probably a demented but harmless fanatic, reached his destination, he preached at the corners of the streets ; but as he spoke in English, all his vehemence was thrown away on his hearers. Con- cluding that he was out of his senses, the authorities sent him to a madhouse, where he was confined for six weeks. " One of the keepers, hearing him ejaculate the word 'English,' informed Lord Winchelsea, then ambassador to the Porte, that a mad countryman of his was under confinement. His lordship sent for John, who appeared before him in a torn and dirty hat, which he could by no means be persuaded to take off. The ambassador thought that a little of the Turkish disci- pline would be of service to him, and presently ordered him to be drubbed on the feet." The punishment was most beneficial to John, who declared that it had a " good effect on his spirit," and it totally altered his behaviour for a time. In his pocket was found a letter addressed to the Sultan, in which he told him " he was 1 Sewel, vol. i. p. 75. Watson, " Life of George Fox." Also Cunningham, " The Quakers." THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 213 a scourge in the hand of God to chastise the wicked ; and that he had sent him not only to denounce, but to execute vengeance." John was placed on board a ship bound for England, but he escaped and returned to Constantinople ; where he was again taken and put on board another ship, under a restraint sufficiently severe to prevent him escaping again. 1 Kelsey, however, was not the first Quaker who had attempted to convert the Sultan ; for in 1658 the consul at Marseilles wrote to Secretary Thurloe, to tell him that " from Smirna I have advices that there was arrived six' Quakers, three men and three women, who pretended to goe to convert the Grand Seignior ; but the Consill at Smirna hindered them ; so they are gone to Venice, pretending to convert the Jews."- A few months later the ambassador at Constantinople com- plained to Cromwell that three Quakers had crept in unawares from Zante, by way of the Morea, " whom," he says, " I suffered so long as their comportment was offenceless ; but when at length becoming scandalous to our nation (which, upon this occasion, was censured and scoffed at by Papist, Jew, and others of a strange faith), and insufferable also by reason of their dis- turbance of our Divine exercises, and several notorious contempts of mee and my authority, I friendly warned them to returne, which the two women did quietly, but John Buckly refusing, I was constrained to shipe him hence." 3 Mary Fisher was another Quaker who "felt moved" to convert the Sultan. This remarkable woman had already tried to propagate her principles in America, 1 Pike, " Quaker Anecdotes." - Thurloe, " State Papers," vol. vii. p. 32. 3 Thurloe, " State Papers.'' 214 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. with but little success. While there she was suspected of being a witch, and tested in the then approved, though barbarous, fashion, by pricking with a pin. Fortunately for her she was nowhere insensible to pain, and so escaped the stake. Mary made her way to Smyrna, from whence she hoped to get to Adrianople ; but, for some reason or other, the consul at the former place sent her to Venice. Nothing disheartened, she went by another route to Adrianople, where, on her arrival, she found the Sultan, Mahomet IV., encamped with his army. Whatever doubt there may be as to her wisdom, there can be none as to her courage ; for she entered the camp alone, and sent word to the Grand Vizier that she was an Englishwoman bearing a message from God to the Sultan. The Vizier conveyed the information to the Sultan, who, surprised and probably amused at so extraordinary a message, had her brought before the full divan the following day. Mary expressed no surprise and made no comment as she passed through the camp ; its Oriental splendour did not affect her. She was not awed by the powerful monarch, whose faithful subjects dared hardly lift their eyes to his. She was totally indifferent to the throng of jewelled courtiers who crowded round his throne. If Mahomet had admitted her in order to enjoy her astonish- ment at the grandeur which surrounded her, or her awe at his own greatness, he was disappointed. She thought of her message, and of that only. The Sultan, through an interpreter, asked her, whether she really bore a message from God, as she professed to do. " Yea," was her reply. " Then speak without fear," said Mahomet. Mary hesitated somewhat, and the Sultan, thinking that she might not like to speak before his great officers, asked her whether this was so, for if it were they should withdraw. As Mary THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 215 answered in the negative, he directed her to proceed, and charged her to tell him all she had from God, as, be it what it might, he would patiently listen to it. What Mary had to say, Sewel, who gives the best account of her adventures, does not tell us, but remarks that the Turks listened with polite attention and pro- found gravity. When she had delivered her message, she asked the Sultan if he had understood it all ; he replied that he had, and that every word she had said was true. Mahomet also remarked that they could not but respect one who had come so far with a message from the Lord, and offered her a guard to see her safely out of his dominions, expressing, at the same time, his surprise that she should have travelled so. far without receiving any harm. Mary's creed, however, forced her to decline to accept a guard. She must have been a woman of some presence of mind ; for when the Turks pressed her to give an opinion on the prophet Mahomet, she refused, saying she knew not Mahomet, but she knew Christ, " who is the Light of the world, and who enlightens every man coming into the world"; adding, that they might judge whether Mahomet was a true or false prophet from what he had spoken, repeating the text : " If the word that a prophet speaketh come to pass, then shall ye know that the Lord hath sent him ; but if it come not to pass, then shall ye know that the Lord hath not sent him." And in this view the Turks appear to have concurred. Mary, having finished her word, made her way back to England, which she reached without mishap. 1 Nor was it to the East alone that the Quakers had turned their attention. Two of them set out to Italy 1 Sewel, vol. i. p. 440 ; vol. ii. p. 224. Croese, " General History of Quakerism," part iii. Watson, " Life of George Fox," p. 233. Cunningham, " The Quakers. - ' 216 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. on a fruitless attempt to convert the Pope, 1 and others went to various parts of Europe and America on errands similar but more hopeful. For both in Holland and Germany, as well as in some other places, they were able to found meetings which for many years lived and throve ; but it was in America that, next to England, the Quaker doctrines took strongest root. As early as 1656, there appears to have been a considerable colony in Newfoundland, for we learn from a State paper, that there was a vessel fitted out, the crew of which consisted entirely of Friends, some of whom were colonists, 2 while in the following year, the governor of Jamaica found it necessary to apply to the home government for instruc- tions as to the way in which he was to treat the people of " unblameable life," whose appearance was troubling the colony. 3 Another matter which much exercised Fox and the 1 For the account of Perrot's visit to Italy to convert the Pope, see Sewel, vol. ii. pp. 223-315 ; Notes and Queries, vol. iii. pp. 335. 396. 2 " There is an English shipp come in here from Newfoundland. The master hath beene on board of us. There is not, they say, one person in the shipp, officer or mariner, but are all Quakers. I feare they will meet with affronts from these people, and I heare they have been in danger alreadye for not puttinge off their hatts to the Portugeses when they have saluted them in the streetes." Extract from a letter from General Montague, at Lisbon. Thurloe's " State Papers," vol. v. p. 422. 3 " There are some people lately come hither, called Quakers, who have brought letters of credit, and do disperse books amongst us. Now my education and judgment prompting me to an own- ing of all that pretend in any way to godliness and righteousness (whereof these people have a very great appearance), and the priests telling me, that the heads of these people are contriving against the government, and accounted conspirators against His Highness . . . hath put me to some stand how to carry myself towards them, and humbly to seek your honour's directions, that my carriage in being tender to them, who are people of an un- THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 217 Friends this year, was the treatment their fellow- believers were receiving at the hands of the Presby- terian fanatics in New England. Severe as the suffer- ings of the Quakers had been in England, they sank into comparative insignificance when compared with those in the Puritan States of the New World, and this persecution came, not from Episcopalians in their mo- ment of triumph, but from the very men who had, not so many years before, left their country on account of the intolerance of its State Church. The persecuted had become the persecutor ; the claimant of the right of freedom in religious thought for himself, the violent opponent of the same right being granted to others. The first attempt that the Puritans — preferring to encounter ills they could not estimate, to living in ease at the expense of their consciences — -made to colonize New England was in 1609, but owing to their misfor- tunes and the hard winter, the little company became disheartened, and they, or rather what was left of them, speedily returned to England. Around the next expedition, that of 1620, has gathered such a halo of romance and reverence, that it seems almost sacrilege to treat it in a cold, historical, impartial way. Every incident connected with the voyage, from the departure of the English exiles, "trusting in God and themselves," from Leyden, to their landing at Ply- mouth, has been the theme of poet, of novelist and of painter. The enterprise began with misfortune, hal- blameable life, and to whose acting I am a stranger, mayst not procure blame from him in whose service I am ; being very desirous to steer my course to the interest I serve, and to appear very heartily and clearly his highness's faithful subject." — Extract from a letter from Jamaica, dated 28I/1 February, 1657, -written by Colonel Edward UOyley to Secretary Thurloe. " State Papers," vol. vi. p. 834. 2iS GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. lowed though it was by the solemn prayer on the shore before the pilgrims embarked in the little vessels which were to carry them to a land where they could worship God after their own fashion, none daring to make them afraid. Before they had been at sea many days the passengers of the tiny Speedwell became faint-hearted, and the scarcely larger Mayflower was left to pursue the boisterous voyage alone. After much delay, the Pilgrim Fathers chose Plymouth as the site of their colony, and there they disembarked in December the same year (old style). Now their troubles began. They suffered from cold, from hunger, from sickness, from the attacks of unfriendly Indians, but none of these things abated their courage. The colony flourished at length, but its growth was very slow, for at the end of ten years it only numbered three hundred souls. Gradually other settlements sprang up round it of those who had also left their homes to seek freedom of conscience, and soon all these tiny separate common- wealths united into one great State. Surely if toleration could be expected from any body in the world, it was from this, composed as it was of sufferers from intolerance ! But it was not so. The stern Puritan creed could brook no religion which was not Calvinistic. If the governor, Winthrop, was neither bigoted nor cruel, many of his followers were. " God forbid," said the aged Dudley, " our love for the truth should be grown so cold that we should tolerate error. I die no libertine " ; and such language found a ready echo in the hearts of the vast majority of the colonists. One of the first acts of the infant colony was to establish the Presbyterian form of worship as the State religion, and to make nonconformity to it a civil offence. To deny the inspiration of the Old or New Testament was deemed a crime worthy of fine and torture, and if THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 219 the error was not recanted, of exile or death : to neglect to attend public worship was punishable by fine. From a creed so stern as that which the Pilgrim Fathers professed, sectaries would expect little mercy or forbear- ance. They found none. Although some members of the Society of Friends went to New England in 1644, it was not till six years later that they were known as Quakers, nor were these persons favourable specimens of the community to which they claimed to belong. " They appeared," says Bancroft, 1 "a motley tribe of persons, half fanatic, half insane ; without consideration and without definite purpose. Persecution called them forth to show what intensity of will can dwell in the depths of the human heart." These people first settled in Rhode Island, from whence they spread to Plymouth, much to the disgust of its inhabitants, for they followed every whim, disturbed public worship and — in two instances at least — went about in an indecent manner. " They were unhappily successful," says one who was no friend to them, " in seducing the people, not only to attend to the mystical dispensation of the Light within as having the whole of religion contained in it, but also to oppose the good order, both civil and sacred, erected in this colony." 2 The extravagance of these people, whose only claim to be called Quakers appears to lie in the fact that they accepted the doctrine of the Divine Light, is the more to be regretted, because — in the opinion of Dr. Schaffe — it was the principal cause of the ill- treatment orthodox members of the body subsequently received. The first approved members of the Society of Friends who landed in New England were Mary Fisher and 1 Bancroft, " History of the United States," chap. x. p. 364. 2 Dr. Mather, " Magnalia Christi Americana," chap. vii. p. 22. 220 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Anne Austin, who arrived at Boston from Barbadoes about the beginning of July, 1656, but a month later some others came. They would have disseminated their principles, but the deputy-governor ordered them to be secured and their pamphlets burned, and the Council added to the punishment by directing the two women to be kept close prisoners, till such time as they could be transported. This was entirely illegal, as there was then no law in existence against them, and Belling- ham, the deputy-governor, only seems to have judged them to be of the pernicious sect of which he had heard, because they said " Thee and Thou " to him. While in prison they were barbarously treated. They were stripped naked, on pretence of being witches, and were, during the five weeks they remained in confinement, nearly starved. At length the captain of a vessel was compelled to carry them back to their own country, the gaoler keeping their bedding and a few poor belongings for his fees. Eight other Quakers, four men and four women, who had landed shortly after Mary Fisher, were similarly treated by the governor, Endicot, and after being imprisoned for eleven weeks were also sent back to England. The State Council was now called upon to consider the matter, and laws were passed to prohibit all masters of ships bringing Quakers to New England, and to prevent any member of the hated Society landing, under a penalty of imprisonment. A fine, too, was to be imposed on those who should be guilty of harbouring any of the " accursed sect," and it was made penal for one even to reside within the territory of the State. A law, of which the colony had the grace to be so ashamed that it was never put in force, at least to its full extent, enacted that a person convicted of the high crime of Quakerism was to lose one ear, on a second conviction THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 221 the other, while for the third offence his tongue was to be bored through with a red-hot iron. Another law — which passed by a single vote — banished them from the colony on pain of death ; yet the Council had no objection to them living elsewhere, so long as they were left in peace ; " for the security of the flock," said Nor- ton, " we pen up the wolf, but a door is purposely left open whereby he may depart at his pleasure." Such was the logic of religious intolerance. 1 In the teeth of these laws the Quakers continued to arrive in New England ; for when the news of these enactments arrived in the old country, some felt moved to carry messages from the Lord to the persecutors. In 1657, Mary Clarke left her husband and children in London, to carry such a message. Her message 1 Neal (" History of New England," vol. i. p. 316) says, that a very severe law was passed, subjecting any person who brought a Quaker into the State to a penalty of one hundred pounds, and imprisonment till the fine was paid, and any one who merely enter- tained a Friend was liable to a penalty of forty shillings an hour, or, if unable to pay, to imprisonment. He also declares that, in addition to losing one ear for the first offence (see above), Quakers were to be kept to hard labour in the House of Correction till they had paid the charges of their trial. For the second offence the punishment was the same. If, however, the offender was a woman, she was to be whipped and then sent to the House of Correction. For the third offence, persons of either sex were liable to have their tongue bored with a red-hot iron. Three men had their ears cut off in Boston in 1658. The Dutch settlers passed somewhat similar laws against the Quakers entering their territory. By the " Blue Laws" of Old Virginia, it was enacted in 1663, that " every master of a ship or vessel that shall bring in any Quaker to reside here after the first of July next, shall be fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco." Another law enacted that "any person inhabiting this country, and entertaining any Quaker in or near his hquie to preach or teach, shall for every time of such entertainment be fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco." In this colony it was then the custom to pay fines in tobacco. 222 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. delivered, she was sent to the House of Correction, and after receiving twenty stripes, was turned out of the colony. Two of the men who had been previously turned out returned, and while attempting to speak at a meeting were seized. After being severely flogged they were once more expelled, not however before they had indoctrinated a few persons in Salem with their principles, where a small meeting was set up, which was speedily crushed by having its teachers expelled and its congregation heavily fined. It would be tedious and, within the narrow limits of this volume, impossible to give any detailed account of the trials of the unhappy people who suffered for their religion in New England at this time. A frenzy for persecution broke out. Masters of ships who were not Quakers were whipped for bringing them as pas- sengers ; women were stripped to the waist and publicly flogged ; others were fined above what they were able to pay. In one case, a Quaker couple at Boston were cruelly used, and then heavily fined. As they were unable to pay, their two children, boy and girl, were ordered by the general court at Boston to be sold as slaves, and it was only by the chance kindness of a tender-hearted sailor that this barbaric order was not carried out. Two women were ordered to be whipped, half naked, through eleven towns in succession, in the depth of a Massachusetts winter ; and one man, while he lay in prison, was so frequently beaten with a tarred rope that his back was " one great sore." Notwith- standing this, the Quakers neither gave up their religion nor ceased to endeavour to persuade others to join them ; and they rather courted than avoided persecution. Harsh as the measures hitherto used had been, the authorities felt they must use still harsher if they were to crush out the pestilent heresy. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 223 In 1659, two men, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevens, 1 persisted, in spite of warnings, in frequenting Boston, alleging that they did not "feel free in their minds " to leave it. The penalty they had incurred was death, and towards the end of the year they were both hanged. When dead their corpses were cut down, stripped, and given to the spectators, who wreaked the remnant of their fury in mutilating them. Shortly after a married English Quakeress of good character, named Mary Dyer, was also hanged, and in the early part of the next year, two more men, William Leddia, a Barba- does Friend, and Wenlock Christian, completed the roll of the Quaker martyrs in New England. 2 It is somewhat remarkable that the Quakers in New England should not have appealed to the mother coun- 1 Marmaduke Stevens, while under sentence of death at Boston, wrote a curious paper, in which he gives the reasons for his journey to New England. "In the beginning of the year 1655," he says, " I was at the plough in the east part of Yorkshire in Old England, near the place where my outward living was ; and as I walked after the plough, I was filled with the love and presence of the living God, which did ravish my heart when I felt it, for it did increase and abound in me like a running stream, (yea) so did the life and love of God run through me like precious ointment, which made me to stand still." He then tells us that he heard a voice say to him, " I have ordained thee a prophet unto the nations," and " so at the time appointed, Barbadoes was set before me, unto which I was required of the Lord to go and leave my dear loving wife and tender children, for the Lord said unto me, immediately by His Spirit, that He would be as a husband to my wife, and as a father to my child- ren, and they should not want in my absence, for He would provide for them when I was gone." Stevens did not, however, leave Eng- land till 1658, when, after visiting Barbadoes, he went to Rhode Island, where the "word of the Lord came to him saying, ' Go to Boston with thy brother William Robinson.'" This command he obeyed, and with Robinson was hanged at Boston. 2 A curious instance of Quaker constancy is recorded to have been given at the execution of Robinson. " There was another 224 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. try for redress, or at least assistance ; and though they do not appear to have done so, the council dreaded lest they should. " No appeal to England, no appeal to England," shouted both the governor Endicot and his deputy Bellingham, when the subject was mooted. But the banished Quakers, returning to England, brought the news of suffering and martyrdom in the New World, and the Friends at once roused themselves to attempt to stop the persecution. " When I was in prison at Lancaster," says Fox, speaking of this persecution, " 1 had a perfect sense of their sufferings as though it had been myself, and as though the halter had been put about my own neck, though we had not at that time heard of it. But as soon as we heard of it, Edward Burrough went to the king, and told him, ' There was a vein of innocent blood opened in his dominions, which if it were not stopped would overrun ail' To which the king replied, ' But I will stop that vein.' Edward Burrough said, ' Then do it speedily, for we know not how many may soon be put to death.' The king answered, ' As speedily as ye will. Call' (said he to some present) 'the secretary, and I will do it presently.' So the secretary being called, a mandamus was forthwith granted." This mandamus daughter of Zion condemned with them, who joyfully did hear and receive the sentence of wicked men, and was so far proceeded against as was even without all hopes or possibility of escaping according to appearance. She was upon the gallows, with her clothing bound about her, and her face covered ready to be offered up, and then they read an order of the Court (as they call it) certi- fying", that at the petition of her son, she was to have liberty for forty-eight hours to pass away, etc., but she nobly and valiantly, like a good soldier of Christ, denied their order, and utterly dis- owned (being by petition from her son), but they pulled her down and had her to the prison, and after set her on horseback and carried her away.'' — Swarthmore MSS. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 225 directed the authorities to send all Quakers then in prison in New England, or sentenced to be hanged or whipped, to England, to be dealt with by the English law. " A day or two after," continues Fox, " Edward Bur- rough going again to the king to desire that the matter might be expedited, the king said ' He had no occasion at present to send a ship thither ; but if we would send one we might do it as soon as we would.' Edward Bur- rough then asked the king, ' If it would please him to grant his deputation to one called a Quaker to carry the mandamus to New England.' He said, 'Yes, to whom ye will.' Whereupon Edward Burrough named one Samuel Shattock (as I remember), who being an inhabit- ant of New England was banished by their law, to be hanged if he came again ; and to him the deputation was granted. Then we sent for one Ralph Goldsmith, an honest Friend, who was master of a good ship, and with him we agreed for three hundred pounds (goods or no goods), to sail in ten days. He forthwith prepared to set sail, and with a prosperous gale in about six weeks' time arrived before the town of Boston, in New England, upon a First-day morning called Sunday. With him went many passengers, both of Old and New England, that were Friends, whom the Lord did move to go and bear their testimony against those bloody persecutors, who had exceeded all the world in that age in their bloody persecutions. The townsmen of Boston seeing a ship come into the bay with English colours, soon came on board and asked for the captain. Ralph Gold- smith told them he was the commander. They asked him if he had any letters ? He said ' Yes.' They asked him, ' If he would deliver them ? ' He said ' No, not to-day.' So they went ashore and reported, ' There was a ship full of Quakers, and that Samuel Shattock was amongst them, who they knew was by their law Q 226 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. to be put to death for coming again after banishment ; but they knew not his errand nor his authority. So all being kept close that day, and none of the ship's com- pany suffered to go on shore ; next morning Samuel Shattock, the .king's deputy, and Ralph Goldsmith, the commander of the vessel, went on shore ; and sending back to the ship the men that landed them, they two went through the town to the governor's, John Endicot's door, and knocked. He sent out a man to know their business. They sent him word their business was from the king of England, and they would deliver their mes- sage to none but the governor himself. Thereupon they were admitted to go in, and the governor came to them, and having received the deputation and the mandamus, he laid off his hat and looked upon them ; then going out he bid the Friends follow him. So he went to the deputy-governor and,_ after a short consultation, came out to the Friends and said, ' We shall obey his majesty's commands.' After this the master gave liberty to the passengers to come on shore, and presently the noise of the business flew about the town ; and the Friends of the town and the passengers of the ship met together to offer up their praises and thanksgivings to God, who had so wonderfully delived them from the teeth of the devourer. While they were thus met, in came a poor Friend, who being sentenced by their bloody law to die, had lain some time in irons, expecting execution. This added to their joy and caused them to lift up their hearts in high praises to God, who is worthy for ever to have the praise, the glory, and the honour ; for He only is able to deliver and to save and support all that sincerely put their trust in Him." The authorities in Boston liberated all the Friends in- stead of sending them to be tried in England, and were so much alarmed at receiving the king's mandamus, that THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. 227 they sent three deputies, Colonel Temple, the priest Norton, and a magistrate named Simon Broadstreet, to inform him of their release and to deprecate his dis- pleasure. While these deputies were in England, Fox saw them, and boldly charged Norton and Broadstreet, who by their own avowal had been concerned in the persecution, with murder, because they had "put to death innocent citizens by enactments illegal," an accusation the cowed deputies thought it best to bear meekly. Sewel tells us that many of the "old royalists" were earnest with the Quakers to cause the New England per- secutors (who were of course Presbyterians, and attached to the principles of the Commonwealth), or as many of them as possible, to be tried ; but George decided that he would leave them to Him to whom vengeance be- longeth, so no steps in this direction were taken. Although no Quakers are known to have been put to death for their religion in New England after the receipt of the king's mandate, imprisonments and whippings were not discontinued, and for several years after the Friends were illtreated both by the law and the populace. 1 1 According to Dr. Schaffe (" Creeds of Christendom," sec. Society of Friends) there were altogether no less than one hundred and seventy cases of hard usage in New England ; forty-seven persons were banished and five put to death. Note. — The books in which accounts of the New England per- secution are to be found are very numerous, but perhaps the best are Neal's " History of New England," and "History of the Puri- tans ;" Bovvden's " History of the Friends in America ; " Bancroft's " History of the United States ; " Croese, Sewel, and Gough's re- spective Histories of the Quakers ; and George Bishop's contem- porary work, "New England Judged," Parts i. and ii. Much in- teresting information is also to be found in articles in the " Ency- clopaedia Brittanica," in Brewster's " Encyclopaedia," and in Dr. Schaffe's valuable " Creeds of Christianity." CHAPTER XVI. THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. The schism of John Perrot. — He becomes a persecutor of the Friends. — Fox's warning to his followers. — Friends' marriages. —A case tried at Nottingham. — Quaker marriages declared to be legal. — Fox's respect for authority. — Letter to Richard Richardson. — Quaker carefulness about marriages being regis- tered. — " Reasons why we will not swear."— Letter to Fox from Thomas Sharman. — Fox visits Bristol. — In Leicester- shire. — Is arrested at Swannington. — Why the constables objected to taking Friends to prison. — In Leicester gaol. — The sessions. — Discharged by the justices. — Temporary abatement of persecution. — Fox's frequent narrow escapes of arrest. — Objections to the Quakers either going to or staying away from steeple-houses. r I V HE year 1662 was a troublous one for the Quakers, J- for, in addition to persecutions without, a schism had broken out within, the Society. John Perrot — a highly esteemed minister, who for his attempt to plant the doctrine of " Divine Light " in Italy, had suffered imprisonment in Rome — had become "puffed up with a high conceit of himself," and burned to be- come a prominent leader in the sect. He claimed that the light he possessed was clearer and stronger than that of George Fox, or brother ministers, and he en- deavoured to introduce the custom of keeping on the hat during public prayers, for the Quakers reserved " hat honour " solely for their Maker. He also suffered his beard to grow, a thing — why, it is uncertain — that THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 229 gave great offence to the stricter members of the com- munity. Perrot soon obtained a number of followers, and for a time the schism threatened to become as serious a danger to the Quakers as the Anabaptist heresies had been to the Lutheran reformation on the Continent ; but, fortunately, becoming restless and dissatisfied with himself, he left the society of Friends, and emigrated to America. Here he obtained some office which required him to exact oaths, and in the end he took to wearing a sword, living a life of open sensuality, and persecuting the people he had left. After he left England his heresy, slowly but surely, died out. Fox did his utmost, both by tongue and pen, to pre- vent the dangers which he saw would threaten so young a Society if torn by schism, as well as to arrest the progress of opinions which even his charity would not permit him to regard as other than almost wholly evil. Among other writings he published a short warning, from which the following is an extract : — " Whosoever is tainted with the spirit of John Perrot, it will perish. Mark theirs and his end, that are turned into these outward things and j anglings about them and that which is not savoury ; all which is for judgment, and is to be swept and cleansed out of the camp of God. This is to that spirit that is gone with jangling about that which is below (the utter principle of the Ranters), gone from the invisible power of God, in which is the ever- lasting fellowship. Consider this before the day be gone from you, and take heed that your removal be not rooted out from among the righteous. G. F." Another matter which much troubled Friends was the question of the marriage ceremony. Their principles forbade them being married according to the Episcopal form, and they had hitherto solemnly taken each other 230 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. in the presence of a meeting, hoping that this was legally sufficient ; and, lest any question should arise, they had .been particularly careful that a full and accurate register of their espousals should be kept. For all this, their children were often taunted with being illegitimate, and the validity of the marriage ceremony was constantly denied. At length an opportunity of setting the matter at rest occurred, and a case regarding the legitimacy of a Quaker child was this year (1662) tried at Nottingham Assizes. Some few years before a couple of Friends had been married according to their usual form, and had lived together for two years as man and wife, when the man dying left the widow with child. As soon' as the child was born the jury presented it as heir to its father's copyhold lands, to which it was admitted. Shortly afterwards the widow married another Friend. A relative of the widow's first husband now brought an action against her second in order to dispossess him and deprive the child of the estates {sic). To effect this it was necessary to prove that the child was illegitimate, and this the plaintiff's counsel endeavoured to do by affirming that Quaker marriages were illegal, " For," said he, " they go together like brute beasts." The judge, Justice Archer, was, however, of a different opinion. " There was a marriage in Paradise," he told the jury, "when Adam took Eve and Eve took Adam ; and that it was therefore the consent of the parties which made a marriage. As for the Quakers," he con- tinued, " I do not know their opinions, but I do not believe what has been said of them, but that they marry as Christians, and therefore I consider the marriage lawful and the child lawful heir." The judge then cited a case in point : " There was a man," he said, " who, though so weak in body that he could not get out of bed, felt a desire to marry, and he and the woman having THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 231 made a simple declaration before witnesses that they took each other as husband and wife, all the bishops, when appealed to on the matter, had declared the marriage to be perfectly lawful." This instance so entirely satis- fied the jury, that they at once gave a verdict for the defendants, and thus the validity of Quaker marriages was established for ever. 1 It has frequently been brought as a charge against Fox, that he considered himself and his " light " all- sufficient, and, weighing the authority of the Scriptures but lightly, totally ignored the testimony of antiquity. No one who has read anything of his life and writings will for one moment admit the charge of his under- valuing the Scriptures to be aught but calumny ; for his works are full of quotations, and it is an indisputable fact that he defended every position he took up by references to the Word of God, and in all his arguments insisted that that, and that alone, should be the standard by which all statements should be tried. In his anxiety to completely establish the lawfulness of Quaker marriages, Fox also showed his respect for the testimony of antiquity. " Now dear R. R.," he wrote some years 1 A very valuable record of this case exists in a copy of the statement submitted for counsel's opinion, and is contained in the " Book of Cases " at Devonshire House. Although the Quakers are eminently unwilling to go to law, they have been laudably anxious that the legal position of their Society should be clearly denned, and from the earliest times, whenever any point likely to be, or even capable of being, contested has arisen, it has been their custom to obtain the opinion of a practising barrister upon it. The statement laid before the counsel and his opinion on it have always been copied into some manuscript volumes, called " The Book of Cases." It is unfortunate that this work should never have been published, for it certainly throws a flood of light on the state of the English law with regard to nonconforming religious societies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 232 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. later to Richard Richardson, a Quaker schoolmaster, in whose ability and erudition he had great confidence, " Now, dear R. R., I desire that thou search all the libraries concerning marriages and what they say of them ; and the fathers, and what they did before the monks came in ; and search histories and laws and see what thou canst bring out, both good and bad, and what maketh a marriage, and do what thou canst in this thing." 1 Surely the reference to the " fathers and how they did before the monks came in," is not that of a conceited, self-sufficient man, who despised both education and authority. The point won, and won so completely that the validity of Quaker marriages has never from the day of the Assizes at Nottingham to the present time been called in question in England, Fox did not relax his exertions to have all such ceremonies performed before sufficient witnesses. He also enjoined that those who desired to marry should lay their intention of so doing before the Friends in the district in which they resided, that, before the marriage was performed, it might be ascertained whether the parties were legally in a position to marry. He also impressed anew the necessity of a careful register of these ceremonies being kept. But besides these sources of anxiety, Fox had yet another cause of disquietude. The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were still frequently pressed on the Friends, and their sufferings 1 It has been erroneously thought that this letter was written to Robert Barclay, to whom and Penn, as men whose University and legal training fitted them to advise on such difficult and complicated questions as his own want of education rendered him unable to cope with, Fox was accustomed to refer in cases of difficulty, but the original letter in the Swarthmore Collection proves unmistakeably that it was written to Richardson. THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 233 in consequence continued to be very severe. In defence of their objections, some members of the Society published a short tractate entitled, " The Ground and Reasons why we refuse to Swear," to which George added a few lines by way of preface ; but neither this work, nor the courteous petition he and Hubberthorn sent to the king, seem to have had any good result ; meetings continued to be daily " broken up by men with clubs and arms," and Friends to be " thrown into waters, and trod upon till the very blood gushed out of them." It will be recollected that while Fox was a prisoner in Derby gaol in 1650, he was ill-treated by the gaoler — whom he describes as a hard and cruel man — till being " smitten in himself, the plagues and terrors of the Lord falling upon him," the man repented of his wickedness, and henceforth treated Fox rather as an honoured guest than as his prisoner. In the early part of the year 1662, Fox, much to his satisfaction, received the following pathetic letter from this man, who by this time had been a professed Quaker for several years : — " Dear Friend, having such a convenient mes- senger, I could do no less than give thee an account of my present condition, remembering that to the first awakening of me to a sense of life and of the inward principle, God was pleased to make use of thee as an instrument. So that sometimes I am taken with admiration that it should come by such a way as it did ; that is to say that Providence should order thee to be my prisoner to give me my first real sight of the truth, and notwithstanding that my outward losses are since that time such that I am become nothing in the world, yet I hope I shall find that all these light afflictions that are but for a moment will work for me a far more ex- 234 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. ceeding and eternal weight of glory. They have taken all from me, and now, instead of keeping a prison, I am rather waiting when I shall become a prisoner myself. Pray for me that my faith fail not, but that I may hold out to the death, that I may receive a crown of life. I earnestly desire to hear from thee and of thy condition, which would very much rejoice me. Not having else at present but my kind love unto thee and all Christian Friends with thee, in haste, I rest, Thine in Christ Jesus. Thomas Sharman." George, who had now resided in or near London for the greater part of two years, felt that his spirit was at length " clear " of that place, and resolved once more to visit the Quakers in the West of England ; and with John Stubbs and another Friend, he journeyed leisurely down to Bristol, visiting here and there Quakers whose houses lay on the road. The persecutions were not over in Bristol, and the magistrates were very desirous to apprehend him ; but, although he openly went to meet- ings to which soldiers came with the intention of arrest- ing him, by some means or other he always escaped their clutches. From Bristol he returned to London through Wiltshire and Berkshire, and after stopping a few days in the Metropolis, set out for Leicestershire, John Stubbs still bearing him company. At Swannington, where some years before he had held so large a meeting as to seriously trouble the minds of certain over-busy justices, George and four other Friends, according to one account, were arrested on the charge of intending to hold an illegal meeting ; but, according to another authority, they were sitting in a house talking to a widow and her daughter, when Lord Beaumont and some soldiers rushed in and arrested them, on the ground that they were holding a meeting. George was allowed to remain at the place where he THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 235 was apprehended for the night, soldiers being left to guard him, and the next morning he was brought before Lord Beaumont, who was a justice for the county. George at once pointed out that his arrest was illegal, as he was not holding any meeting at the time. In answer to this, Lord Beaumont, somewhat inconsequen- tially remarking that Fox was well-known and that not for any good, tendered him the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. These George, of course, refused to take, and, adding that he had never taken an oath in his life, called the justices' attention to the fact that the oaths were only intended for papist recusants. After some time, finding that there was no other ground on which to found a commitment, Lord Beaumont had a mittimus made out for him and his friends, charging them with this refusal and stating that they " were " (intended) to have held a meeting. It was harvest time, and in every direction the golden corn was falling beneath the sickles of the reapers. The constables to whose lot it fell to convey the Friends to Leicester gaol, looked longingly at the busy harvesters and then disgustedly at their captives. They did not relish the thought of losing their day's work for the sake of accompanying what they considered to be a few harm- less fanatics, along a dusty road, to a distant prison ; so they determined that they would not do so, if they could by any possibility avoid it. For some time it seemed as if they would have no choice in the matter, for the villagers they asked to take their places, all preferred the pleasant corn-field, to an errand at once so onerous and so unprofitable. At length a labouring man came up, and on him the constables eagerly seized. The man considered the matter, and at length consented to be bribed to do what they required of him ; but it was his poverty and not his will consented, for no sooner was 236 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the bargain struck than he repented and tried to shuffle out of it again. The constables, at a loss what to do, now had the audacity to propose to the prisoners that they should carry their own committals ; but the Friends declined to combine the offices of gaoler and ward. It was not an uncommon thing for Quaker prisoners, who were committed for trial by the magistrates, to go straight to the prison and give themselves up, without troubling any officers to accompany them. Surely if any additional proof were needed of the high estimation their enemies placed on their truthfulness and honour, such trust as this would supply it ! But for once Fox was neither inclined to carry his own committal, nor to let his fellow-prisoners carry theirs ; he did not, however, wish the constables to lose their day's work, and so made no objection to their sending them by any one they could persuade to accompany the Friends to Leicester. As the cart drove slowly through the quiet villages on the road between Swannington and the gaol, or was stopped that its driver might refresh himself at some hedgeside alehouse, the Quakers announced to the people who came open-mouthed to stare at them, that they were being taken to prison for their Lord's sake, and exhorted their hearers to hold fast by the truth or to turn to the " Light." Anything less like an ordinary journey to prison could not well be imagined. There was no gloomy face amongst the whole company, for there was not one who did not rejoice that he or she was found worthy to suffer in so holy a cause. Yet that they expected their imprisonment to be a long one is shown by one woman taking her spinning wheel with her, that she might not be idle while in gaol, or feel the time hang heavily on her hands. When the cart arrived in Leicester, its driver pulled THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 237 up at an inn, and the Friends dismounting arranged that they would stay there all night and deliver them- selves up next morning. But when the morning came, the landlord, who was a magistrate, had taken such a fancy to his guests, that he endeavoured to persuade them to stay at his house altogether, instead of going to the prison ; and he actually consulted the best lawyer in the town as to whether he had not power to order the Quakers to be set at liberty. Some of the party hesitated as to whether they should not accept the land- lord's offer, but by Fox's advice it was eventually de- clined, and, thanking the genial man, the Friends de- termined to throw in their lot with the other prisoners already incarcerated for conscience' sake. Fox had two objections to his followers staying at the inn ; the first being that the expense would be more than they could well afford, and the second, that should visitors come to see them, as no doubt they would, the landlord, magis- trate though he was, would probably get into trouble for allowing meetings at his house. The gaol at this time was very full, and the gaoler, a notoriously hard and cruel man, made this an excuse for keeping the Friends standing in the yard the whole day, and, when they begged for a little straw on which they might rest, harshly replied that they " did not look like men who would lie in straw." Towards evening a Friend who was well acquainted with the gaol came in, and him Fox questioned as to what accommodation there was in the house, and where the Friends were usually put, and also shrewdly asked whether the gaoler or his wife were master. " He said," Fox tells us, " the wife was master ; and that though she was lame and sate mostly in her chair, not being able to go but on crutches, yet she would beat her husband when he came within her reach if he did not do as she would have 238 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. him do. Now I considered that probably many Friends might come to visit us, and that if we had a room to ourselves, it would be better for them to speak to me, and for me to speak to them, as there should be occa- sion. Wherefore I desired William Smith (a Leicester Friend), to go speak with the woman, and let her know if she would let us have a room, and let our friends come up out of the dungeon — for six or seven were con- fined with the felons, in a place where they had not sufficient room to lie down — and leave it to us and them to give her what we would, it might be better for her. He went ; and after some reasoning with her she con- sented, and we were had into a room. Then we were told that the gaoler would not suffer us to fetch any drink out of the town into the prison, but that what beer we drank we must take of him. I told them I would remedy that, if they would ; for we would get a pail of water and a little wormwood once a day, and that might serve us, as we should have none of his beer, and the water he could not deny us." Sunday after Sunday, as long as Fox and his friends stayed in the gaol, the Leicester Friends came there and held many and "precious" meetings. Before George came, when the few Friends in the prison had tried to have a meeting, the keeper had beaten them with his staff ; but now, for some reason, he did not interfere with them at all. When the sessions came on, the Friends, about twenty in number, were brought up before the justices, who refused to take any notice of the errors in the mitti- mus, and tendered once again the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. George, on behalf of his fellow- prisoners, refused to take them; for, said he, he could not take an oath, " unless the justices could prove that after Christ and the apostles had forbidden to swear, THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 239 they had commanded Christians to swear again." George, who was the spokesman of the party, also contended that Lord Beaumont was not justified, as is undoubtedly the case, in sending them to gaol unless they had been taken at a meeting ; but to all argu- ments the justices turned a deaf ear, and summoning a jury, indicted the Friends in a body for refusing to take the oaths. The jury found them guilty, and the prisoners were taken back to the gaol, but before they had been in prison many hours the gaoler came to them with the news that the justices had ordered all of them who were not in prison for refusing tithes were to be set at libery, and that, for his part, he should not exact any fees, but leave it to them to give him what they would. Why the Quakers were so suddenly released is not known. George suspected that the magistrates were aware that he had in his possession, while he stood a prisoner at the bar, a letter from Lord Hastings ad- dressed to them, although he did not think well to men- tion it ; and this perhaps is the most probable solution of the matter. As soon as George was at liberty, he went to see Lord Beaumont, in order to show him Lord Hastings' letter requiring the justices to set the Quakers free. He seemed, so Fox tells us, a little taken aback at seeing this document, but, putting a bold face on the matter, threatened that if they held another meeting at Swan- nington, he would send them to prison again. This threat, however, did not deter Fox from immediately going to Swannington and holding a meeting, which was not disturbed in any way. The rest of this year, and a large part of the next, Fox spent in visiting Friends in nearly every part of England, and he met with much encouragement, not 2 4 o GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. only from the spread of his doctrines and the steadfast- ness of his followers, but also from the unmistakeable signs that, in many parts of the country at least, the insane rage for persecution was dying away. Justices would make excuses not to commit, and would even absent themselves when they knew Quakers were to be brought before them. Sometimes whole days would be lost in carrying them from the house of one justice to an- other, and then, when the constables required to be paid for this, the townspeople would refuse to do so. The Quakers, too, had discovered that, by the warrants issued against them, they were to be " carried" before justices, and so would often refuse to walk, and sometimes even would insist on being actually lifted into the carts brought for them to ride in, and this, absurd as it may appear, by adding to the expense and trouble of their committal, did much to tire out their persecu- tors. Fox's Journal gives many interesting anecdotes of the various ways in which, never through any action that even by a virulent enemy can be described as either disingenuous or timid, he was delivered out of the hands of persecutors. At one place he escaped because the officers went a mile and a half out of their way to another meeting, and, before they could retrace their steps, the meeting at which he was preaching was over, and he had left the village ; at another, though he was positively arrested, he was released on assuring his captors that the Quakers were a peaceable people ; on a third occasion, as he passed by a man who had been offered, and probably accepted, five pounds to arrest him, he heard the man say, " that is George Fox," but was not molested. " It is truly remarkable, and a proof of the preserving power of an over-ruling provi- dence," as a Quaker biography of him remarks, "that THE ABATEMENT OF PERSECUTION. 241 although frequently very near, and apparently exposed to the liability of being arrested, yet he escaped." At one place Fox went to, an amusing incident occurred. The people, we are told, insisted on the Quakers going to the " Steeple-house," and the Friends, "feeling free" to do so, went, and "they sat down to wait upon the Lord, but did not mind the priest." The officers came to put them out, but the Friends told them it was not time for them to break up their meet- ing yet. When the service was over, they were bidden to go home to dinner, but they replied they were feeding on the Bread of Life. " So there they sat, waiting upon the Lord, till they found freedom in themselves to depart. Thus the priests' people were offended, first because they could not get them to the steeple-house, and when they were, offended because they could not get them out again." K CHAPTER XVII. THE OATH OR THE GAOL. Swarthmore. — Another warrant issued against Fox. — Fox visits Kirby. — The plot in the North. — Fox again arrested. — The oath or the prison. — In Lancaster Castle. — A cruel woman. — Fox before Judge Twisden. — " I speak to thee in love." — Fox's advice to his followers about Perrot's heresy. — An indict- ment full of errors. — An unknown name. — The prison affects George's health. — Condemned but not sentenced. I "'OX now turned his steps once more to Swarthmore, JL perhaps wishful to see again the kindly faces of those who had so often welcomed him there, and to rest himself, body and mind, among the quiet moorlands of Lancashire ; or it may even be, anxious to learn from the Lord whether the time had "come for accomplishing that thing whereof he had long thought " — his marriage. But at present rest was not for him. As soon as he entered the hospitable hall, he was met with the dismal news that Colonel Kirby had sent his lieutenant to search for him, and that the search had been so close that neither chest nor cupboard was suffered to pass unexamined. Had Fox been given to boasting, probably the thing he would have been most vain about was the fact that he never avoided an enemy. No justice could say that Fox had endeavoured to escape a warrant, no constable that he had hidden to save himself from arrest, no adversary that he had declined a debate. With the fearless courage which was his especial characteristic, THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 243 George set off next morning to see Kirby, and learn what there was against him. " I have come, understanding that thou wouldst see me," he said to the colonel ; " and to know what thou hast to say to me, and whether thou hast anything against me." Kirby was taken aback at this straightforward con- duct. "As I am a gentleman, I have nothing against you," was his reply ; " but," he added, " Margaret Fell must not keep great meetings at her house, for they are contrary to the Act." " I told him," says Fox, " that Act did not take hold on us, but on such as did meet to plot and contrive, and to raise insurrection against the king, whereas we were no such people ; for he knew that they that met at Margaret Fell's house were his neighbours, and a peaceable people." After a long conversation, the pair shook hands, and after the colonel had reiterated that he had nothing against him, they parted, the one to prepare for his visit to London, to sit in the House of Commons ; the other to return to the anxious Friends he had left that morning at Swarthmore. No sooner had Colonel Kirby gone to London than a number of justices met at Houlker Hall, the house of that Justice Pearson whose wife Miles Halhead reproved so severely, and a warrant was once more issued against Fox. Some friendly informant immediately brought George the news, and, as he had arranged for no meetings, he could, had he wished, have easily left the district ; but as usual, he preferred arrest, the more he tells us, " that there was a rumour of a plot in the North, and should he go away, he feared that the anger of the justices would be turned on Friends " whose position would not enable them to escape from it. The next day an officer came to execute the warrant, and to him Fox gave 244 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. himself up, saying as he did so, that had he wished he might have been forty miles away by that time, but being an innocent man it mattered not what they did with him. Accompanied by Margaret Fell, he went with the man to Houlker Hall, where the magistrates were still sitting. Amongst the justices gathered round the table was one Sir George Middleton, a Catholic, and a man in not over much favour with the royalists. After the magistrates had questioned Fox about the plot, and found that he could prove by his writings that he had always been averse to such things, Middleton took occasion to accuse him of denying God, the Church, and the faith. " What Church dost thou own ?" demanded Fox, who knew the other was a papist. " You are a rebel and a traitor," returned Middleton angrily, avoiding the personal question. " To whom dost thou speak, and whom dost thou call a rebel ? " asked Fox, who for once seems to have lost his temper at these coarse insults. For some minutes the other was too angry to answer ; then he gasped out that he spake of Fox. " With that," says George, " I struck my hand on the table, and told him, I had suffered more than twenty such as he, or than any that was there ; for I had been cast into Derby prison for six months together, and had suffered much because I would not take up arms against this king before Worcester fight ; and I had been sent up prisoner out of my own country by Colonel Hacker to Oliver Cromwell, as a plotter to bring in King Charles, in the year 1654; and I had nothing but love and good-will to the king, and desired the eternal good and welfare of him and all his subjects." "Did ye ever hear the like ?" said Middleton. "Nay," said Fox; "ye may have it again if ye will. For THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 245 ye talk of the king, a company of you ; but where were ye in Oliver's days, and what did ye do then for him ? But I have more love and good-will to the king for his eternal good and welfare than any of you have." The justices, probably because they were conscious that their political antecedents were such as, at that time, would not bear the light, took no notice of this bold challenge, and recurring to the safer subject of the reputed plot, asked Fox whether he had heard of it. To this question George replied in the affirmative. " How had he heard of, and who was implicated in, it ? " was the next question. Fox answered that he had heard of it through the High Sheriff of Yorkshire ; but, being a " child in such matters," he did not know who was implicated in it. " But if you did not know any in it, why should you have written against it ? " they objected. " My reason," said Fox courageously ; " was, because you are so ready to mark the innocent and guilty together, therefore I writ against it to clear the truth from such things, and to stop all forward, foolish spirits from rushing into such things." One of the justices sneeringly remarked, " Oh ! this man hath great power." " Yes," retorted George ; " I have power to write against plotters." " But you are against the laws of the land," said another. " Nay," answered Fox ; " for I and my friends direct all the people to the Spirit of God in them to mortify the deeds of the flesh ; this brings them into the well doing, and from that which the magistrates' sword is against. So in this we establish the law, and are an ease to the magistrates and are not against, but stand for, all good government." 246 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAA'ERS. The only thing now left for the magistrates was to have recourse to the oft-tried expedient of demanding that the Quaker should take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. " Bring the book," cried Sir George Middleton, " and put the oaths to him." "Have you taken the Oath of Supremacy?" asked Fox cuttingly. Apparently the Catholic made no reply, and Fox went on to give his reasons for refusing to swear, finish- ing up by declaring that the conduct of the justices "was like the Papists' sacrament at the altar, by which they ensnared the martyrs." All his reasoning availed him nothing, and the justices, after debating whether they should send him to Lancaster Castle or not, took his promise that he would appear at the forthcoming ses- sions, and dismissed him. George returned once more to Swarthmore, and quietly continued to attend meetings as if nothing had happened, till the sessions commenced ; when according to his promise, he went to Lancaster and gave himself up. The court-house was exceedingly full, but as he entered the people respectfully made way for him to go to the bar, where for some time he stood with his hat on, while the magistrates, as he tells us, " looked earnestly at him." When silence had been procured, he said to the justices, " Peace be among you." "Do you know where you are ?" asked the chairman, glancing at his hat. " Yes," replied George ; " I do. But it may be my hat offends you ; — that's a low thing ; that's not the honour that I give to magistrates, for the true honour is from above, which I have received ; and I hope it is not the hat which ye look upon to be honour." "We look for the hat, too," rejoined the chairman. THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 247 " Wherein do you show your respect for the magistrates if you do not put off your hat ? " " I have shown my respect," answered Fox, " by com- ing when you called me." The justices, anxious to avoid further discussion on a topic on which they were so likely to be worsted, bade one of the officers take off George's hat, and, this being done, proceeded to examine him about the details of a fictitious plot in which they professed to believe him to be implicated. Fox having denied all knowledge of this, and reitera- ted his dislike to "plottings," they next asked him if he was not aware of the Act against meetings. " I know there is an Act that takes hold of such as meet to the terrifying of the king's subjects, and are enemies to the king, and hold dangerous .principles; but I hope you do not look upon us to be such men, for our meetings are neither to terrify the king's subjects, neither are we enemies to him or any man," was the reply Fox gave. As nothing could be made of this, the justices now tendered him the oaths, and, a long conversation having ensued on his refusal, called for the gaoler and com- mitted him to prison. Somewhat to his disappoint- ment, they would not allow him to read a paper he had written against plots and risings. Several other Quakers were sent to prison at the same time — some for refusing to swear, and the rest for attending illegal meetings. 1 Amongst the prisoners in the gaol Fox found four Friends, one of whom had been there for nearly two 1 The Act under which George was committed had been ex- pressly directed against the Quakers, and was afterwards the cause of banishment to many of that sect. The king was too good-natured to approve of it, but his assent had been wrung from him by his ministers. Watson, " Life of George Fox," p. 238. 248 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. years and a half, at the suit of the Countess of Derby. His crime was refusing to pay tithes. This man, Oliver Atherton, was naturally weak in constitution, and, through his long and harsh imprisonment in a damp and unwholesome place, had been brought so low that his only chance of recovery lay in his speedy discharge. To obtain this, a letter describing the condition of the man, and dwelling on the fact that his refusal arose from con- scientious scruples only, was sent to the Countess, in the hope that she would consent to his release, lest "she should draw the guilt of his innocent blood upon her- self." The cruel woman refused to interfere, and a few days afterwards the poor fellow died in prison. " Then," says Fox, " Friends, having his body delivered to them to bury, as they carried it from the prison to Ormskirk, the parish wherein he had lived, they stuck up papers upon the crosses at Garstang, Preston, and the other towns through which they passed, with this inscription, — " ' This is Oliver Atherton, of Ormskirk parish, perse- cuted to death by the Countess of Derby, for good " conscience " sake towards God and Christ, because he could not give her tithes,' " etc. The document went on to set forth the reasons of his refusing to pay tithes, the length of his imprisonment, the hardships he under- went, her hard-heartedness towards him, and the man- ner of his death. " But she that regarded not the life of an innocent for Christ, lived not long after herself ; for that day three weeks that Oliver Atherton 's body was carried through Ormskirk to be buried, she died, and her body was carried dead that day seven weeks through the same town to her burying place. And thus the Lord pursued the hard-hearted persecutor." George was kept in prison till March, 1664 (N.S.), when he was brought up before Judge Twisden, who, THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 249 with Justice Turner, was the judge of that circuit. As usual George kept on his hat when placed at the bar, and commenced the proceedings by saying, " Peace be amongst you all." The judge looked sharply at him for a moment, and said : — " What, do you come into the court with your hat on ? " " The hat is not the honour that comes from God," remarked Fox, as the gaoler removed it. " Will you take the Oath of Allegiance, George Fox ? " asked the judge, who, no doubt, was fully aware of the unprofitable nature of a discussion upon " hat honour." " I never took an oath in my life, nor any covenant or engagement," replied the prisoner. "Well, will you swear, or no?" demanded Twisden impatiently. " I am a Christian," answered Fox, " and Christ com- mands me not to swear, and so does the Apostle James likewise ; whether I should obey God or man, do thou judge." " I ask you again," retorted the other, " will you swear, or no ? " " I am neither Turk, Jew, nor heathen, but a Christ- ian," reiterated George, " and should show forth Christ- ianity. Do you not know that Christians in the primi- tive times under the ten persecutions, and some also of the martyrs in Queen Mary's days, refused swearing, because Christ and the apostles had forbidden it ? For it is tenderness of conscience, and in obedience to the commands of Christ, that I do not swear ; and we have the word of a king for tender consciences. Dost thou own the king ? " The judge replied that he did "own the king." " Why then," asked Fox, "dost thou not observe his 250 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. declaration from Breda, and the promises he has made since he came into England, that no man should be called in question for matters of religion, so long as he lived peaceably ? Now if thou ownest the king," he continued, " why dost thou call me into question and put me upon taking an oath, which is a matter of religion, seeing neither thou nor any other can charge me with unpeaceable living ? " " Sirrah," cried the judge, who was getting angry, " will you swear ? " " I am none of thy sirrahs," retorted George warmly, " I am a Christian ; and for thee, an old man and a judge, to sit there and give nicknames to prisoners, becomes neither thy gray hairs nor thine office." "Well, I am a Christian too," interposed Twisden. " Then do Christian works," replied Fox, briefly. " Sirrah, thou thinkest to frighten me with thy words," began the judge, and then suddenly checking himself and looking aside, he said, " Hark, I am using that word again ! " " I spake to thee in love," said his easily appeased prisoner, " for that language did not become thee, a judge ; thou oughtest to instruct the prisoner in law, if he be ignorant and out of the way." " And I speak to thee in love too," rejoined the other. " Love gives no nicknames," was the prisoner's re- sponse. " I will not be afraid of thee, George Fox," Twisden now shouted angrily ; " thou speakest so loud, thy voice drowns mine and the court's. I must call for three or four criers to drown thy voice. Thou hast good lungs ! " " I am a prisoner here for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake," said Fox, calmly, "and if my voice were five times louder, I should lift it up, and sound it for Christ's THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 251 sake, who commands me not to swear, and for whose cause I stand this day before your judgment seat." " Well, George Fox," asked Twisden again, " say whether thou wilt take the oath, yea or nay ? " " I say as I said before," replied Fox ; " whether I ought to obey God or man, judge thou. If I could take any oath at all I should take this." " Then you will not swear ? " " It is for Christ's sake that I cannot swear, and for obedience to His command I suffer, and so the Lord forgive you all," answered the other, and then resigning himself to the gaoler, he was led back to prison, there to await the next assizes, in company with Margaret Fell, who, a little while before, had been sent to the same gaol for a somewhat similar offence. If prison life prevented Fox continuing his work of building up the faith of his followers in person, it at least gave him an opportunity of writing epistles of admonition, of warning and of advice. Of this he made ample use, and it is probable that the Society of Friends — which, like every other religious sect, during the first years of its existence depended largely on the personal exertions of its founder for its continued prosperity — positively benefited by the general attention he was thus able to give to its collective needs ; for while he was at liberty he had been too much engaged in visiting and preaching to be able to take a broad view of its position and prospects. The dissensions in the Society which Perrot's heresy had caused still continued, and Fox, seeing the necessity which existed for him to disavow all sympathy with the " new teaching," published a letter advising his adherents to " keep their meetings," and warning them to " avoid such as dwelt in quarrels." He also wrote a lengthy " testimony " to clear the Quakers from the suspicion of being implicated in a 252 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. political plot, a suspicion under which they still lay and on account of which they met with some suffering ; he also directed that lists of all cases of persecution should be carefully prepared and presented to the authorities as soon as possible. Among his other letters, he did not forget to write one to all judges and magistrates, warn- ing them of the evil of calling names, and entreating them to administer justice impartially. Amongst the other prisoners confined in Lancaster Castle was one Major VViggan, a Baptist preacher, who was exceedingly anxious to have a dispute with the Quakers. With him, George, nothing loath, obtained leave to hold a discussion. The Baptist affirmed that " Some men never had the Spirit of God, and that the true Light, which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the world, was natural," instancing as a proof, Balaam, who, he said, never had the Spirit of God, though he prophesied. George, on the contrary, insisted that " Balaam and other wicked men had that Spirit," but that, like the Jews, they stifled it, and that, as the true Light was Christ the Word, it was Divine and not natural. Judging from the only account, and that a very brief one, we have of this meeting, Fox certainly had the best of the argument. In the following August the same judges attended the assizes at Lancaster ; but on this occasion Twisden sat on the Crown side, and George was therefore brought before Turner. The charge against him was that he had refused to take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. When the justices of the peace had sworn that they had tendered the oath in the manner and at the time the indictment stated, the judge asked Fox whether he had not refused to take the oath at the last assizes, a question which George answered by declaring that he THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 253 had never taken an oath in his life. As this reply was not sufficiently categorical, the judge repeated his ques- tion, with no better result. " Did you deny to take the oath ? What say you ? " asked Turner a third time. " What would'st thou have me to say, for I have told thee before what I did say ? " replied Fox. " Would you have these men to swear that you took the oath ? " said the judge. " Would'st thou have them to swear that I refused the oath ? " rejoined George. At this, we are told, there was a loud laugh, which annoyed Fox exceedingly. " Is this court a playhouse ? " he asked indignantly of the judges; "Where is gravity and sobriety, for this behaviour doth not become you ? " When the indictment was read, George discovered it was full of errors, and commenced to address the jury, telling them they had no right to condemn him unheard on the testimony of so faulty a document. Here the judge interposed, and forbidding him to speak to the jury, directed them to bring in a verdict of guilty against the prisoner, which they immediately did. The judge for some unknown reason, thought it best to defer pro- nouncing sentence till the following day. The next morning, Fox and Margaret Fell, who had also been examined on the previous day, were brought into court to hear their sentences. Margaret Fell, whose case was taken first, had not felt equal to conducting it herself and so had engaged counsel to plead for her. So many errors were speedily found in her indictment that the judge ordered her to stand aside, while he asked Fox — who had declined legal assistance — what he had to say against sentence being pronounced upon him. " I have much to say," answered Fox, " have but 254 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. patience to hear me, for I am no lawyer. Is the oath to be tendered to the king's subjects, or the subjects of foreign princes ? " " To the subjects of this realm," was the judge's reply. "Then," quoth George, "look into the indictment and ye may see that ye have left out the word, subject ; so not having named me in the indictment, ye cannot praemunire me for not taking an oath." The statute and the indictment were then compared, and the judge, finding it as Fox had said, confessed it was an error. " I have something else to stop thy judgment," said George. " Look what day the indictment says the oath was tendered to me at the assizes." " The eleventh day of January," was the answer. " What day of the week was the sessions held on ? " " On a Tuesday." " Then look in your almanacks, and see whether there was any sessions held at Lancaster on the eleventh day of January, so called ?" said Fox. This was accordingly done, and it was found that the eleventh had fallen on a Monday, and that the assizes had been held on Tuesday the twelfth. " See," said Fox, when this error was allowed, "you have indicted me for refusing the oath at the quarter sessions held at Lancaster on the eleventh of January, and the justices have sworn that they tendered me the oath on that day, and the jury upon their oaths have therefore found me guilty, and yet you see there was no sessions held at Lancaster on that day." The judge, who was anxious to get out of the matter, asked whether the assizes had not begun on the eleventh and lasted over the next day ; but as the officers of the court proved that they only lasted one day and that day the twelfth, he had to acknowledge that this was THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 255 another grave error ; whereupon, we are told, some of the justices who had been present got into a great rage, and stamping about the court declared that some one must have put the errors in purposely — a rage Fox did not allay by asserting that, as they had sworn to the truth of the indictment, they were perjured men. " But this is not all," George went on ; " I have more yet to offer why sentence should not be given against me. In what year of the king was the last assize holden here ?" " The sixteenth year," was the reply. " But the indictment says it was the fifteenth," urged the prisoner. As upon examination this was also found to be correct, " all were in a great fume," for the officers of the court and the justices had all sworn that the oath had been tendered as stated, and when the judge ordered Margaret Fell's indictment to be read it was not found to hold the same errors. " I have yet more to offer to stop sentence ; " said George ; " ought not all the oath to be put into the indictment ? " " Certainly it ought," answered Turner. Fox then asked that the words of the oath in the statute might be compared with those in the indictment, and it was discovered that some of the most important words had been omitted altogether, which the judge at once allowed to be another very serious fault. " I have yet something further to allege," began the prisoner again. " Nay," interposed the judge, " I have enough ; you need say no more." " If thou hast enough, I desire nothing but law and justice at thy hands, for I don't look for mercy," rejoined the other. 256 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. " You must have justice, and you shall have law,'' replied Turner. "Am I then at liberty, and free from all that hath ever been done against me in this matter ? " asked the Quaker. " Yes," admitted the judge, reluctantly ; " yes ; you are free from all that has ever been done against you. But then," and he started from his seat in anger as he spoke, " I can put the oath to any man here, and I will tender it to you." " You had examples enough of swearing and false swearing yesterday," rejoined the undaunted man at the bar ; " for I saw with my own eyes the justices and the jury forswear themselves." " Will you take the oath ? " shouted the judge. " Do me justice for my imprisonment all this while. I ought to be set at liberty," cried Fox in reply. "You are at liberty," said the judge; "but I will put the oath to you again." George turned to the people who were listening open- mouthed to this unseemly wrangle. " All people bear witness that this is a snare," he said ; " for I ought to be set free from this gaoler and the court." " Give him the book," said Turner to an officer in the court. Fox put out his hand and took the book offered him. " It is a Bible, and I am glad of it," he said when he had examined it. The oath was now read. " Will you take it or not ? " asked the judge once more. " You have given me a book here to kiss and swear on ; and this book says, ' Kiss the Son ; ' and the Son says in this book, ' Swear not at all,' and so says the Apostle James," answered George coolly. " I say as THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 237 the book says, yet ye imprison me. How chance ye do not imprison the book for saying so? How comes it that the book is at liberty amongst you, which bids me not swear, and yet ye imprison me for doing as the book bids me ? Why don't ye imprison the book ? " " Now," George tells us, " as I was speaking this to them, and held up the Bible open in my hand, to show them the place in the book where Christ forbids swearing, they plucked the book out of my hand again, and the judge said, ' Nay, but we will imprison George Fox.' Yet this got abroad over all the country as a by-word, That they gave me a book to swear on that commanded me not to swear at all, and that the Bible was at liberty and I in prison for doing as the Bible said." Fox now addressed the jury, and, after giving them his reasons for refusing to take the oath, expressed his acquiescence in all that the oath required, and vehemently inveighed against all " plots and persecutions for religion and popery ; " in spite of " this they found the indictment against him," and he was then removed by the gaoler. " In the afternoon," he tells us, " I was brought up again, and the judge asked me what I would say for myself? I bid them read the indictment, for I would not answer to that which I did not hear. The clerk read it, and as he read it the judge said, ' Take heed it be not false again ; ' but he read it in such a manner that I could hardly understand what he read. When he had done, the judge asked me, what I said to the indictment ? I told him, at once hearing so large a writing read, and that at such a distance that I could not distinctly hear all the parts of it, I could not well tell what to say to it ; but if he would let me have a copy of it, and give me time to consider of it, I should answer to it. This put them to a little stand ; but, s 253 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. after a while, the judge asked me, What time I would have ? I said, till the next assize. ' But,' said he, ' what plea will ye now make ? Are ye guilty or not guilty ? ' I said, ' I am not guilty at all of denying swearing obstinately and wilfully ; and as for those things mentioned in the oath as Jesuitical plots and foreign powers, I utterly deny them in my heart ; and if I could take any oath I should take that, but I never took an oath in all my life.' " In accordance with his desire, George was com- mitted to prison till the next assize. It may seem that the account of this trial has been given at unnecessary length, but it has been done, partly to show the spirit in which prosecutions of the Quakers were conducted, and partly to illustrate Fox's firmness and courage, qualities in which he certainly was not deficient. Many of his objections to the errors which were so plentiful in his indictment may appear puerile, and some persons may even be inclined to think that it would have been wiser, or, at least, more dignified in him, had he refused to take advantage of them ; but we must not lose sight of the fact, that even at that time the judges required absolute accuracy in legal documents, and also that often the sole opportunity an innocent man had of escaping condemnation lay in his availing himself of these technical flaws ; and in this trial it would appear that Fox's only chance of proving himself inno- cent lay in his acting as he did. In some cases, too, his replies were far from being satisfactory or categorical answers to the questions put to him, and he showed a strong tendency to twist what he could to a religious meaning ; but any reader of accounts of ecclesiastical trials in the seventeenth century will rather marvel at their straightforwardness than at their indirectness, for we frequently find the accused refusing to answer plainly THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 259 even the simplest possible query. In the famous trial, in 1655, of William Dewsbury, an early Quaker, an amusing specimen of this is to be found. 1 However people may disagree as to the manner in which Fox conducted his defence, there can be but one opinion regarding the noble firmness he displayed in refusing to take the oaths, or upon the shameful way in which these oaths were tendered him after he had been set free by the judge. When Fox had called at his house some time before to inquire what he had against him, Colonel Kirby had professed himself friendly towards the Quaker, but now for some unexplained reason the colonel turned bitterly against him, and gave the gaoler orders that no one was to be allowed to see him, alleging Fox was not fit for even a prisoner to speak to. In consequence of this George was put into a room in a tower, where the 1 At a later trial of Dewsbury in the same year, the following dialogue took place : — Judge. What is thy name ? Dewsbury. Unknown to the world. Judge. Let us hear what that name is the world knows not ? Dewsbury. It is known to the Light, and not every one can know it, but he that hath it ; but the name the world knows me by is William Dewsbury. Judge. What countryman art thou ? Dewsbury. Of the land of Canaan. Judge. That is far off. Dewsbury. Nay, it is near ; for all that dwell in God are in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, which came down from heaven. There the soul is at rest, and enjoys the love of God in Christ Jesus, in whom is the union with the Father of Light. Judge. That is true ; but are you ashamed of your country ? Is it any disparagement for you to be born in England ? Dewsbury. Nay, I am free to declare that my natural birth was in Yorkshire, nine miles from York, towards Hull. Etc. etc. " Library of the Society of Friends," vol. ii. p. 252. 26o GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. smoke from the rooms of the other prisoners " came up so thick that it stood as dew upon the walls." "And sometimes," says Fox, "the smoke would be so thick that I could hardly see the candle when it burned ; and I, being under three locks, the under gaoler, when the smoke was great, would hardly be persuaded to come up to unlock one of the uppermost doors for fear of the smoke, so that I was almost smothered. Besides, it rained in upon my bed ; and many times, when I went to stop out the rain in the cold winter season, my shirt would be as wet as muck with the rain that came in upon me while I was labour- ing to stop it out. And (the place being high and open to the wind) sometimes as fast as I stopped it, the wind being high and fierce, it would blow it out again. In this manner did I lie all that long cold winter till the next assize ; in which time I was so starved with cold and rain that my body was greatly swelled and my limbs greatly benumbed." At the assizes in March, 1665 (N.S.), George was again brought up ; but this time before Twisden, as Turner was taking the " Crown " side. By some means he had procured a copy of the indictment against him, and found it only one degree less faulty than the last ; but when he would have called the judge's attention to the errors, Twisden refused to listen, and directed the gaoler to take him away ; and when this was done, he prevailed on the ignorant and timid jury to give a ver- dict against George during his absence. Fox was never called up to hear his sentence, nor does it appear to have been pronounced, possibly because the judge was afraid to hear the many reasons against it, which the prisoner was certain to be prepared with, but more probably because he was aware it would be legally unsafe to pass any judgment when the indictment was so full of errors ; THE OATH OR THE GAOL. 261 nevertheless Fox was not liberated, as lawfully he should have been, but again ordered to be confined a close prisoner in Lancaster Castle. Margaret Fell, who had also been brought up at the same time, was sentenced to the penalties of a praemunire. CHAPTER XVIII. THE IMPENDING WOE. Fox has visions of impending woe. — He is removed to Scar- borough Castle. — Is taken seriously ill. — His miserable cell. — Is threatened with death. — Finds favour in the governor's eyes. — Is liberated. — The Fire of London. — Thomas Briggs foretells the Great Fire. — Thomas Ibbitt's mad conduct. — Solomon Eccles. — Eccles burns his music and instruments. — His escapade in Aldermanbury Church. — His expedient for ascertaining the true religion. — His " Musick Lector." — Quakers banished. — Humphrey Smith. — Samuel Fisher. \li THILE he remained in Lancaster Castle, Fox tells V V us he had several visions, one at a time when there was a general fear of the Turks overrunning Christendom, and another just before the breaking out of the war with Holland. On the first occasion he believed he saw the Lord turning back the Turks, and on the second an angel holding a glittering unsheathed sword pointed towards the south, and " not long after, the wars break out with Holland, and the sickness brake forth, and afterwards the fire of London : so the Lord's sword was drawn indeed." He also tells us that on account of his long imprison- ment in so damp and smoky a cell, his health gave way, and he became exceedingly weak, but that he was enabled to do some service for the truth by " answering several books." He published, too, a tract containing his views on tithes. Colonel Kirby and some other of the Lancashire just- ices, who had been exceedingly annoyed at the victories THE IMPENDING WOE. 263 George had won with regard to the faults in his indict- ments, and who also wished to place him beyond reach of his friends, were anxious that if possible he should be moved from Lancaster to some remote place, and so about six weeks after the assizes they procured an order from Charles II. for his removal to Scarborough. With this order came a letter from the Earl of Anglesey saying that, if what George was charged with was proved, he deserved " neither clemency nor mercy." The justices lost no time in putting this order in force, and without being previously informed what they were going to do with him, George was brought out of prison when so weak that he could " hardly go or stand," and set upon a horse belonging to the sheriff. Kirby, who was present, seems to have pitied his miserable condition, and called for some wine to be brought, but Fox told him he would have " none of his wine." Before George started he protested earnestly against his removal, because he had been illegally treated at the sessions, and because no sentence having been pronounced upon him he was not the king's prisoner, and therefore could not be sent to another prison by his command. He also demanded to be shown the mandate authorizing his removal, but the officers replied "they would show him none but their swords." George tells us that he was so weak and stiff that he was scarcely able to keep his seat, yet that one of the company amused himself by lashing his horse to make it curvet and start, and then would look him in the face, and ask with a leer, " How do you do, Mr. Fox?" "I told him," says George, "that it was not civil in him to do so ; but the Lord cut him off soon after." After a somewhat lengthy journey, Fox, whose every question as to where he was being taken had been 2G4 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. answered with a studied disregard of both courtesy and truth, was brought to Scarborough Castle, which at that time was used as a gaol. For some days after his arrival he was seriously ill, and subject to frequent faint- ing fits, and so was treated with great kindness ; but as soon as he got better he was placed in an " open room where the rain came in, and which smoked ex- ceedingly." By the expenditure of what in those days was a considerable sum, he had this room made "some- what tolerable " ; but as soon as this was done, he was removed to another which had neither fireplace nor glazed window, and into which, " it being to the sea-side, and lying much open, the wind drove in the rain force- able, so that the water came over his bed and ran about the room, so that he was fain to skim it up with a platter." " When my clothes were wet," he says in his recital of his sufferings at this time, " I had no fire to dry them by ; so my body was numbed with cold, and my fingers swelled that one was grown as big as two. Though I was at some charge for this room also, yet I could not keep out the wind and the rain. Besides, they would suffer few Friends to come to me, and many times not any, not so much as to bring me a little food ; but I was forced for the first quarter to hire one of another Society to bring me necessaries. Sometimes the soldiers would take it from her, and she would scuffle with them for it. Afterwards I hired a soldier to fetch me bread and water, and something to make a fire of, when I was in a room where a fire could be made. Commonly a threepenny loaf served me three weeks, and sometimes longer ; and most of my drink was water that had wormwood steeped or bruised in it. But though they would not let Friends come to me, they would often bring others, either to gaze upon me or to contend with me." THE IMPENDING WOE. 265 If the gaoler refused to let Fox's own followers visit him, he did not turn away others who wished to see him. To most of those who came, his prisoner was no doubt merely an object of idle curiosity ; but there were some who desired to break a lance in argument, and George in his journal recites with something very like glee the manner in which he put one after another to flight ; but as these disputes embraced the same subjects as those which have been previously narrated, it would be tedious as well as unnecessary to do more than merely record their occurrence. Besides preventing any Quakers visiting him, — for to them, "though many came from far to see" him, Fox says he was " as a man buried alive," — the officers of the gaol endeavoured to add to his troubles by threats of personal violence. " They would often be threatening me, that I should be hanged over the wall," he tells us ; " nay, the deputy governor told me one time, that the king, knowing that I had a great interest in the people, had sent me thither, that if there should be any stirring in the nation, they should hang me over the wall to keep the people down." But those who thus threatened him had to learn that he was not a man to be intimidated by the fear of death, for he told them : " If that was it they desired, and it was permitted them, I was ready, for I never feared death nor sufferings in my life, but I was known to be an innocent, peaceable man, free from stirrings and plottings, and one that sought the good of all men." The martyr's blood which ran in the veins of the mother ran too in the veins of the son, nor had it lost one whit of its vitality. It is more than doubtful whether Charles ever gave orders that Fox was to be hung in order to " quieten " the people should there be any symptoms of a rising ; but it is certain that the Quaker had acquired such an influence over no de- 266 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. spicable section of the population, that he was regarded by the authorities as a man who, if he so wished, had the power to become both dangerous and trouble- some, and it is not improbable that the cause of this imprisonment was not so much his refusal to take the oaths as it was from political motives, — for as the people were still neither settled in their minds nor satisfied with the conduct of the government with regard to religion, it was not thought wise to leave amongst them any element which could be a cause of disquietude. Towards the latter part of Fox's imprisonment, the governor, Sir Jordan Crosslands, became more kind to his prisoner, and, according to one authority, allowed him a considerable degree of liberty. Fox tell us that Sir Jordan " became so loving towards him," that he felt emboldened, when the governor had to go to London to attend to his duties in Parliament, to request him to speak to Sir Francis Cobb and Mr. Marsh on his behalf. This the governor did, and on his return told George that Marsh had said he would willingly go a hundred miles barefoot to help his friend, and that many others had spoken well of him. Considerable interest was excited in George's favour, and a statement of his sufferings was drawn up by Whitehead and Hookes, who carried it to Mr. Marsh. By his in- strumentality it was laid before the king, who himself had a short time before received a letter from Fox, giving an account of his imprisonment and requesting his release. After satisfying himself that George was " an innocent, peaceable man," from whom no danger was to be apprehended, Charles readily granted an order for his discharge. This mandate was at once carried down to Scarborough by John Whitehead, and presented by him to the governor. Sir Jordan called the officers of the gaol together, and in their presence discharged THE IMPENDING WOE. 267 Fox in a manner which gave the event somewhat the air of a triumph. Neither bond nor security for good conduct was asked, nor were any prison fees demanded ; and the governor gave George this passport : " Permit the bearer hereof, George Fox, late a prisoner here, and now discharged by His Majesty's order, quietly to pass about his lawful occasions without any molestations. Given under my hand at Scarborough Castle, this first of September, 1666. Jordan Crosslands, Governor of Scarborough Castle." " After I was released," says Fox, " I would have given the governor something for the civility and kind- ness he had of late showed me ; but he would not receive anything, but said, whatever good he could do for me and my friends he would do it, and never do them any hurt. And afterwards if at any time the mayor of the town sent to him for soldiers to break up Friends' meetings, if he sent any down he would privately give them a charge not to meddle ; and so he continued loving to his dying day. The officers and the soldiers were mightily changed and grown very respectful to me, and when they had occasion to speak of me they would say, He is as stiff as a tree, and as pure as a bell, for we could never bow him." Such was the influence of faith- fulness, of constancy, and of integrity. The day after George was released from Scarborough gaol, the Great Fire of London broke out ; of which, as an impending woe, it will be remembered he believed he had been warned in a vision, while a prisoner at Lancaster. He does not appear to have called attention to this vision by letter, although he was, of course, unable to do so by other means. Fox was not the only Quaker who had had visions of the woe which was about to fall on London. Some years previously, " Thomas Briggs had passed through 268 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. its streets, preaching repentance to the inhabitants, and coming through Cheapside, he cried out, that unless London repented as Nineveh did, God would destroy it." 1 This man in his early days was very adverse to, and a violent opponent of, Quakerism, till meeting with George at Lancaster in 1652, he was convinced of the truth, and then he became a minister of the sect he had so despised. In the following year he went into a con- siderable number of places preaching " Repent ! repent ! for the mighty day of the Lord God is appearing." He was a very mild man, for at Warrington when, after speaking in the church, he had a handful of hair pulled off his head, he merely said, " Not one hair of my head shall fall to the ground without my Father's permission." " At another place," we are told, " he was speaking to a priest and, as he was going on his journey, the priest was much offended at him ; and one of his hearers, as it were in revenge for his pretended affront, struck him on the head, and knocked him down ; but Thomas getting up again, and turning his face to the smiter, he smote him on his teeth, so that the blood gushed out exceedingly, that some of the standers by could not but cry out against. But not long after, the man that struck him thus fell -sick and died, crying on his death-bed, ' Oh that I had not stricken the Quaker ! ' " Thomas met with an exceedingly hard life, being several times imprisoned and often beaten, but for all this he continued a preacher during the rest of his life. He tells us that when he was stoned a miracle was performed, for "the great stones thrown hurt him no more than if they were beans." Another Quaker who warned London of its impend- ing doom was Thomas Ibbitt. Ibbitt was a native 1 Sewel, " History of the Rise, etc., of the Friends," vol. iii. p. 313. THE IMPENDING WOE. 269 of Huntingdonshire, who rode into London on the Friday preceding the breaking out of the fire. Having dismounted, he turned his horse loose in the street, and then, unbuttoning his clothes as if he had just risen from his bed, ran about the town scattering his money as he went, and exclaiming that so should the people " run up and down, scattering their money and goods, half dressed like mad people, for he was a sign unto them." The London Friends were somewhat shocked at this behaviour, and examined him narrowly to see whether his message was a real one or only the delusion of an insane man, but the only explanation he could give was that he had " had this vision " for some time, and "delayed to come and declare it as commanded until he felt (as he expressed it) the fire in his own bosom." 1 This " vision " was probably an hallucination, only de- serving of notice on account of its coinciding with what so immediately followed. Ibbitt afterwards showed he was insane by planting himself before the flames at the end of Cheapside during the Great Fire, with his arms outspread as if to stay its progress, and it was only with difficulty that the Friends prevented him being burnt alive. Sewel insists that on account of the fulfilment of his prophecy a " spiritual pride possessed him." Probably among all the early Quakers no name is better known outside the ranks of the Society, nor less appreciated within, than that of Solomon Eccles ; and this is not so much due to his having been an im- portant minister as to his many eccentricities, and to the fact of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth having introduced him into his novel "Old St. Paul's," in which book, under the name of Solomon Eagles, he plays a most important 1 Sewel, " History of the Rise, etc., of the Society of Friends," vol. iii. p. 314. 270 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. and picturesque part. Unfortunately not very much is known about this man, and what little there is princi- pally reaches us through the medium of that amusing but somewhat inaccurate historian of the Quakers, Gerard Croese, who certainly would permit no good story to be spoiled for lack of a little red paint. For a large part of his life Solomon Eccles was a musician, and he was possessed of so much skill that it is stated he earned two hundred pounds a year — in those days a large income — by teaching. Eccles seems to have joined the Quakers at a time when the quietism of that body had attained its highest development. He entered so heartily into the objection the early Friends entertained to music in all forms that he sold all his books and instruments for a considerable sum, but fearing that they might be hurtful to the purchasers, he bought them back again, and taking them to Tower Hill, pub- licly burnt them, exhorting the people present to shun empty and vain pursuits, and deriding, with extreme bitterness, the established religion. He does not seem to have been a man of property, and so, it being necessary that he should earn his bread, he determined to turn shoemaker, that being a trade which could injure the morals of no one. Eccles was much given to protesting against the vices and follies of the age and its religion, and this he did with all the enthusiasm of an exceptionally ill-regulated mind. One Sunday morning when the congregation was assembled for Communion in St. Mary's Church, Aldermanbury, Solomon went in with his tools and some leather, which he had brought in order that he might show his contempt for the place and people by working at his trade on the very altar itself. The people were singing the psalm before the sermon, when he entered and made a dash at the pulpit, hoping to be THE IMPENDING WOE. 271 able to mend his shoes in there. In this, however, he was prevented by the congregation, so he tried to get on the communion table, but with no better success, and had to be content to stand and look about him in a contemptuous manner, keeping his hat on all the while. When the psalm was ended, his hat was forcibly re- moved, but on its being given back to him he at once put it on again. At length he had to be put out of the church by the clerk and a few members of the congregation. Nothing daunted, he went to the same church again the following Sunday, and, by jumping from one pew to another, actually succeeded this time in getting into the pulpit, and sewing a few stitches before he was pulled down, and taken before the Lord Mayor, who immediately sent him to prison. Probably an asylum would have been a fitter place. During the progress of the plague, Eccles peram- bulated the streets, stripped to the waist, and with a chafing-dish of burning brimstone upon his head, crying, " Woe ! woe ! " Those who have read " Old St. Paul's " will easily understand how this must have heightened the horrors of the scene to a terrible degree. Sewel tells us that afterwards he went about among the booths during the fair time in London, in the. same way, and that " he suffered much by the coachmen whipping him grievously on his naked back ; but that could not allay his fervent zeal, which was kindled not only against the immodest and ungodly carriage of the pretended fools, but also against other vanities there used." 1 I think there can be little doubt that it is to this extraordinary man that Pepys refers, when he says : " One thing extraordinary was, this day (29th July, 1 Sewel, '• History of the Rise, etc., of the Society of Friends," vol. iii. p. 283. 272 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. 1667), a man, a Quaker, came naked through the Hall (at Westminster), only civilly tied about the loins to avoid scandal, and with a chafing-dish of fire and brim- stone burning upon his head, and did pass through the Hall crying, ' Repent ! repent ! ' " though why Eccles should have done so at that time is not very clear. There can be no doubt that Eccles, though a vision- ary and an eccentric fanatic, was a devoted preacher, and spared no pains nor shrank from any suffering if he could lead others to think as he did ; but the means he used were peculiar, and he seems to have preferred de- nunciation to argument. In 1669 he went to Scotland, taking his brazier with him, and Sewel tell us " did, at Galloway, perform a strange action in a chapel of the Papists without the town ; for he went naked above his waist, with a chafing-dish and burning brimstone on his head, and entered the chapel when all the people were on their knees to pray to their idol, and spoke as follows : ' Woe to these idolatrous worshippers ! God hath sent me this day to warn you, and to show you what will be your portion, except you repent,' which when he had done he went away to the town, where he was presently made a prisoner." 1 Not long after, he went to Ireland, and is said to have exhibited himself stark naked in Cork. Here he also suffered much, re- ceiving ninety lashes on his bare back, and being ex- pelled the town, for upbraiding a priest with being a turncoat in the cathedral. 2 " By meditation," says Dr. Chalmers, " Solomon Eccles found out a new expedient for ascertaining the true religion ; this was to collect under one roof the most virtuous men of the several sects that divide 1 Sewel, " History of tb.e Rise, etc., of the Society of Friends," vol. iii. p. 382. s Ibid., vol. iii. p. 444. THE IMPENDING WOE. 273 Christianity, who should unanimously fall to prayer for seven days without partaking of any nourishment, or even sleeping. ' Then,' said he, 1 those on whom the Spirit of God shall manifest itself in a sensible manner, i.e. by the trembling of the limbs and interior illumina- tions, may oblige the rest to subscribe to their decisions.' He found, however, that none would put this strange conceit to the trial, and while he persisted in propagating his folly, his prophecies, his invectives, and his pretended miracles only served to pass him from one prison to another, till at length by this sort of discipline he was brought to confess the vanity of his prophecies, and he finished his life in tranquillity, but without religion." He died at Spitalfields in 1683, aged 65. 1 Solomon Eccles was not a voluminous writer, and, except by the curious, it is probable that his books have scarcely been read at all since the early part of the eighteenth century. The most famous of his works are " The Quaker's Challenge at two several weapons to the Baptists, Presbyters, Papists, and other Professors," pub- lished in 1668, in which he makes the strange proposi- tion above referred to, — and a lengthy dialogue entitled " A Musick Lector," published the year before. This latter, in which he relates the burning of his books and musical instruments, gives an account of a supposititious conversation between a musician, a Quaker, and a Baptist regarding the true religion and the morality of music, and contains a peculiar and utterly unauthentic account of the history of Church music. He calls such men as Sternhold and Hopkins, " fiddlers who term themselves musicians," and asks "when were they in such a con- dition that they watered their couches with tears ; so they were mockers at David." " Woe," he continues, " woe to the Pope and his Cardinals, to the Monks, 1 Croese, " General History of the Quakers," vol. ii. p. 66. T 274 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Friars and Jesuits, Bishops and Lord Bishops, and all false Prophets and Hirelings, with their Organists and Queristers, Musicians, and Dancers on Ropes with their Fiddlers and Pipers, Juglers, Cheaters and Gam- blers, Hunters and Hawkers, Swearers and Lyars, Drunkards and Harlots, for all this is Babylon, her Mockers and Mummers, and against all this is God's wrath gone forth from the presence of the Lamb ; their Plague is begun." In the discussion the Quaker terms the Word of God a music teacher ; and when asked by the musician where his music teacher dwells, replies by telling him to come and see, though when the question is pressed he declares the "teacher" is invisible. The musician is then made to ask : " But pray, my friend, doth he prick plain song or intablature ? for if he prick plain song, I do not fear I shall learn it ; " to which the Quaker replies : " He pricks very plain, for every note is as easily seen as a white semibrief or minnim." " Truly," retorts the musician, " I am glad to hear you Quakers speak plainly sometimes, though it is but seldom." Strange as it may appear, Eccles has not made the Quaker altogether successful ; for when the narrative breaks off, the musician is represented as only partially convinced. Altogether this tract is perhaps the most remarkable production in early Quaker literature. In a quaint tract called " Babel's Builders unmask- ing themselves, with a false prophecy of that lying prophet Solomon Eccles," by Stephen Crisp, we are in- formed that Eccles in 1677 prophesied that one John Story, whom he accused of dividing the heritage of God, and especially of maligning women's preaching and their meetings, should die within a year. The prophecy, after directing Story to be reconciled to George Fox, finishes thus : " Arise quickly and be going, for this is the word of the Lord to thee, viz. that this year shalt THE IMPENDING WOE. 275 thou, John Story, die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the living God." This man was, Crisp informs us, at that time very ill, and not expected to recover, so Solomon did not need special inspiration to see the probability of his vision being fulfilled ; unfortunately for the prophet's fame however, Story got better, and lived for some years afterwards. 1 During the time Fox was in prison at Lancaster and Scarborough, Quakerism had held on the " even tenour of its way," and though, perhaps, no longer making the rapid strides it had once done, it had certainly gained considerable ground in the country districts. In and about London this could hardly be the case, for here their numbers were decreased by about eleven hundred who died of the plague. Pepys says that their objection to having a bell rung — and probably also to having the cross on the door — made the exact number 1 John Story was one of the Quaker ministers who caused the first schism in the Society, Wilkinson being the other. Janney tells us that they "had disorderly and irreverently judged Friends' tender exercises in breaking forth in melodious singings and soundings of God's praise at their meetings." These men objected to meetings for discipline, which they said was setting up another government than that of the Spirit, and still more to meetings for women only, and they also brought several false accusations against Fox. Great efforts were made by the Friends to unite these differences, and long forbearance was exercised towards the offenders. At length a schism was openly effected in the West- moreland Quarterly Meeting, and separate meetings were estab- lished. In 1676 a conference, lasting four days, was held near Sedburgh to reconcile the two parties, when Story and Wilkinson gave in and acknowledged their fault in writing. The schism, however, was not healed (Janney, " Life of George Fox," p. 360;. Sewel tells us that "the separate meetings wasted away like snow in the fields, for the best of them came in time to see that they had been deceived, and the less honest grew worse, for amoi% r themselves they were not free from divisions." 276 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. of the sect who died at this time difficult to estimate. 1 But while the ravages of the plague prevented in some measure the spread of their creed, it also protected them in some degree from persecution, and the years 1665 and 1666 show that their sufferings were not so great as they had been for several years before. In 1664 the law saw fit to employ banishment as a punishment to obdurate Quakers, and fifty-five Friends were sentenced by Judges Hale and Twisden to be transported to Jamaica. So great was the reluctance of shipmasters to carry these unhappy people that several preferred to lay up their ships to doing so, and it was only with great difficulty that one was found who would undertake the disagreeable task. The Black Eagle, on board which they were at length conveyed, seemed doomed to meet with misfortune ; it was delayed so long in the Thames that twenty-seven of the pri- soners are said to have died before it sailed, and then during its voyage it was captured by some Dutch pri- vateers. The prisoners, after meeting with a consider- able amount of rough treatment, were landed in Holland, from whence, with one exception, they all returned in safety to England. Robert Hays, James Harding, and Edward Brush, prisoners for their religion in Newgate, were in 1665 shipped from Gravesend for Jamaica. Hays did not reach his destination, for, sick and weak when he started, he was so neglected on the voyage that he died before the ship got to the West Indies. The others remained at Jamaica for a short time, and then returned to England. Eight others were shortly afterwards sentenced to banishment ; but the ship in which they had been placed met with so many detentions in the Thames that the 1 " Pepys' Diary" (Ed. 1848). Vol. iii. p. 77. THE IMPENDING WOE. 277 captain refused to carry them, and put them on shore again. Altogether they were shipped six times, and then, as there seemed no chance of the sentence being carried out, were set at liberty. They sent an account cf their sufferings to the king and his council ; but instead of meeting with sympathy, the only effect it had was to cause an order to be passed for their im- prisonment — an imprisonment which lasted seven years. Amongst other measures used for the relief of these unfortunate people, George Bishop, the author of " New England Judged," felt moved to write the following letter : — " To the King and both Houses of Parliament : thus saith the Lord : — " ' Meddle not with My people because of their con- science to Me, and banish them not out of the nation because of their conscience ; for if ye do, I will send My plagues upon you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.' "Written in obedience to the Lord by His servant, "George Bishop. "Bristol, the 25th of the 9th month, 1664." The early Friends thought that it was something more than a coincidence that the war with the Dutch, the Plague, and the Great Fire followed so speedily. Whilst Fox was in prison, Quakerism suffered a severe loss by the deaths of two of its most eminent and use- ful adherents. Humphrey Smith, who died in 1663, was a Herefordshire man ; but the exact time and place of his birth, as well as any particulars of his parentage and education, are unknown. " In his youth, and for some time after his marriage," we are told of him, " he underwent many close conflicts of spirit, finding so much to contend with in himself, both of a natural and 2;S GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. spiritual kind, before he could feel his mind liberated from those things which kept him in bondage " ; never- theless his life seems to have been simple and blame- less. His very piety, it is said, gave great offence to his father, a somewhat worldly man. Smith appears to have been a minister of some denomination until he became a Quaker in 1654, and shortly after we find he was an accepted, esteemed, and successful preacher. In 1655 he suffered a rigorous imprisonment at Eve- sham for holding a meeting, and a few years later he met with the same fate at Exeter and Winchester. While in Winchester gaol he wrote an interesting tractate, called "The just complaint of the afflicted, etc., from a filthy prison and place unfit for man, at Win- chester," giving an account of his sufferings, from the effects of which he died. The other minister whose death Quakerism had to deplore was a man far more talented and prominent — Samuel Fisher. Fisher was once vicar of Lydd, in Kent, a benefice of considerable value, but having scruples as to the propriety of singing and of baptizing infants, his conscience would not permit him to remain in the Established Church, so resigning his living he be- came a Baptist preacher and farmer in the same village in which he had been the vicar. When, in 1655, Caton and Stubbs were preaching at Lydd, Fisher entertained them at his house, and heartily receiving from their lips the doctrine of the " Divine Light," became a Quaker preacher. Sewel tells us that when, in 1656, Cromwell convened the Parliament in the Painted Chamber at Westminster, " Fisher had been under a great exercise for several days from an apprehension of duty to go there at that time, and to deliver what he considered to be a message from the Lord to the Protector and Parliament. After much secret conflict of spirit, he THE IMPENDING WOE. 279 resigned himself to this duty, and went to the Painted Chamber at the time appointed." The Protector made a long speech, in the course of which he said he knew not of one man that suffered imprisonment unjustly in England. As soon as Cromwell had finished his speech, Fisher attempted to declare what was on his mind ; but he had proceeded a very little way in his intended speech before he was interrupted with the cry of "A Quaker ! a Quaker ! Keep him down ; he shall not speak ! " and so was compelled to desist. In 1659 he went with Stubbs to Rome, hoping to plant a Quaker Church there. In this they were of course disappointed ; but, although their intentions were known to some cardinals, they returned home without having been molested. After his return to England, Fisher was seldom out of prison for long together, and died in Newgate from the effects of bad air and overcrowding in 1665. " He died piously," says Sewel tersely. Fisher was one of the most learned as well as one of the most argumentative and voluminous of the early Quaker writers ; but his books, though popular at the time when written, are disfigured with coarse and violent language. In his " Rusticks Alarmed " — his principal work — he shows great controversial power, considerable erudition, and some logical acumen ; and the same may be said of " The Bishop busied beside the Business," another very popular work. " Though I greatly valued his abilities, employed so accurately in a good cause," says William Penn of Fisher, " yet above all, I cannot but admire his great self-denial and humility, who from being a teacher became willing to be taught, and that most evenness and sweetness of temper his most intimate friends have often observed in him, so that he was not only a good scribe but a good liver." CHAPTER XIX. QUAKER MARRIAGES. Continued illness of George Fox. — Narrowly escapes being arrested. — Meets Margaret Fell. — How some Presbyterians contrived to hold meetings and yet escape arrest. — Reproved by George Fox for their cowardice and hypocrisy. — Fox in London. — At Bristol. — Is compelled to establish a formal discipline. — First- day meetings. — The Quarterly Meeting. — Its duties.— Friends' marriages. — Importance Fox attached to marriages being well- known and carefully considered. — His advice regarding Matri- mony. — Those marrying out of the Society disowned. — Quaker rules and customs regarding marriages. — Marriages between Quakers and members of another sect not likely to be happy. — Fox advises the establishment of schools.— His love of educa- tion. — Fox at Minehead. — In London again. — Visits "Esquire" Marsh. — Conversation with a Papist. — Esquire Marsh con- sults him as to how he is to recognise a Quaker. — An unjust judge. — He protects Friends. — Spread of Quakerism in London. ALTHOUGH on his release from Scarborough Fox was so weak and ill that he had great difficulty in mounting his horse, and every sudden movement gave him pain, he felt it his duty to instantly resume the ministerial work his imprisonment had interrupted. This he did, and commenced his travelling and preach- ing without any interval for rest. Yet such was his condition that he tells us, " I was so weak, that I could hardly bend my joints, nor could I well bear to be near the fire nor to eat warm meat, I had been so long kept from them." Within a few days of his release he had again a nar- 280 QUAKER MARRIAGES. row escape of arrest, for at Snyderhill Green he held a meeting, which so annoyed the priest that the con- stables were at once sent for ; fortunately the notice was so short that, although they made the greatest possible haste, the meeting had broken up when they arrived, and thus George escaped. " Friends all escaped their malicious designs, for the Lord's power frustrated them ; praised be His name for ever," are the words with which he concludes his account of this incident. Fox now devotes a few pages of his Journal to a re- cord of his work on his road to London. His adventures are far from exciting, but it is impossible to read his account without feeling that truly the hand of the Lord was over him and kept him in all his ways. It is a long record of continuous success in the work of his Master ; of the turning of many to righteousness ; of building up others in their most holy faith. On his way he found Margaret Fell an attendant at one of the meetings he held ; she had not been liberated, but her imprisonment seems to have been of the laxest kind. He also nar- rates an amusing story here about some Presbyterians, who had bound themselves to stand fast and to give up all else rather than forsake their meetings. A Procla- mation forbidding meetings had just been published, but for all this, though well aware of the danger they were running, the people met together as usual ; the minister, less brave or more discreet, kept away. The meeting was held privately at a house at Leominster, and in case the constables should break in, bread and cheese were provided, so that if the officers did appear the Bibles might be put away, and all fall to eating and drinking as though it were a merely ordinary party. As it happened, a constable did come, and being a clear sighted man, at once saw through the pretence, and told the people, " Their bread and cheese should not cover 2S2 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. them, for he meant to have their preachers." " What then will become of ourselves and our children ? " they cried in dismay. Whether this softened the constable's heart or not we can never know; but, after keeping them in suspense for a little time, he let them go, with the stinging remark that " they were the veriest hypocrites who ever made a pretence of religion." Their contriv- ance does not appear to have been an uncommon one, and Fox, finding out a similar case, took occasion to rebuke so petty an action severely ; making also some trenchant remarks about those who though foremost in persecuting others, were yet cowards, and willing to be hypocrites if hypocrisy would save them from per- secution. When once arrived in London, Fox did not stay long ; for having viewed the ruins of the city, " lying according as the word of the Lord came to me concerning it several years before," he felt he ought to see how the work of Quakerism was progressing in the West, never a most favourable field. At Bristol he found the Society in a disrupted condition ; for some of its members had become unfaithful or had run into extravagances, and merciless persecutions had left many others in a state of extreme poverty. In order to cope with this he deemed it im- perative to establish some formal kind of discipline, which would meet all cases, and this he did by estab- lishing meetings for business, which were to be held at regular intervals. Wherever he could, Fox instituted First-day or Sunday meetings, which were of course entirely for worship ; and a convenient number of which he caused to be joined to- gether into Quarterly Meetings. These were constituted by Friends who represented each of the several Quaker communities which they contained, and they were rather for the purposes of business and for enquiring into the QUAKER MARRIAGES. 2S3 spiritual condition of the Friends within the district, than for any directly religious object. One of the duties was to obtain redress for any Friends who had been illegally prosecuted or imprisoned ; another to make arrange- ments on behalf of the poor ; a third, to provide a proper system of registration of births, marriages, and deaths; 1 and a fourth to see that the children of Friends were sufficiently educated. Besides these, there were a number of other duties devolving on these meetings, and before long it was found expedient to hold them twelve, instead of four, times a year. To these meetings the term monthly was applied, but the quarterly meeting was retained to act as a kind of Court of Appeal, and several monthly meetings were included in its juris- diction. "Whereas," says Fox, in 1666, in the brief account he gives of this matter, " Friends had had only quarterly meetings before, now truth was spread and Friends became more numerous, I was moved to recom- mend the setting up of monthly meetings throughout the nation : and the Lord opened to me what I must do, and how the men's and women's monthly and quarterly meetings should be ordered and established, in this and other nations ; and that I should write to those where I came not, to do the same." Fox tells us that as he was lying in bed at Bristol the "word of the Lord came to him commanding him to return to London, which he at once did. In London the season of severe persecution was now succeeded by one of comparative toleration, and Pepys tells us, that " the Nonconformists were mighty high and their meet- ings frequented and connived at." 3 The Quakers fared 1 Of some of the meetings of earliest establishment, regular registers are preserved from the year 1650 to the present time. " Memoirs of George Fox." W. & T. Evans, Philadelphia, p. 301. 2 " Pepys' Diary " (Ed. 1848). Vol. iv. p. 296. 284 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. even better than the other dissenters, for we have it on the same authority, that the Duke of Buckingham was a declared friend to them, and even the king deigned to give them " very good words." But it was with no idea of enjoying this unexpected period of ease, or of basking in the smiles of his sovereign, that Fox came to the Metropolis ; his mind was full of an important thing which he felt the time had come for him to institute. The marriages of Friends always appeared to Fox a matter of supreme importance. He was fully con- scious of the truth of the saying, that marriage either makes or mars its votaries ; and he determined that, so far as he could prevent, none of his followers should be marred by matrimony. Fox felt deeply that no mar- riage could be really happy which was not only for the social interests of the contracting parties, but also for their religious ; and he laid a stress upon the impor- tance of both parties being Quakers, which in the present day, at first sight, appears to have been exaggerated. But a few moments' consideration is sufficient to con- vince even the thoughtless that this stress was neither exaggerated nor unnecessary. In an age in which re- ligious dissensions ran high, and in which the slightest matters were deemed of infinite importance, a marriage between two persons holding deep yet different views could only be happy if they persisted in a policy of keeping religion in the background, and exercised patience and forbearance to an extent almost more than human. And if this was the case (as it undoubtedly was) when the respective religions of the parties did not differ with regard to social matters, how much more difficult — how little less than impossible — must it have been for a marriage between those whose views differed in this respect also, to be a happy one ! This Fox was far-sighted enough to perceive, and accordingly he QUAKER MARRIAGES. 285 directed more attention to this matter of Friends' mar- riages than most religious leaders would have thought the subject deserved. Yet there can be no doubt that Fox was right ; for there is ample negative evidence to show that married life among the Quakers has been a nearer approximation to what such a state should be, than it has among the professors of other creeds. " After we had visited Friends in the City " (London), says Fox, " and had stayed there a while, I was moved to exhort them to bring all their marriages to the men's and women's meetings, that they might lay them before the faithful there, that so care might be taken to prevent those disorders that had been committed by some ; for many had gone together contrary to their relations' minds, and some young raw people that came among us had mixed with the world, and widows had married and had not made provision for their children by their former husbands before their second marriage. And, although I had given forth a paper concerning mar- riage about the year 1653, when truth was but little spread over the nation, advising Friends who might be concerned in that case, that they might lay it before the faithful in time, before anything was con- cluded, and afterwards publish it in the end of a meet- ing, or in a market (as they were moved thereto) ; and when all things were found clear, they being free from all others, and their relations satisfied, then they might appoint a meeting on purpose for the taking of each other, in the presence of at least twelve faithful witnesses. Yet these directions not being observed, and truth being now more spread over the nation, it was therefore ordered by the same power and Spirit of God, that marriages should be laid before the men's monthly and quarterly meetings, or as the meetings were then established, that Friends might see that the relations of those that pro- 286 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. ceeded to marriage were satisfied, and that the parties were clear from all others, and that widows had made provision for their first husband's children before they married again, and what else was needful to be inquired into, that so all things might be kept clean and pure, and done in righteousness to the glory of God. And afterwards it was ordered in the same wisdom of God, that if either of the parties that intended to marry came out of another nation, county, or monthly meeting, they should bring a certificate from the monthly meeting to which they belonged, for the satisfaction of the monthly meeting before which they came to lay their intentions of marriage." While it is evident from the foregoing passage that Fox only intended these regulations to apply fully when both parties were Quakers, it also seems clear that he did not contemplate that there would be any mixed marriages ; but as such marriages speedily oc- curred, the Quakers made it a rule that any one marry- ing out of their Church should be cut off from it, although after a period of probation, they were usually permitted to rejoin. The Friends, like the early Bap- tists, were often troubled by members who married out of the sect, the greater part of those who offended being women. Harsh as this rule appears at first sight, there can be no question as to its practical wisdom in bygone times, and indeed it is a moot point whether the Quakers have not lost rather than gained by its comparatively recent abolition. Of all mixed marriages those between a Quaker and a member of another creed would be the most unlikely to be happy. Little social matters which would be harmless and pleasant to the one, would appear sinful to the other. Every day and every hour of the day sympathies would clash, and the almost inevitable Q UA KER MA RRIA GES. 2S7 result would be that fear, distrust, and dislike would take the place of conjugal love. It is hardly reasonable to suppose that the marriage of a girl who had been brought up in the midst of luxury, had joined in dancing, laughed at plays, strolled about amidst the gay com- panies at Ranelagh or Cremorne, admired the paintings at Hampton Court or Somerset House, and listened de- lightedly to the songs of Carew, or later on to the music of Handel, could be altogether happy with one whose religion forbade all these things ; in whose house there was no instrument of music ; on whose walls hung no pictures, or could relinquish without regretful sighs her gay dresses, and put on the quaint, sober-hued garments which befitted the wife of a Quaker, unless at the same time she laid down her creed and took up her husband's. And was it certain that she would always do this ? The probability was that in a large number of cases she would not, and sooner than risk the consequent un- happiness, or at least consequent friction, the Friends wisely determined, not, as some have asserted, from mere bigotry, to disown those who married out of the Society. As time went on, manners changed ; amuse- ments became less coarse ; some of the evils the early Friends protested against died out ; and the silent protest against them consequently became meaningless. The difference between the Friends and other Christians grew gradually less marked and their relations less bitter, till, in 1858, it was felt unnecessary to continue — wisely or unwisely — the custom of disowning on account of an alien marriage, although the other rules regarding matri- mony were retained. The rules with regard to marriage are carried out not in the letter only, but in the spirit as well ; and they have worked so successfully as to more than justify their retention. Fox rightly considered that it was not 2SS GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. possible for everything connected with marriages to be done in too open or public a manner, and therefore Quakers who have agreed to enter the holy estate of matrimony — for the Society has always looked upon marriage as more than a mere civil contract — are re- quired to attend a meeting (and in early times were expected to be, if possible, accompanied by their parents, or to bring with them a written formal consent from these persons, signed in the presence of a witness), and there before the meeting to publicly avow their intention to marry. A committee of Friends is then appointed to examine whether the parties are free from other engagements to marry, and into such other matters as might render matrimony unlawful or inexpedient, and a report is made of the result of their enquiries. At a subsequent meeting the engaged couple again attend, and after signifying that they are still in the same mind, receive, should the report of the committee be favour- able, formal permission to marry. The marriage cere- mony — if so it can be called — is extremely simple. After a period of worship, the engaged man and woman stand up and solemnly take each other as husband and wife, and a certificate is read and signed. The greatest care is always exercised that the ceremony should be sufficiently witnessed and registered. In some of the most ancient meetings the marriage registers are pre- served since the year 1650. Shortly after this advice regarding espousals, Fox took a short journey into Hertfordshire to see some Friends and visit monthly meetings. He had always been fully alive to the importance of educating the young ; and on his return to London through Waltham (? Edmonton), chose that place as a fit one in which to set up a boys' school. He also advised that a school should be estab- lished at Shacklewell " for instructing girls and young QUAKER MARRIAGES. 289 maidens in whatsoever things were civil and useful in the creation." This was the beginning of the vast system of instruction which has made the Quakers, if not a scholarly body, at least a more than ordinarily well-edu- cated one. The Society has never lost its interest in education. At the present time its schools are amongst the best in the kingdom, and they have been so amply endowed that every Friend is able to procure for his children a good boarding-school education. In his will Fox left a piece of the ground which William Penn gave him in Philadelphia, for a botanical garden, and another piece as a playground for the children of that city. 1 From London, George now made a lengthened journey into the West of England, going even as far as the Land's End. At Minehead he tells us he held a general meeting of " the men Friends in Somersetshire, and there came also a cheat, whom some friendly people would have had me to have taken along with me. I saw he was a cheat, and therefore bid them bring him to me, and see whether he could look me in the face. Some were ready to think I was too hard towards him, because I would not let him go along with me ; but when they brought him to me he was not able to look me in the face, but looked hither and thither, for he was indeed a cheat, and had cheated a priest by pretending himself to be a minister, and had got the priest's suit and went away with it." This tour ended, Fox again returned to London, which from this time may be termed his head-quarters, "and stayed some time there, visiting Friends' meetings in and about the city." " While I was London," he tells us, " I went one day to visit him that was called Esquire Marsh, who had showed much kindness both to me and 1 Tallack, " Memoirs of George Fox." U 290 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. to Friends, and I happened to go when he was at dinner. He no sooner heard my name, but he sent for me up, and would have had me sit down with him to dinner, but I had not freedom to do so. There were several great persons at dinner with him, and he said to one of them, who was a great Papist, ' Here is a Quaker which you have not seen before.' The Papist asked me, ' Whether I did own the christening of children ? ' I told him, ' There was no Scripture for any such prac- tice.' 'What ! ' said he, 'not for christening children ?' I said, ' Nay.' I told him, The one baptism by the one spirit into one body we owned, but to throw a little water on a child's face and say that was baptizing and christening it, there was no Scripture for that. Then he asked me, ' Whether I did own the Catholic faith ? ' I said, 'Yes ;' but added, 'That neither the Pope nor the Papists were in that Catholic faith, for the true faith works by love and purifies the heart, and if they were in that faith that gives victory by which they might have access to God, they would not tell people of a purgatory after they were dead." Fox then went on to prove "that neither Pope nor Papists that held a purgatory hereafter were in the true faith," and declared that if true Catholics, they "would never use racks, prisons, and fires to persecute and force others to their religion that were not of their faith ; for this was not the practice of the apostles and primitive Christians who witnessed and enjoyed the true faith of Christ, but it was the practice of the faithless Jews and heathens so to do." " Oh ! " exclaimed Esquire Marsh, after a conversation, of which the Papist certainly did not get the best, had gone on for some time, " Oh ! you do not know this man ; if he would but come to church now and then he would be a brave man ! " Marsh and Fox then went into an adjoining room, to QUAKER MARRIAGES. 291 discuss some matters relating to the Friends, " for," says George, " he was a justice of peace for Middlesex, and being a courtier, the other justices put much of the management of matters upon him." "Now when we were alone," Fox continues, "he told me he was in a strait how to act between us and some other dissenters. ' For,' said he, 'you cannot swear, and the Independents, Bap- tists, and Fifth-Monarchy people say also they cannot swear, and therefore,' said he, ' how shall I know how to distinguish betwixt you and them, seeing they and you all say it is for conscience' sake that you cannot swear ? ' ' Then,' said I, ' I will show thee how to distinguish ; for they (or most of them) thou speakest of can and do swear in some cases, but we cannot swear in any case. If a man should steal their cows or horses, and thou shouldst ask them whether they would swear they were theirs, many of them would readily do it. But if thou try our Friends, they cannot swear for their own goods. Therefore when thou puttest the Oath of Allegiance to any of them ask them, Whether they can swear in any other case, as for their cow or horse ? which, if they be really of us, they cannot do, though they bear witness to the truth.' Hereupon I gave him a relation of a trial in Berkshire, which was thus : A thief stole two beasts from a friend of ours ; the thief was taken and cast into prison, and the Friend appeared against him at the assizes. But somebody having informed the judge that the man that prosecuted was a Quaker, and could not swear, the judge, before he heard what the Friend could say, said, ' Is he a Quaker ? and will he not swear ? Then tender him the Oaths of Allegiance and Supre- macy.' So he cast the Friend into prison and prce- munired him, and let the thief go at liberty who had stolen his goods. When I had related this case, Justice Marsh said, 'That judge was a wicked man.' 'But,' 292 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. said I, ' if we could swear in any case, we would take the Oath of Allegiance to the king, who is to preserve the laws that preserve every man his estate.' " Justice Marsh was afterwards very serviceable to Friends in this and other cases, for he kept several, both Friends and others, from being proemnnired in those parts where he was a justice. " And when Friends have been brought before him in the times of persecution, he set many of them at liberty ; and when he could not avoid sending some of them to prison, he sent some for a few hours or for a night. At length he went to the king and told him, ' He had sent some of us to prison contrary to his conscience, and he could not do so any more.' Whereupon he removed his family from Lime- house, where he lived, and took lodgings near James' Park. He told the king, ' That if he would be pleased to give liberty of conscience, that would quiet and settle all, for then none could have any pretence to be uneasy.' And indeed he was a very serviceable man to truth and Friends in his day." This year (1669) appears to have been a most pros- perous one for Quakerism in London. "The Lord's truth came over all," says Fox, " and many that had been out from truth came in again this year, confessing and condemning their former outgoings." CHAPTER XX. THE CONVENTICLE ACT. Fox visits the governor of Scarborough Castle. — His journey to Ireland. — Quakers in Ireland. — He returns to England. — Fox the Quaker turned Presbyterian. — His marriage with Margaret Fell. — "An holy seed." — Advises apprenticing Quaker children. — Margaret Fell again imprisoned. — Her release ordered by the king. — Sarah Fell. — The Conventicle Act of 1670. — Fox appeals to the magistrates. — Is taken before the Mayor of London. — A papist informer. — Why the Act should not take hold on Quakers. — The Friends keep to their meetings. — Fox dangerously ill. — He is moved to go to America. I "'OX now left London once more, and, after visit- X ing Surrey and Sussex, went into Yorkshire. By the way he held many meetings, and was constantly threatened with arrest, but time after time the Lord delivered him out of the hands of his almost innumer- able enemies. At York he presided at a very large quarterly meeting, and was comforted both at finding that the Society had greatly increased in numbers, and that the form of discipline he had established was considered so satisfactory that several requests came for the establishment of fresh monthly meetings. Without a thought of danger, he visited the neigh- bourhood of Scarborough, where he had so lately been a prisoner, and while there he received a message from Sir Jordan Crosslands, his whilom gaoler, inviting him to his house. " I hope you will not be so uncivil as not to call and see me and my wife," ran the quaint message; 294 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. so George went and was received with the utmost kind- ness, and found that Sir Jordan still continued to be kind to the followers of the man who " was as stiff as a tree, and as pure as a bell." But others were not inclined to be as friendly as the good governor of Scarborough Castle, but for them George cared neither jot nor tittle. Colonel Kirby, an old persecutor of his, had threatened to send him to prison if he could catch him, and had even offered forty pounds to any one who would arrest him ; but as the colonel was laid up with the gout, and as no one else seemed to be tempted by the reward, Fox held a large meeting near his house, at which " the Lord's power and presence was manifested eminently," and then went un- harmed on his way. After wandering through Staffordshire and Cheshire, he went to Liverpool, and from thence, in company with John Stubbs and three other friends, took ship for Dublin, for he had for some time " felt moved of the Lord " to visit Ireland. The very air, he remarks, had a different smell from that of England, and this he attri- butes to the corruption of the nation through " Popish massacres and the blood spilt thereat." He also tells us that he found a good many meetings in Ireland, and that they were in a most flourishing condition. 1 His 1 The Quakers obtained a footing in Ireland within a few years of the foundation of the Society. As early as 1655, Henry Cromwell told Secretary Thurloe, that in his opinion this sect was the most formidable enemy the government had in Ireland, and that they were becoming both numerous and reputable in the south, many of the principal officers attending their meetings openly. : ' Some think them," he says, "to have no design, but I am not of that opinion. Their conceited simplicity renders them the more dangerous. I wish they be not too much slighted in England. Sir H. Vane and such like who are as rotten in their principles, can make good use of such delusions as these, Fifth Monarchy Men and THE CONVENTICLE ACT. 295 adventures in Ireland were very similar to those he had had in England, though perhaps the opposition he met with was not quite so determined or so cruel. Here and there, there were some who were willing to persecute him, but "the Lord," he says, "disappointed all their counsels, defeated their designs against me, and, by His own good hand of Providence, preserved me out of all their snares, and gave us many sweet and precious opportunities to visit friends, and spread truth through that nation." At Cork, it is true, the Mayor — who hated Quakers — was exceedingly anxious to cast him into prison, and issued so many warrants against him that many good-hearted, but timid Friends, vainly endeavoured to dissuade him from visiting that city. While in Cork, the hand of God seems to have been specially over him, for though he rode past the mayor's house, and that functionary was heard to exclaim, "There goes George Fox," he was not seriously molested. " Let the devil do his worst," was his reply to those friends who brought him news of the nets which were being made to catch him. It is worthy of note, that in the full account of the visit he gives us in his Journal, he makes no mention of the miserable social condition of the people ; and yet it is as impossible to conceive that he did not notice, as it would be to believe that he did not deplore it. The truth would seem to be, that he had gone over to Ireland to build up the Church, which others had founded, and the like, to carry on their design." In the following year Nieu- poort, the Dutch ambassador in England, wrote to the States General : "They write overthither out of Ireland, that the Quakers do increase there very much ; and that by these means some mutiny had happened in the regiment of Colonel Phaier ; but that the same was pacified, and the authors sent for up." Thurloe, " State Papers," vol. iv. p. 5. See Wight, " Quakers in Ireland." 296 GEORGE EOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. to spread the truth where it had not already reached, and that this, and this only, he deemed worthy of men- tion in his Journal ; but be this as it may, it is certain that he did build up the Church, and did spread the truth in such a manner that his influence has not yet died out. His return voyage to Liverpool was not a pleasant one, for, short as the distance is, he was kept two nights at sea by the rough weather. From Liverpool he travelled through Gloucestershire 1 to Bristol, where he found Margaret Fell, who had now been a widow for several years, and who was on a visit to her married daughter, Mrs. Yeomans, and here hap- pened one of the most important events of his life — his marriage. " I had seen for a considerable time before," says Fox, in his Journal, " that I should take Margaret Fell to be my wife. And when I first mentioned it to her, she felt the answer of life from God thereunto. But, though the Lord had opened this thing unto me, yet I had not received a command from the Lord for the accomplishing of it then ; wherefore, I let the thing rest, and went on in the work and service of the Lord as before, according as the Lord led me, travelling up and down in this 1 At Nailsworth George found a report in circulation to the effect that he had turned Presbyterian, that a pulpit had been set up in a yard for him, and that on the following day a thousand people would assemble to hear him preach. This arose from the fact that a travelling Presbyterian preacher, named John Fox, was in the place, and had arranged to hold a meeting, and that either by accident or design the name George had been substituted for John. As John Fox turned out to be a cruel and avaricious man, the people were soon undeceived ; and on learning that the real George Fox was close by, the greater part of the Presbyterian preacher's congregation deserted him, and went to the Friend's meeting. It was commonly said by many that they preferred George Fox the Quaker to George Fox the Presbyterian. THE CONVENTICLE ACT. 297 nation and through the nation of Ireland. But now, after I was come back from Ireland and was come to Bristol, and Margaret Fell there, it opened in me from the Lord that the thing should be now accomplished. And, after we had discoursed the thing together, I told her, if she also was satisfied with the accomplishing of it now, she should first send for her children ; which she did. And when the rest of her daughters were come, I asked both them and her sons-in-law, if they had any- thing against or for it, desiring them to speak, and they all severally expressed their satisfaction therein. Then I asked Margaret, If she had fulfilled and performed her husband's will to her children ? She replied, The children knew that. Whereupon I asked them, Whether if their mother married, they should not lose by it ? And I asked Margaret, Whether she had done anything in lieu of it, which might answer it to the children ? The children said, She had answered it to them, and desired me to speak no more of that. I told them, I was plain, and would have all things done plainly, for I sought not any outward advantage to myself. So, after I had acquainted the children with it, our intention of marriage was laid before Friends, both privately and publicly, to the full satisfaction of Friends, many of whom gave testimony that it was of God." The wedding which followed was a very quiet, though, almost of necessity, a very public one. A special meet- ing was appointed at Broadmead Meeting-house, which was filled to overflowing by Friends, many of whom came from long distances to be present. Many " living and weighty testimonies," we are told, were borne of the satisfaction the event gave to the Quakers, and of their belief that the wedding was in accordance with the will of God ; and a certificate, which is still in ex- istence, and is the oldest document of the kind extant 298 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. relating the circumstances of the marriage, and record- ing that the ceremony had duly taken place, was signed by more than ninety witnesses. 1 Few circumstances in Fox's life reflect more credit upon him than his marriage. In whatever light we look at it, it was a wise and an honourable act. His patience is shown by the way in which he waited till he felt that the time had come "for the accomplishment of it ; " his unselfishness in that though he married a rich woman, he was careful that he should gain no worldly advantage by the match. Before the marriage, as we have seen, he got the consent of his wife's relations, and ascertained that none of them would lose by it ; after it, he never attempted to interfere with his wife's ministry because his comfort was lessened by her absence. His wife brought him neither beauty nor youth, for she was about fifty-five years old at this time — more than ten years older than her husband — and her good looks had long since vanished through trouble and imprison- ment ; but she did bring him a pure and loving heart, a cheerful kindly spirit, and an earnest and appreciative sympathy in his troubles, and hearty and loyal assistance in his work. There can be no doubt that the marriage was purely one of sincere affection on both sides, for certainly neither gained in any other way by it, and the letters which afterwards passed between them show that their love was mutual, strong, and enduring. It would indeed be curious, if the numerous oppo- nents of Quakerism — the majority of whom were not troubled with much delicacy, over-scrupulousness, or too strict a regard for truth — had not attempted to make capital out of this marriage. It may be well to give one anecdote to show what kind of scandals was 1 See note H. THE CONVENTICLE ACT. 299 set about. Leslie, the notorious author of " The Snake in the Grass," a book written to damage Quakerism by fair means or foul, declares that George " made a great figure of his marriage," and asserts that he had said in one of his epistles to the Friends, that it was like " the Church coming out of the wilderness." This letter is not to be found in Fox's printed epistles, so Leslie pro- ceeds to explain the reason for its omission. " But why was it not printed ? " he asks. "That is a sad story. But take it thus. He (George Fox), married one Mar- garet Fell, a widow, of about threescore years of age, and this figure of the Church must not be barren : there- fore, though she was past childbearing, it was expected that, as Sarah, she should miraculously conceive, and bring forth an Isaac, which George Fox promised and boasted of, and some that I know heard him do it more than once. She was called the Lamb's wife ; and it was said among the Quakers that the Lamb had not taken his wife, and she would bring forth an holy seed. And big she grew, and all things were provided for the lying in ; and he being persuaded of it, gave notice to the Churches as above observed. But after long waiting all proved abortive, and the figure was spoilt. And now you may know the reason why that Epistle which men- tioned this figure was not printed." 1 The story is so utterly ridiculous and so manifestly a fabrication, that it would be little less than an insult to the reader to attempt to formally disprove it ; and all I will permit myself to say on the matter is, that I have been unable to find a single scrap of corroborative evi- dence of any kind. Fox and his wife only allowed themselves a brief honeymoon. After staying about a week in Bristol, they 1 Leslie, " Discourse on Water Baptism," vol. ii. p. 707. 300 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. went as far as Oldstone together, and there solemnly taking " leave of each other in the Lord," the newly- made husband and wife separated, the one going on a preaching expedition to London, and the other return- ing to her house at Swarthmore, and her work of assist- ing the Friends in the North. George tells us he did not stay long in London, for " finding things there quiet and well," he determined to visit Leicestershire, and wrote to his wife asking her to meet him there if she could manage to do so ; but he stayed sufficiently long to write an epistle to the various quarterly meetings, directing them to find out whether any poor Friends had children of sufficient age to be apprenticed, and if so to procure them situations with Quakers, at the expense of the Society. He pro- posed that each meeting should place out at least four during the year, if they could find so many deserving children within their district. When George arrived in his native county, instead of his wife being there to welcome him, he heard that she had been "haled out of her house and carried to Lan- caster prison again by an order gotten from the king and council to fetch her back to prison upon the old praemu- nire, though she had been discharged from that imprison- ment by an order from the king and council the year before." Fox felt that, anxious as there can be no doubt he was to procure his wife's release, it was his duty to attend to his ministerial work before he attempted to have the matter brought under the king's notice, and accordingly he visited many Friends and held " large and blessed meetings," both in Leicestershire and the counties he passed through on his return journey to London. But once in London, he lost no time in sending two of Margaret's children to plead with the king for the discharge of their mother. The required THE CONVENTICLE ACT. 301 order was somewhat difficult to procure, and it was only after many visits to Whitehall that a letter was obtained directing that Margaret Fox should be immediately set at liberty, and permitted to enjoy her lands in peace. 1 This letter was carried into Lancashire by Margaret's daughters, Sarah Fell 2 and Mrs. or, as she was called, Sister Rous, and by whom Fox sent the following letter to his wife : — " My dear heart in the truth and life that changeth not. It was upon me that Mary Lower and Sarah Fell should go to the king concerning thy imprisonment, and to Kirby, that the power of the Lord might appear over them all in thy deliverance. They went, and then they thought to have come down, but it was upon me to stay them a little longer, that they might follow the business till it was effected, which it now is, and is here sent down. The late declaration of mine hath been very serviceable, people being generally satisfied with it. So no more but my love in the Holy Seed. — G. Fox." Before the first Conventicle Act was passed in 1664, 1 One of Margaret Fell's sons was a man of very loose character, and was much annoyed because, having refused his consent to his mother's marriage with Fox, it had been dispensed with. From the Swarthmore MSS., we learn that her imprisonment was sup- posed to be at the instance of this son. 2 S,arah Fell was not only a most fervent and eloquent female Quaker minister, but also a very beautiful and fascinating woman. Croese says that she had great abilities and an extraordinarily good memory, and that she was no mean scholar. Those who accuse the Friends of under-estimating the importance of Holy Scrip- ture, may be interested to know that this woman learned Hebrew in order that she might more fully understand the Old Testament by being able to read it in the original. She is said to have acquired so great a knowledge of this language, that she wrote religious tracts in it. An account of her is given in Croese's "General History of the Quakers" (Ed. 1696), p. 47. 302 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the Friends sent a deputation to Parliament to remon- strate against it, on the ground that it would not tend to make them better Christians or more faithful subjects ; but, although their petition was ably supported by the poet Waller and several other influential members, it was utterly disregarded. The succeeding Act was made more severe, and was passed during this year (1670). Permitting, as it did, a single justice of the peace to decide all cases raised under it, it opened so easy a door to extortion, that it is no wonder that the utmost advantage it allowed was taken by greedy informers. The Quakers were at once marked down as especial victims for this legal black-mail, for from them no re- sistance was to be feared, however great the provoca- tion. Although Fox had but faint hope of moving the magistrates to show mercy to those brought before them under this abominable Act, he felt it his duty to write them an epistle, beseeching them to be considerate. " O Friends," he says, with a simple pathos which is infinitely touching, "O Friends, consider this Act which limits our meetings to five. Is this, do as ye would be done by ? Would ye be so served yourselves ? We own Christ Jesus as well as you, His coming, His death, and resurrection ; and if we be contrary minded to you in some things, is not this the apostle's ex- hortation, to ' wait till God hath revealed it ' ? Doth he not say, 'what is not of faith, is sin'? Seeing we have not faith in things which ye would have us to do, would it not be a sin in us if we should act contrary to our faith? Why should any man have power over any other man's faith, seeing Christ is the author of it ? . . . Would not this Act have taken hold of the twelve apostles and seventy disciples, for they often met to- gether? If there had been a law made then, that not THE CONVENTICLE ACT. 3°3 above five should have met with Christ, would not that have been a hindering Him from meeting with His dis- ciples ? Do ye think that He, who is the wisdom of God, or His disciples would have obeyed it ? . . . Oh, therefore consider ! for we are Christians, and partake of the nature and life of Christ. Strive not to limit the Holy One ; for God's power cannot be limited, and is not to be quenched. Do unto all men as ye would have them do unto you, for that is the law and the prophets." Fox also wrote a letter to his followers, exhorting them to hold fast to their meetings and not to fear what man could do unto them. No sooner was the Act in force than the persecution broke out pitilessly ; so horrible was it, that Hallam declares "no severity comparable to this -cold blooded persecution had been inflicted by the late powers, even in the ferment and fury of a civil war." 1 The first Sunday after the Act came in force, Fox went to the meeting-place in Gracechurch Street ; for here, as he tells us, he expected " the storm would begin." " When I came there," he says, " I found the street full of people, and a guard set to keep Friends out of their meeting-house. I went thereupon to the other passage that goes out of Lombard Street, and there also I found a guard ; but the court was full of people and a Friend was speaking amongst them, but spake not long. And when he had done I stood up, and was moved to say, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? It is hard for thee to kick against that that pricks thee. Then I showed that it was Saul's nature that persecutes still, and that they who persecute Christ in His members now, where He is made manifest, kick against that that pricks them." He had not spoken long when a con- 1 Hallam, " Constitutional History" (Ed. 1870), p. 532. 3 sometimes for less than half their value ; they took (at that time) thirty head of cattle from me. Their inten- tions were to ruin us and weary us out, and to enrich themselves ; but the Lord prevented them." 1 The capture of a number of English Quakers by the Algerian pirates, about this time, gave the Friends who were in safety at home a large amount of anxiety ; and effort after effort was made to release or relieve them. In 1684 a collection to provide their ransom was pro- posed at the Yearly Meeting, and was warmly recom- mended to all the quarterly meetings in England and abroad. From this time (till no longer necessary), en- 1 Maria Webb, " The Fells of Swarthmore," p. 336. 368 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. deavours were made to release these unhappy people, some of whom had been " convinced " during their captivity. The Yearly Meeting in 1700, when the King ordered a general collection to be made for the ransom of the English prisoners in Algiers, " recommended that when the collectors came with briefs to Friends' houses, they should extend their charity . . . towards the redemption of other English captives," not members of the Society. It was Fox's desire that Friends should set an ex- ample of plainness and neatness in dress, though he did not lay the stress on the avoidance of colours that many of his followers thought so essential ; in fact, it may not inaccurately be said, the distinguishing quietism of the body was rather forced upon, than inculcated by, him. Yet he could not but be sensible that if overmuch thought was given to the " adorning of the body " too little would fall to the share of the " adorning of the soul." There had of late years been a marked increase of gaiety in dress among the younger female members of the sect ; the quaint bonnets had given place to a coquettish-looking headgear, known as the " skimming- dish hat," and other alterations had been made which showed a greater amount of pride than was becoming to Quakers or even to Christian women. To combat this real if minor evil, he wrote an address, in which he moderately and earnestly deprecates the obnoxious changes. So sensible is this paper that it must always be read with pleasure, and might with advantage be reprinted in this age, when the follies of fashion have reached a pitch of which Fox was incapable of imagin- ing. It seems to me deeply to be regretted that the Friends no longer keep to the quaint, useful, and neat costume which for nearly two centuries was so strong a protest against the ever-growing vice of extravagance in dress. THE FRIENDS IN HOLLAND. 369 The year 1685 was marked by the death of Charles II., and the accession of his brother, James II., who was even less fitted to govern than the careless scapegrace he succeeded. Charles permitted persecutions, of which he was too kind-hearted to approve, to continue because he was too indolent to interfere or too timid to oppose ; while James endeavoured to prevent them, not because he disliked them or approved of freedom of conscience, but because he could only hope to procure toleration for the Catholics by extending it to all other dis- senters. The Quakers had a powerful friend at the court of the new King in William Penn, who, had he been sufficiently dishonest, had a fair opportunity of becoming as power- ful a favourite with James as Buckingham was with his grandfather. Time after time the Friends brought their sufferings before the notice of the King, till at length, either from a sense of justice, or because he hoped to gain the suffrages of a body which now numbered about seventy thousand members, James ordered the prison doors to be opened and all the Friends set at liberty. 1 This act was not unprecedented ; for, some fifteen years before, Charles had done a similar deed. Among those then released was one who, despite his 1 Alarsden, in his " History of Christian Sects and Churches," vol. 1. p. 446, gives an interesting resume oi a petition presented to James II. on his accession by the Quakers. It called attention to the fact that during the late reigns no less than 5,100 Friends had been imprisoned for conscience' sake in England and Wales alone, of whom 1,383 had been imprisoned for refusing to take the oaths. It also pointed out that many had died in gaol from suffocation and malignant fevers, and more been ruined by "outrageous distresses and woeful havoc committed by merciless informers," and recited many instances of the damage the persecution had done to the trade of the kingdom. The whole document is worthy of careful study. B B 37° GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. general charity, was no lover of those who had procured his liberation, John Bunyan. 1 Such an event as the release of some fifteen or six- teen hundred Quakers Fox felt was indeed a joyful one, and he made haste to remind the Friends that they should show their gratitude to God by increased strict- ness and holiness of life, and to the king by continuing loyal, obedient, and peaceful subjects, and this he did in a letter of singular beauty. " My desires are," he wrote in October, 1686, "that both liberty and sufferings may be sanctified to His (God's) people ; that Friends may prize the mercies of the Lord in all things, and to Him be thankful who stilleth the raging waves of the sea, allayeth the storms and tempest, and maketh a calm. Therefore it is good to trust in the Lord, and 1 " John Bunyan was one of those released from prison by the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, which suspended the penal laws against Nonconformists. Soon after its publication, Charles was induced by George Whitehead, Thomas Moor, and Thomas Green (all Quaker preachers) to grant under the great seal a general pardon and discharge to all Quakers in prison, numbering about 400, many of whom had been separated from their families and homes for six or seven years. Some of the other dissenters, seeing the success of the Friends, applied to George Whitehead for advice and assistance in a similar application ; and through his aid the names of several other dissenters, Presbyterians, Inde- pendents, and Baptists were added." — {Janney : " Life of George Fox," p. 340.) There is an amusing story told of John Bunyan and a Quaker, but whether true or not is uncertain. While Bunyan was in gaol a Quaker called on him with a message from the Lord, and said he had been with it through half the gaols in England, and was glad to have found him at last. " If the Lord had sent you," retorted Bunyan, " you would not have needed to take such trouble to find me out, for He knows that I have been in Bedford gaol these seven years past." The original document of release above referred to is preserved at the Quaker Institute at Devon- shire House, Bishopsgate. THE FRIENDS IN HOLLAND 37i cast your care upon Him who careth for you ; for when you were in gaols and prisons, the Lord by His eternal power upheld you, and sanctified them to you. . . . Let all God's people be diligent and careful to keep the camp of God holy, pure, and clean, and to serve God and Christ and one another in the glorious, peaceable gospel of life and salvation." As we get further on in Fox's life, the temptation to give extracts from his letters becomes stronger and stronger ; for as the years roll on they become more and more catholic in tone, tender, and sympathetic. He does not get less earnest for the spread of Quakerism, but he realizes more fully that it is only one branch of the great Church of Christ. He does not think less of his duty to God, but he thinks more of his duty to man ; as he became less able to depend on himself, he became increasingly anxious for the comfort of others. A stri- king instance of this is furnished by his gift of a house, grounds, and furniture he possessed at Swarthmore, for the benefit of ministers whose duty might call them there. The deed of gift is remarkable for the thought- ful consideration it shows for the comfort of intended guests, and the anxiety the giver manifests that the works he wishes executed should be well done and at his sole expense, but is unfortunately so long, that I have felt unable to place it in the body of the work, and so have been unwillingly obliged to relegate it to the Appendix. 1 Fox's health continued, surely if slowly, to fail. Time after time we find him compelled to rest, now for a few days, now for weeks and even months together. He felt his duty called him to remain in London, but its closeness told so severely on his frame that he was 1 See note I. 372 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. obliged to retire either to Kingston-on-Thames or to Gooses, in Essex, after every brief residence in the city. As often as his health would permit, he attended meet- ings ; but he was seldom able to sit one through, and when he did was generally obliged to retire to the house of some friends who lived near, that he might lie down till the fatigue had passed away sufficiently for him to return home. After the Yearly Meeting in 1689, even this became too great an exertion ; and during the autumn and winter, which he spent with his son-in-law William Mead at Gooses, he was seldom able to go outside the house. Yet he was not wholly deprived of the means of worshipping with others ; for loving friends gathered around him, and Sunday after Sunday a little meeting was formed, and he was able to strengthen others as well as himself " in the most holy faith." When he could he also occupied himself in writing letters and tractates, all breathing a loving and thank- ful, rather than a theological and dogmatic spirit. CHAPTER XXIV. NUNC DIMITTIS. The beginning of the end. — The Toleration Act. — George's last epistle. — He is taken ill at a meeting in Gracechurch Street. — The spreading of truth. — His death. — The funeral. — Bunhill Fields. — His character. — Ellwood's testimony.— Fox's religious teaching. — Quakerism after the death of Fox. *" I "TIE end was now drawing very near. Though Fox _L was not old in years, sorrow and suffering, labour and privation, imprisonment and sickness, had made him prematurely aged. The voice, once so loud that it could be heard above whatever din was made to drown it, had become thin, hesitating, and feeble. The eyes, once so piercing that their glance was a thing to dread, were now hollow and dim. The hair, which, not so many years before, had fallen in luxuriant curls on his shoulders — to the great offence of narrow-minded brethren — was now thin and scanty, while the active limbs, trained by long use till they rivalled those of the professed athlete, could scarce bear the attenuated, yet once corpulent, body the bare half-mile which stretched between the dwelling and the meeting-house ; and the speed, which had gained him the reputation of a wizard, was reduced to the gait of a little child. But the intellect remained as keen as ever. If the body had grown old the mind had remained young, and the spirit had be- come more loving and sympathetic, more gentle and evangelical. Fox had indeed renewed his youth like the eagle, till he had almost attained the fulness of the 373 374 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. stature of the perfect man. The sheaf was fast getting ripe, and the angel was whetting his scythe to gather it into the garner of the Master. The guest was prepared for the summons, and the Marriage Supper was well- nigh ready. If the Yearly Meeting of 1690 was a very quiet, it was a very thankful and joyful one. For the first time in their history the Quakers had some tangible security against oppression and persecution. The Toleration Act which had just become law, might not be entirely satisfactory, and assuredly did not give a quarter of the relief the Friends desired, or, ere long, gained ; but it effectually prevented the scenes of riot and cruelty from which they had hitherto so constantly suffered. Never more would the children writhe under the lash of in- furiated bigots ; never again would the parents lie crowded in loathsome dungeons till the malaria ended their sufferings. The snake of oppression was scotched, if not killed ; and we can well imagine that, as he looked around on the assembly over which he was never again to preside, the prayer of Simeon came into George's mind, and he too said with a prophetic earnestness, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." For some years past it had been his custom to write a sort of postscript to the epistle the Yearly Meeting sent to the many subsections scattered over England; and now he roused himself to do it for the last time. There is nothing about Quakerism in his letter ; the words, " Divine Light," never once occur ; but it is full of the importance of " trusting in God and believing in Christ." " And now, dear Friends and brethren, everywhere, that are of the flock of Christ," it concludes, " Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us all keep NUNC DIMITTIS. 375 this heavenly feast of our passover in His New Testa- ment and covenant, not with old leaven, neither of malice nor wickedness ; but let all that be purged out, with the sour old leavened bread, that all may become a new lump, and so keep this heavenly feast to Christ, our heavenly Passover, with the unleavened bread of sin- cerity and truth. Amen." His few remaining weeks of life were passed very quietly. He made some short journeys into the country to attend and establish meetings, and paid several visits to the House of Parliament, which had before it a couple of bills, which he feared might affect Friends injuriously unless steps were taken to prevent their enemies insert- ing clauses which could militate against their religious liberty. One of these bills related to oaths, and the other to clandestine marriages ; and by means of inter- views he had with members to whom he explained his views, he managed to achieve his object. Then he went to Ford Green, and after spending a few weeks there in retirement, and during which he wrote one or two quiet, earnest epistles — he returned to London for the last time, " and was almost daily with Friends at meet- ings." On the tenth of the eleventh month, he wrote a letter to the Friends in Ireland, who were, owing to the struggle between James and William, enduring considerable suf- ferings, to comfort them in their afflictions, and then — it was Saturday night — he made up his journal. The next morning, despite the severe cold, he went to Gracechurch-street meeting, and, we are told, " engaged in prayer and testimony in a powerful and affecting manner." " The Lord enabled him to preach the truth fully and effectually," says a contemporary writer, " opening many deep and weighty things with great power and clearness." The meeting over, one by one 376 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. the Friends bade him farewell, and he withdrew to the house of Henry Goldney, a Quaker, whose home was hard by. " I feel the cold strike to my heart," he said to some Friends who accompanied him, and then he added, " I am glad I was here — now I am clear — fully clear." He seems to have felt he was standing on the precincts of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He lay down to rest — his custom after a meeting which had tired him ; but the sensation of coldness in- creasing, he went to bed, and became conscious that very gradually his strength was ebbing away. Death was coming to him as a friend, and he waited for his ghostly visitant in " much contentment and peace." There was still somewhat on his mind. As we have seen, he did not greatly value mere tradition, knowing that little by little it gets distorted, till in time the original can only be traced with difficulty. Quakerism was in no fear of alteration while he lived ; but he was conscious that after his decease it could only be pre- served in its pristine purity by having some standard to which future generations might refer. Sending for some special friends, he communicated to them his wish that Quaker literature might be widely diffused, in order that an authority might be supplied, and at the same time the tenets he had advocated be further spread. " All is well," he said when he had thus eased his mind, "all is well — the seed of God reigns over all, and over death itself. Though I am weak in body, yet the power of God is over all, and the seed reigns over all disorderly spirits." As the end drew nearer, he seems to have endured a considerable amount of pain ; for in reply to one who asked him about his sufferings, he replied feebly, " Never heed ; the Lord's power is over all weakness and death." NUNC DIMTTTIS. 377 As he felt his last moments approaching, George closed his eyes, and waited for the end. It was not long in coming, for within four days after he had been taken ill, he joined the company of the Redeemed. ***** Fox died on Wednesday, and at mid-day, Saturday, the narrow streets about his meeting-place in Whitehart Yard were thronged by Quakers, many of whom had come long distances to be present at the funeral of their " ancient and faithful friend." Within the little meeting- house a solemn service was taking place. One after another, for the space of two hours, the Friends rose to bear their testimony to the worth and piety and " the blessed ministry of the dear servant of the Lord," who was taken from them. " They spoke," says the writer who added the last sad words to George's journal, of " his early entering into the Lord's work at the break- ing forth of this Gospel-day, of his innocent life, long and great travels, and unwearied labours of love in the everlasting Gospel ; for the turning and gathering many thousands from darkness to the light of Christ Jesus, the foundation of true faith ; of his manifold sufferings, afflictions, and oppositions which he met withal for his faithful testimony, both from his open adversaries and from false brethren ; and his preservations, deliverances, and dominion in, out of, and over them all by the power of God." Then loving hands lifted the coffin, and, fol- lowed by a procession ostentatious only in point of numbers, they bore it to the grave. Perhaps there is no more dreary burial-ground among the dreary churchyards in London, than that of Bunhill Fields ; and yet there are few more interesting. Again and again, as we walk through it, we pause to look at the graves of those who have done much to make the 378 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. literary history of our land. On the one hand lies the beautiful allegorist, John Bunyan ; on the other the in- comparable novelist, De Foe, while around are scattered the graves of Dr. Watts, whose hymns have smoothed so many dying pillows ; of Daniel Neal, the historian of Puritanism ; of Dr. Williams, whose free library has become so invaluable to theologians ; of John Home Tooke, the " father of English Radicalism " ; of William Blake, and of many others whose names are honoured and known wherever English is spoken. At the close of the seventeenth century Bunhill was emphatically a Quaker burial ground. Here lay the eleven hundred Friends who had died of the plague ; and here, too, lay the gentle preacher, Edward Bur- rough, the scholarly Samuel Fisher, the man of meek- ness, humility, and temperance, Richard Hubberthorne, and the hundred others who had died in Newgate or on board the ship which was to carry them captives for conscience sake to the West Indies ; and here — surely the fittest place that could be found — the grave of Fox was made. No headstone marked the place of his interment, and on the coffin-lid a plain plate recorded the bare facts that the founder of Quakerism lived, died, and was buried. Later on, a stone bearing the initials G. F. was placed on the grave-yard wall, to denote the spot where the "honoured elder" lay sleeping ; but when, some years later, the wall was pulled down to enlarge the ground, the stone was broken by a Quaker, who deemed it use- less, and thought it attracted more attention than was fitting. A few years after Fox's death, three of his friends and fellow-workers were laid by his side, Stephen Crisp, the earnest defender of Quakerism, George Watts, the enthusiastic minister, and Alexander Parker, whose love NUNC DIMITTIS. 379 for his leader and his family well-nigh surpassed the love of women. 1 * * * * In one sense it is not difficult to sum up the character of George Fox ; in another, it is the reverse. There are ho deep shadows or brilliant lights, no rugged edges or striking outlines in it. It is eminently unpicturesque. Its beauty is that of a lake under a summer sun, bright, pure, placid. We meet no dark abysses of cynicism, no whirlpools of passion, no masterless rapids of excitement. It is the character of a man entirely master of himself, because entirely servant of his God. The life of Fox divides itself naturally into three periods. The first is marked by overwhelming melan- choly ; night after night he spends in the open air, con- vinced he is foredoomed to perdition, and, so far from rebelling against the decree, persuaded that his offences have been so enormous that he well deserves his fate. The second period is marked by the wild enthusiasm which succeeded this cast-off morbidness ; and we find him preaching (at first) he hardly knows what, and doing acts for which he can give no satisfactory reason. The third period sees him adopting — not entirely at his own wish — a sort of quietism, which permits his better nature to have full play, and makes him an object of affection which almost amounted to veneration, to all 1 Mr. Samuel Sturge says that " a London Friend, when a lad, about a century after the interment of Fox, helping some men to remove a wall to enlarge Bunhill Fields burial ground, saw a coffin which by the initials he identified with George Fox ; and he, when the rest were gone for a meal, opened it and saw a corpse with a fine countenance and long white hair. He ran to find his father, also at work in another part of the ground ; in descending they shook the ladder, and it slipped, and all went to undistinguishable dust." — Beck: "George Fox and His Times." 3So GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. who knew him, as well as one of the mightiest instru- ments of religious reform since the days of the Apostles. But in all three periods we see the same pure and child- like character, the same humble and loving heart, the same implicit faith in human nature, and the same all- absorbing desire for the increase of Christ's kingdom on earth, and the alleviation of the miseries of mankind. Truly his was a character to contemplate, to admire, and to imitate. It is a striking monument to Fox, that none of his enemies — and their name was legion — ever seriously attacked his private life. By universal allowance, his standard of morals was high, and he acted up to it. He was neither mean, sordid, nor miserly. His charity and unselfishness were proverbial. On means never large he supported himself while he laboured for the good of others, and when, upon his marriage, he might have become rich, he put away the chance : " he sought not any outward advantage to himself." Always affectionate, as he grew older Fox became more tender. He was a good son, a good husband, and a good step-father in the best sense of the word. In the " Testimony " his wife's children wrote to his memory, they record that he was a man to whom they ever looked for counsel, and that the esteem they from the first entertained for him, grew gradually and constantly stronger as long as he lived. He had, too, the faculty of gaining friends ; and once gained he never lost them. Rich or poor, all who knew him loved him and would do anything to serve him. " His was a very innocent life," says William Penn, — " no busy-body, no self- seeker, neither touchy nor critical. So meek, contented, modest, easy, steady ; it was a pleasure to be in his com- pany. A most merciful man, as ready to forgive as unapt to take offence," and " he was civil beyond the NUNC DIMITTIS. 3§i forms of breeding." In fact, there was an undefinable charm about George which irresistibly attracted men of all ranks. When, as a lad, William Caton first met him at Judge Fell's house, he tells us that he felt disgusted with Fox because his manners were decidedly plebeian ; but in a short time he was charmed into becoming one of his warmest admirers. There must have been something as beautiful as it was uncommon in the character which could command with equal ease, not only the religious adherence, but the devoted friendship of scholars like Keith and Barclay, of courtiers like Penn and Marsh, of labourers like Halhead and Hubbersty, and of women so different as Sarah Fell and Elizabeth Hooten. Perhaps the most striking features in George's cha- racter were his sound practical wisdom, his clear far- sightedness, and his sympathy with all in suffering. 1 No grief was too small for him to attempt to assuage, no evil too great for him to attack. " Nothing," says Clark- son, " that could be deplored by humanity could escape his eye." One author, who has sneeringly called him an "universal reformer," has only done him unintentional justice. There is scarcely a social evil in the world that 1 When Fox was only six-and-twenty he gave strong proof of these faculties. In an address to Parliament for " The taking away of oppressive laws," etc., he makes the following among other almost equally valuable suggestions : — " Let none be gaolers that are drunkards, swearers, or oppressors of the people ; but such as may be good examples to the prisoners. And let none lie long in gaol, for that is the way to spoil people and to make more thieves ; for there they learn wickedness together : let all gaols be in whole- some places : let no swearer nor drunkard bear any office whatever, nor be put in any place : let none keep ale-houses or taverns but those who fear God, that will not let the creatures of God be destroyed by drunkenness : let neither beggars nor blind people, nor father- less, nor widows, nor cripples, go begging up and down the streets; but that a house may be provided for them all, and also meat, that there may be never a beggar among you." 3S2 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Quakers have not assailed, or a good work they have not encouraged ; and in both cases their actions can be directly traced to the advice and instigation of their great founder. It would be impossible for me better to sum up this brief and faulty sketch of Fox's character than by quo- ting the "Testimony" of his warm-hearted friend, Thomas Ellwood : " He was valiant for the truth, bold in assert- ing it, patient in suffering for it, unwearied in labouring in it, steady in his testimony to it, unmovable as a rock. Deep was he in Divine knowledge, clear in opening heavenly mysteries, plain and powerful in preaching, quick in discerning, sound in judgment, able and ready in giving, discreet in keeping counsel, a lover of righteous- ness, an encourager of virtue, justice, temperance, meek- ness, purity, chastity, modesty, humility, charity, and self-denial in all, both by word and example. Graceful was he in countenance, manly in personage, grave in gesture, courteous in conversation, weighty in communi- cation, instructive in discourse, free from affectation in speech or carriage. A severe reprover of hard and obstinate sinners, a mild and gentle admonisher of such as were tender, and sensible of their failings ; not apt to resent personal wrongs ; easy to forgive injuries ; but zealously earnest where the honour of God, the prosperity of the truth, the peace of the Church were concerned. Very tender, compassionate, and pitiful was he to all that were under any sort of affliction ; full of brotherly love, full of fatherly care ; for indeed the care of the Churches of Christ was daily upon him, the prosperity and peace whereof he studiously sought. Beloved was he of God, beloved of God's people ; and (which was not the least part of his honour) the common butt of all apostates' envy, whose good, notwithstanding, he ear- nestly sought." NUNC DIMITTIS. 383 Where there is so much to praise, it may seem un- gracious to attempt to criticize Fox's religious teaching ; but I feel it would be little less than dishonest to pass by some two or three points without notice. In the first place, as a Quaker author has justly remarked, he " spiritualized away the actuality of the personal mani- festation and humanity of the Redeemer to an extent that has at various periods brought grave dangers on the Society he organized." It is highly improbable that he ever intended this ; but, unhappily, his writings are often so vague that entirely opposite deductions are drawn from them by different sections of his professed followers. Thus, in America, Quakerism is split into two parties, the belief of the one entirely opposed to that of the other. Fox was so filled with the import- ance of the doctrine of the Divine Light, that he totally neglected to lay sufficient stress on the mediatorial work of Christ. If we accept this doctrine to its fullest extent, does not the death of our Blessed Lord become a work of supererogation ? The excessive spiritualization has exercised a dangerous influence in diminishing the per- sonal love of man to his Saviour ; and one result has been, that the chief defections from the Quaker body have been in a deistical direction. Another fault in Fox's teaching was, that he systematically underrated the value of a fixed and specially educated ministry. In the stirring times in which he lived, religious enthusiasm ran high, and this very fervour in some degree supplied the need of such a ministry ; but when times changed, and a period of religious coldness set in, the Society felt the lack of it. In many country places, we are toid, weeks and sometimes months passed without a word being spoken at the meetings for worship ; as a natural consequence, the members fell away ; and the Society, which at the death of Fox contained seventy 384 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. thousand members, twenty years ago numbered barely fourteen. While no one who has ever attended a silent meeting can have failed to be impressed with its awful solemnity, or to be convinced what a vast influence for good such gatherings must exercise, we must not forget that " faith cometh by hearing." The excessive quietness and plainness of the Quakers during the last century must not, as is generally done, be blamed — if we may use the word — to Fox ; for it was the work of his followers, and did not become extremely marked until after his death. There is little doubt that, had it not been for the peculiar circumstances in which his lot was cast, he would have been the first to appre- ciate the beauties of art and song, always provided they were not made objects of worship. The prohibition of instruments of music, of pictures, and of the lighter kinds of literature in the homes of Friends once exercised an unfortunate influence on their mental culture; but happily these restrictions have now long been withdrawn. ***** In a work which only professes to be a biography of Fox, and not in any sense a history of Quakerism, little need be said of the progress of the Society after his death. Yet, perhaps, one or two brief remarks may not be totally out of place. After the decease of its great founder, Quakerism soon began to decline, for much of what it protested against had ceased to exist ; and it also missed the strong, firm, kindly hand which had guided it through so many and great dangers. After the first enthusiasm had died out, and the second generation of ministers had passed away, it ceased to be an evangeliz- ing body, and turned its attention more especially to social matters, and to obtaining that full measure of re- ligious freedom which formed one of the principal objects NUNC DIMITTIS. 3S5 of Fox's aspirations ; but for all this it still remained a magnificent system for the development of the highest form of Christianity. In 1695 an Act was passed en- larging the previous one of 1689, and permitting the Quakers to make an affirmation in every case in which an oath had previously been required ; and from time to time subsequent statutes have relieved them from nearly every obligation to which they have conscientious objec- tions. Even before Fox's death, the enthusiasm which found its outlet in public protests and disturbances had almost died away. Every now and then, some religious mono- maniac, convinced that he was a messenger of God, would go into a church or chapel and interrupt the preacher or attempt to address the congregation, but these scenes gradually became rarer and rarer. The last instance occurred in 1745, when, Dr. Cunningham tells us, " a young Quaker servant, named Risdale, felt called upon to give a public testimony in church, and after the sermon was over, she stood up and addressed the congregation, ending by turning to the officiating minister, and saying : "You must come down from your high place, and bow at the footstool of Christ, before you can teach the people the way to heaven." The astonished parson called the churchwarden to put her out, but he was too amazed and did nothing ; so the parson came out of the pulpit and did it himself. The poor woman was fined £20 for her misdemeanour, and not being able to pay was sent to gaol." As a body, the Quakers have been noted for the large amount of time and attention they have devoted to acts of practical charity. Constantly and perseveringly they worked for the abolition of slavery, for the amelioration of the penal code, and the more merciful treatment of prisoners and lunatics, until at length they achieved c c 386 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. their objects. In later times they have been equally assiduous in endeavouring to open the eyes of the Eng- lish people to the folly of war and the wisdom of settling international disputes by arbitration. It would be im- possible, in the limits of a small work, to name all the philanthropic movements which they have either origi- nated or in which they have been identified ; but it would be unfair not to mention their uninterrupted and consis- tent efforts in the cause of education, and their admirable system by which the child of every Friend, however poor, can receive a good boarding-school education ; the large part they have taken in the temperance movement, in the city missions, and in the founding and support of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Society for the Protection of the Aborigines. And they have done something more : by their strict honesty, unim- peachable honour, undeviating truthfulness, and indif- ference to the sneers of the world, they have been a powerful means of upholding the credit and business morality of the country. At the present time the Society of Friends is a body inconsiderable only in point of numbers. Its influence remains measureless ; and surely it is well that it should be so. The time has not yet come when we can afford to spare from among us such a sect as this. There are yet wars and rumours of wars ; the people of every great nation in the world still groan under the abominable burden of vast standing armies, " the greatest folly of the age." The poor are still oppressed in their wages, and vice flaunts itself on the footpath, while virtue is in- sulted and thrust into the gutter. Successful swindlers are lauded and admired, whilst our gaols are filled with men who, if guilty, are infinitely less wicked ; workhouses are full, and even now men are allowed to starve in our midst. Lust, oppression, and cruelty still stalk un- NUNC DIMITTIS. 3S7 checked through the land, and God's holy name is blasphemed daily in our streets. When all these things are altered, then — and not till then — can we afford to lose a Society whose whole career has been one long course of benevolence and of justice, one long battle against evil, one long struggle for God and for truth. APPENDIX. Fragment of a Treatise by George Fox in the ashburnham collection of manuscripts at the British Museum. " Arones {Aaron's) linen breches {breeches) he put them one {on) when he went into the tabernakill {tabernacle) that his nakednes was not scene {seen); and the prist fine linen garments was a tipe of the righteous {Right con s- ness) of Christ, which is the fien {fine) lining {linen) of Christ that he puteth upon his sents {saints) ; and the {tliey) that goe into the tempell {temple), the {they) must ther {there) have the fine lining {linen) from Christ ther {their) preast. . . . that all the trow {true) Christans nakednes be not seene and arone {Aaron) with his beld {belt) the hi {High) prest entering into the tabarnakell. Christ with his gospell {Gospel) bell {belt) thy hy {High) prest entering in thy tabarnakell. EXODUS XXVIII. And the prest in the law with his gardell {girdle) which was a tipe of Christ whoc puteth on his people the gerdell of thruth which is for buty {beauty) and for glorye. the outward helemet {helmet) among the iwes {Jews) was a tipe of the helmet of salvation among the Chris- 389 39° GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. tains. The outward ware {war) among the out ward iwes was a tipe of the inward ware {war) among the Christains, the jwes {Jews) in the spret {Spirit) ; and the out ward sward {sword) among the out ward iwes {Jeivs) was a tipe of the inward sward of the sprit, the word of god, among the christans. the outer iwes {Jews) outward hamer {hammer}) sheald {shield) brest {breastplate ?) that was a tipe of the word of god in thy {the) hart and which is a hamer and fier and among the christans and ther sheld {shield) of feath and ther brest plate of rightousness among the trow christans. and the order or baner (banner) among the out ward iwes was a tipe of the ordor of the gospell of christ among the Christans as the apostell saith every man in is order or baner {banner) of Christ and his' spret of righteousnes." The foregoing fragment (which has never been com- pletely printed before) was originally in the collection of Manuscripts made by the famous antiquary Ralph Thoresby, and bears his account of how he acquired it and his reasons for believing it to^be a genuine autograph of George Fox. The, author has also compared this manuscript with a known specimen of Fox's handwriting, and is satisfied that the above fragment was both written and composed by George Fox. Appended to this manuscript is a small slip contain- ing a beautifully written Hebrew Alphabet arranged in a circle, which is also ascribed to George Fox. Apart from the absence of any good evidence that Fox knew Hebrew, the neatness of the writing and the great care that has evidently been taken in finishing the letters is sufficient, in the opinion of an eminent Quaker authority, to entirely discredit the alleged authorship. APPENDIX. 391 List of the Principal Works consulted for this Book. A Journal or Autobiography of George Fox. Editions, 1694, 1765, 1831, and W. Armistead's editions with notes, 1852. George Fox. Works. Philadelphia edition. Janney. Life of George Fox. .Marsh. Popular Life of George Fox. Tallack. George Fox, the Friends and the Early Baptists. Tuke (Henry). La Vie de George Fox. Bugg. Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life. Croese. General History of Quakerism. Gough. History of the People called Quakers. Sewel. History of the Rise, Progress, etc., of the Society of Friends. Clarkson. History of Quakerism. Cunningham. The Quakers. Bowden. History of the Friends in America. Neal. History of New England. Bishop. New England fudged. Marsden. History of the Early Puritans. „ History of the Later Puritans. Barclay (R., junior). Inner Life of the Religious Societies oj the Commonwealth. Perm (William). Works, Doctrinal, etc. „ Journal of Travels in Holland and Germany. Clarkson. Life of William Penn. Hepworth Dixon. Life of William Penn. Stoughton. Life of William Penn. Barclay (Robert). " Apology." „ Anarchy of the Ranters. Leslie (Charles). Snake in the Grass. Neal. History of the Puritans. Schaffe. Creeds of Christianity. Gieseler. Churches of Christendom. Price. Protestant Nonconformity in England. Wilson. History of Dissenters. Baxter. Church History of Britain. Marsden. History of Christian Sects and Churches. Burnet (Gilbert). Plistory of Our Own Time. Allen. State Churches. Thurloe. State Papers. Kennel. Chronicles. Cobbett. Parliamentary History of England. 392 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Calendar of State Papers {Domestic). Reports of State Trials. Davies. The Laiv relating to the Society of Friends. Jesse. Collection oj i 'he Sufferings of the People called Quakers. Bancroft. History of the United States. Webb (Maria). The Fells of Swarthmore Hall. „ The Pcnns and Penningtons. Tuke. Biographical Notices of the Society of Friends. Gurney. Observations on the Religious Peculiarities of the Society of Friends. Epistles of the Yearly Meetings, and other Official Quaker docu- ments and publications. Dymond. Essays on the Principles of Morality. Beven. A Refutation of some Modern Misrepresentations, etc. The Friends' Library. Lives and Works of Dewsbury, Pennington, Claridge, Barclay, Howgill, etc. Pike. Quaker Anecdotes. Histories of Hallam, Lingard, Green, Macaulay, and others. Merle d'Aubigne. L'Hisloire de la Reformation. Gentleme/is Magazine. Notes and Queries. Annual Register. MSS. in the British Museum, the Library of the Society of Friends at Devonshire House, and elsewhere. Etc., etc., etc., etc. NOTE A. Page 16. Fox's Means of Subsistence. " George Fox derived from his own family and patrimonial pro- perty an income sufficient for his personal support. Although not actively taking part in any business, he held shares in two vessels trading from Scarborough, and had an interest in some other under- takings also. From his own letters we gather he had money lodged in the hands of various friends. Further, a grant of a thou- sand acres of land in Pennsylvania had been presented to him by William Penn, but he does not appear to have received any income from this latter source." (Tallack : " George Fox, the Friends and the Early Baptists," p. 145.) A pleasant letter in the Swarthmore collection gives an account of one of these investments. Mr. Janney thinks that Fox left what property he had in the hands of his relatives so as to be unencumbered in his ministry. — " Life of George Fox," p. 434. APPENDIX. 393 Tuke in his " Life of George Fox," estimates the total value of George's property at about eight hundred pounds. If this be cor- rect — though I confess I am unable to see how the estimate is arrived at— his parents cannot have been the mere peasants which so many of their son's biographers have made them out ; for con- sidering the large purchasing power of money in those days, and the high rate of interest then current, he must have possessed a sum equivalent to at least four hundred a year at the present time. NOTE B. Page 38. The Early Baptists. John Smyth, who is often termed the father of the English General Baptists, and who died about 1610, contended a genera- tion before Fox for the beautiful simplicity of a new Testament Church as a society of equals, voluntarily associated to promote the glory of the great Head of the Church, and, like Fox, he ob- jected to religious ceremonies. The early Baptists resembled the Quakers in entertaining scruples about using heathen names for months and days, and in their records many instances may be found in which they have used the Quaker form of 1st month 5th day, and so on. The Quakers followed the Baptists in largely cultivating the social element and mutual sympathetic intercourse in their religious arrangements. In the 16th article of the Baptists' Conference of 161 1 this sentence occurs: "A Church ought not to consist of such a multitude as cannot have particular knowledge of each other." This mutual interest in the welfare, and watch over the conduct, of brethren in the faith was, however, common in a less degree to all the Puritan Churches. Like the Quakers, the early Baptists did not consider either a college course or a learned ministry necessary ; and many of their primitive minis- ters were men who carried on some business, and received only travelling expenses. A valuable account of the similarities of the early Baptists and the early Quakers is given in Tallack's " Life of George Fox," from which several of the above particulars have been taken. NOTE C. Page 62. Quaker Ministers. An admirable account of the reasons why Quaker Ministers are unpaid is given in Oymond's " Essays on the Principles of Morality." 394 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. NOTE D. Page 115. Two Letters from Country Justices to the Protector. Letter 1. May it please your Highness, We having this opportunity, judged it our duty to give your Highness this account : there hath lately beene in our countrey, a great concourse of those people called Quakers, 200 at least at Swan- nington. They had quarters taken up from the adjoining townes ; they came from London, Bristol, Cambridge, and Yorkshire. Those from London sayd they expected 2000. They have a printer with them, and sixe are constantly writing : they are very insolent, dis- turbing ministers on the Lord's day ; and they have lett droppe words of ill favour amongst the people frequently, as that the people should see a change, and some thing to doe betwixt them and the spring. These things doe much amuse the people ; some saying they would not be soe daring, if they had not good backers ; others saying they believe the Parliament will take orders about them if your Highness will give leave. By this meanes profane persons are confirmed in their atheisme, cavaliers encouraged and brightened in their expectations ; godly people discontented, that the govern- ment should be soe much a sleep as to suffer such in their insolency which is falsely called a liberty, for as they manage it, it is not only disturbing but distructive to the civill and Christian libertyes of others. . . . William Sheffield. Thomas Cockram. Dalby, Jan. 9, 1655. (Thurloe : " State Papers," vol. iii., p. 94.) Letter 2. May it please your Highness, We received your Highness letter of the 13th of this instant January, which hath much refreshed our spirits, and in pursuance of our duty we further give your Highness to understand, that im- mediately uppon newes of armes being seized at Burton-uppon- Trent, the Quakers, who were at Swannington, sent to those at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, at eight of the clock in the night, to break up presently and begone. And they went away from Ashby (which borders neare uppon Burton) that very night (though it was dark and rainy), at' eleven of the clock, and those at Swannington dis- APPENDIX. 395 persed themselves very early next morning. They say they had summons to rendezvous from one Foxe, who gave the intimation that they should be between one and two thousand. And though under pretence of peacableness, they had not soe much as a cane or staffe in their hands, yet some of them were accidentally seen to have pistolls at their sides, under theire cloaks, and in their pocketts. The printer who was with them was Giles Calvert of London, who stay'd with them eight or nine days, and is gone up to London, with two or three queere of paper written to be putt into print. One Muggleton, of Swannington, whose house was the only place of their entertainment, did say that Cockram should smart for his hard speeches concerning them ; and for Sheffield they sayd, they should have him in the louse house ere it were long. We take the boldness further to acquaint your Highness, that there are many honest men (formerly soildiers) that are very cordiall to publique interest, and your Highness, who are very willing (if your Highness judge meet) to be put into a posture, that they might be the better capable of serving your Highness and theire countrey. Wee hope the Lord will worke out much good of these shakings and confusions, and that this last engine of Sathan shall prove a lye. In order to which we humbly begg of the Lord, to keepe your Highness' person and heart, that, you may be further instrumentall for good to this poore nation, which is the duty of Your Highness most humble servants, William Sheffield. Thomas Cockram. I bstock, Jan, 21, 1654. (Thurloe : "State Papers," vol. iii., p. 116.) NOTE E. Page 15 8. Quakers in Scotland. Fox does not appear to have found many native Quakers during his visit in Scotland. As far as can be ascertained Quakerism had been introduced by and was principally confined to the soldiers quartered in that country. In a letter to Cromwell from Dalkeith (21st March, 1656-7), General Monk says that Friends were very numerous in at least one regiment, and adds, " Truly I think they will prove a very dangerous people should they increase in your army, and be neither fitt to command nor obey, but ready to make 396 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. distraction and mutiny uppon every slight occasion." A few days later a colonel informed Monk that he had found it necessary to turn several Quakers out of the regiment he commanded as he feared " lest they should disturb the troops with their levelling principles " : and on the occurrence of a disturbance said to have been made by some Quaker soldiers at Aberdeen, Monk seems to have found it necessary to give orders that all members of this sect should be dismissed from the troops in Scotland. About ten months later the general wrote to Secretary Thurloe to inform him that he had given orders that George Fox was to be appre- hended if possible, and that he is sending some books to show how much " pains these Quakers take to get proselytes." The severe measures of repression which Monk felt called upon to take only had a temporary effect, for a little later on we find a complaint that " the Quakers, who have been becalmed for a season, have broken out again, on the death of the Protector." Quakerism never took a very firm root in Scotland, and is now at a very low ebb ; but the few who remain are notorious for their strict adherence to those rules and customs which among English Friends have largely fallen into disuse. NOTE F. Page 204. Eccentricities of Quaker Women. " Women at various places drew persecution on themselves by their strange conduct. At Bristol one Elizabeth Marshall cried out in a church, after the preacher had pronounced the blessing, ' Woe to those who take the word of the Lord in their mouths, and the Lord never sent them ! ' and to another preacher, ' This is the word of the Lord to thee : I warn thee to repent and mind the light of Christ in thy conscience.' Nor was she the only woman that thus annoyed the priests. At Norwich two women, named Elizabeth Heavens and Elizabeth Fletcher, went about exhorting people, and being brought before the justices, and paying them no respect, were (though against the consent of the mayor) severely whipped." (Watson : " Life of George Fox," p. 139.) In 1664 Edward Bourne found it necessary to write to Fox to complain of the conduct of Katherine Crook, a fairly well known minister, at that time a prisoner in Hereford gaol : — " Dear G. F.," he writes, " there is Katherine Crook, a prisoner in Heriford, who hath been imprisoned here about 7 weeks. APPENDIX. 397 Shee was taken in Heriford att a meetinge w ch shee had appointe many more were taken amongst whome I am one. . . . After we had been imprisoned aboute 2 or 3 dayes it was soe ordered y' wee had liberty to dispute with a priest in y e citie hall aboute ye truth w ch we hold, before y e mayor and Aldermen of the city and many people who were present and Katherine was one y l \vas made choice of to dispute w th ye priest and my selfe another y e rest of ffriends who were prisoners being present. I cannot conveni- ently give thee a full account of what passed at y° time but in short thus. Katherine was to hasty and rash in her Carriage at y e time and did not Answer y e wittnesse of God but reached ye aggrivating part and stirred them up ag st us not being guided by ye wisdome of God in her words, they apprehended by her words y 1 we did disowne y e Script, and began to cry Blasphemy and were about to rise and bee gon crying out wee did deny y e Script, and this was because Katherine said shee had knowne y e Lord it shee had never seene nor read y e Script, whereupon I whist her to forbeare for indeed she continued to little purpose and I called to y e priest and mayor and said they misunderstood my friend and desired them to take notice we did not deny the script, but owned them in their place. . . . But as touching K. C. I believe it would be well if there were a stop put to her for time to come y l soe shee might not pass abrode to appoint meetings as shee hath done for it doth appeare to mee y c shee is more in the wisdome of words than in the power of God. — " This woman, another letter tells us, was allowed to hold a service in the town, to which the Quakers then in the gaol were taken in a body, but the experiment does not seem to have been repeated as she " spoke so loud that the whole city could hear her." NOTE G. Page 298. The Marriage Certificate of George Fox and Margaret Fell. These are to signify unto all whom this may concern that on the eighteenth day of the eight month in the year 1669, George ffox and Margarett ffel, propounded their intentions of joininge together in the honourable marriage, in the covenant of God, in our men's meetinge at Broadmead, within the city of Bristoll (having before made mention of such their intentions to several ffriends) on the behalf of which there were several testimonies given, both by the 398 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. children and relations of the said Margarett, then present, and several others, in the power of the Lord, both of men and women declaring their satisfaction and approbation of their declared in- tention of marriage, and likewise at another meetinge both of men and women, at the place aforesaid, on the 21st day of the month and year aforesaid, the said George ffox and Margarett ffel did again publish their intention of joininge together, in the honour- able marriage in the covenant of God, unto which there were again many living testimonies borne, by the relations and ffriends then present, both of. men and women, and the same intentions of marriage being again published by Dennis Hollister at one publicke meetinge place, on the 22nd day of month and year aforesaide, and then again a public testimony was given to the same that it was of God who had brought it to a passe. And for the full accom- plishment of the aforesaid proposal and approved intention at a publicke meetinge both of men and women ffriends appointed on purpose for the same thinge, at the place aforesaide and on the twenty-seventh day of the month and year aforesaide, according to the law and ordinance of God, and the examination and good order of his people, mentioned in the scriptures of truth, who tooke each other before witnesses and the Elders of the people as Laban appointed a meetinge at the marriage of Jacob, and as a meeting was appointed on purpose when Boaz and Ruth tooke each other, and also so it was at Canaan, when Christ and His disciples went to a marriage, etc. The saide George ffox did solemnly and in the presence of God and us his people declare that he tooke the saide Margarett ffell in the everlasting power and covenant of God who 'is from everlasting to everlasting, and in the honourable marriage, to be his bride and his wife, and likewise the saide Margarett did solemnly declare that, in the everlasting power of the mighty God and in the unalterable word, and in the presence of God, His angels and His holy assembly, she tooke the saide George ffox to be her husband, unto which marriage many livinge testimonies were borne in the sense of the power, and presence of the livinge God, manifested in the saide assembly, of which we whose names are here subscribed are witnesses." Here follow the signatures of ninety-two Friends of both sexes. It is curious that to this, the oldest Quaker marriage certificate extant, the contracting parties did not put their signatures. See Friends' Review, vol. i. APPENDIX. 399 NOTE H. Page 319. Fox's Letter to the Governor of Barbadoes. For the Governo2tr of Barbados, with his Council and Assembly, and all others in power, both Civil and Military, in this Island : from the People called Quakers. Whereas many scandalous Lies and Slanders have been cast upon us, to render us odious ; as that " We deny God and Christ Jesus, and the Scriptures of Truth" etc. This is to Inform you, that all our Books and Declarations, which for these many Years have been published to the World, do clearly testify the contrary. Yet notwithstanding, for your Satisfaction, we now plainly and sincerely declare, That we Oxvn and Believe in God the only Wise, Omnipotent and Everlasting God, the Creator of all things in Heaven and Earth, and the Preserver of all that he hath made ; who is God over all, blessed for ever ; To whom be Honour and Glory and Dominion, Praise and Thanksgiving both now and for evermore ! And we do Own and Believe in Jesus Christ, his be- loved and only begotten Son, in whom he is well pleased ; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary ; in whom we have Redemption through his Blood, even the For- giveness of Sins j Who is the Express Image of the Invisablc God, the First-born of every Creature, by whom were all things created, that arc in Heaven, and that are in Earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers; All things were created by him. And we do Own and Believe that he was made a Sacrifice for Sin, who knew no Sin, neither was Guile found in his Mouth. And that he was Crucified for us in the Flesh, without the Gates of Jerusalem; and that he was Buried, and Rose again the Third Day by the Power of his Fa/her, for our Justification : and we do Believe that he Ascended into Heaven, and now sitteth at the Right Hand of God. This Jesus, who was the Foundation of the Holy Prophets and Apostles, is our Foundation; and we believe there is no other Foundation to be laid but that which is laid, even Christ Jesus : who we be- lieve tasted Death for every Man, and shed his Blood for all Men, is the Propitiation for our Sins, and not for ours only, but also for the Sins of the whole World : According as John the Baptist testified of him, when he said, " Behold the Lamb of God, thai taketh away the Sins of the World " (John i. 29). We believe that he alone is our Redeemer and Saviour^ even the Captain of our 4 oo GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Salvation, who saves us from Sin, as well as from Hell and the Wrath to come, and destroys the Devil and his Works; who is the Seed of the Woman that bruises the Serpent's Head, to wit, Christ Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. That he is (as the Scriptures of Truth say of him) our Wisdom and Righteousness, Justification and Redemption; neither is there Salvation in any other, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we may be saved. It is he alone who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls : He it is who is our Prophet, whom Moses long since testified of, saying, " A Propliet shall the Lord your God raise up unto yoic of your Brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto yoic : And it shall come to pass, that every Soul, that will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the People." Acts 2, 22, 23. He it is that is now Come, and hath given us an Understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and he rules in our Hearts by his Law of Love and of Life, and makes us free from the Law of Sin and Death; and we have no Life but by him : for he is the qitickening Spirit, the Second Adam, the Lord from Heaven, by whose Blood we are cleansed, and our Consciences sprinkled from Dead Works, to serve the Living God. And he is our Mediator, that makes Peace and Reconciliation between God offended and us offending; he being the Oath of God, the New Covenant of Light, Life, Grace, and Peace, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. Now this Lord Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Man, the Emanuel, God with us, we all own and believe in ; him whom the High-Priest raged against, and said, he had spoken Blasphemy ; whom the Priests and Elders of the Jews took Counsel together against, and put to Death; the same whom Judas betrayed for Tliirty Pieces of Silver, which the Priests gave him, as a Reward for his Treason; who also gave large Money to the Souldiers to broach a Horrible Lie, namely, " That his Disciples came and stole him away by Night whilst they slept." And after he was Risen from the Dead, the History of the Acts of the Apostles sets forth, how the Chief-Priests and Elders persecuted the Disciples of this Jesus, for Preaching Christ and his Resurrection. This, we say, is that Lord Jesus Christ, whom we own to be our Life and Salvation. And as concerning the Holy Scriptures, we do believe That they were given forth by the Holy Spirit of God, through the Holy Men of God, who (as the Scripture itself declares, 2 Pet. 1, APPENDIX. 401 21) '■'■spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We believe they are to be Read, Believed, and Fulfilled (He that fulfils them is Christ;) and they are "profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, and for Instruction in Righteousness, that the Man of God ?nay be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" 2 Tim. 3, 16, and are able "to make wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus." And we do believe the Holy Scriptures are the Words of God; for its said in Exod. 20, 1, God spake all these Words, saying, etc., meaning the Ten Command- ments given forth upon Mount Sinai. And in Rev. 22 18, saith John, "I testify to every man that heareth the Words of the Pro- phecy of this Rook, If any man addeth unto these, and if any man shall take away from the Words of the Book of this Prophecy " (not the Word) etc. So in Luke 1. 20. " Because thou believest not my Words." And so in John 5, 47, John 15, 7, John 14, 23, John 12, 47. So that we call the Holy Scriptures, as Christ, and the Apostles, and Holy Men of God called them, viz. the Words of God. Another Slander and Lye they have cast upon us, namely, That we should teach the Negroes to Rebellj A thing we utterly abhor and detest in our Hearts, the Lord knows it ! who is the Searcher of all Hearts, and knows all things, and so can witness and testify for us, that this is a most Abominable Untruth. For that which we have spoken to them, is, To exhort and admonish them to be sober and to fear God, to love their Masters and Mistresses, and to be faithful and diligent in their Master's Service and Business, and then their Masters and Overseers would love them, and deal kindly and gently with them. And that they should not beat their Wives, nor the Wives their Husbands ; neither should the Men have many Wives. And that they should not Steal, nor be drunk, nor commit Adultery, nor Fornication, nor Curse, nor Swear, nor Lie, nor give bad Words to one another, nor to any one else : For there is something in them, that tells them, they should not practise these nor any other Evils. But if they not- withstanding should do them, then we let them know, There are but Two Ways, the one that leads to Heaven, where the Righteous go ; and the other that leads to Hell, where the Wicked and Debauched, Whoremongers and Adulterers, Murderers and Liars go. To the one the Lord will say, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World; but to the other he will say, Depart, ye Cursed, into everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels : So the D D 402 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Wicked go into everlasting Punishment, but the Righteous into Life Eternal. Matth. 25. Now consider, Friends, It is no Transgression for a Master of a Family to instruct his Family himself, or for others to do it in his behalf; but rather it is a very great Duty incumbent upon them. Abraham and Joshua did so : of the first we read, the Lord said (Gen. 18, 19) / know that Abraham will command his Children, and his Household after him ; and they shall keep the Way of the Lord, to do Justice and Judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham the things that he hath spoken of him. And the latter, we read, said (Josh. 24, 15) — Choose ye this day whom ye will serve — But as for me and my House, we will serve the Lord. We do declare that we esteem it a Duty incumbent on us to Pray with and for, to Teach, Instruct, and Admonish those in and belonging to our Families ; this being a comma/id of the Lord, the disobedience thereunto will provoke the Lord's Displeasure ; as may be seen in Jer. 10, 25, "Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not, and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name? Now Negroes, Tawnies, Indians, make up a very great part of the Families in this Island, for whom an Account will be required by him, who comes to Judge both Quick and Dead at the great Day of Judgment, when every one shall be Rewarded according to the Deeds done in the Body, whether they be good or whether they be evil. At that Day, I say, of the Resurrection of the Good, and of the Bad, of the Just and the Unjust, when " the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels, in flaming Fire, taking Vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of his Power, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and admired in all them that believe in that day." 2 Thess. 1, 8, etc. Sec also 2 Pet. 3, 3, etc. NOTE I. Page 371. Fox's Provision for the Quaker Ministers at Swarth- more. " George Fox's declared intention and notion for his giving up Petty's house and land for ever, for the service of the Lord and the people called Quakers. '•The eternal God, who hath, in and by His eternal powerful arm, preserved me through all my troubles, trials, temptations, APPENDIX. 403 and afflictions, persecutions, reproaches, and imprisonments, and carried me over them all, hath sanctified all these things to me, so that I can say, all things work together for good to them that love God, and are beloved of him. " And the Lord God of the whole heaven and earth, and all things therein, both natural and spiritual, hath been, by his eternal power, my preserver, and upholder, and keeper, and hath taken care and provided for me, both for temporals and spirituals, so that I never did want ; and have been content and thankful with what the Lord provided for me. " And now the Lord hath done much good to me, and to His name, truth, and people, to whom I have offered up my spirit, soul, and body, which are the Lord's, made and created for His glory. And also I do offer and give up freely to the Lord for ever, and for the service of his sons, daughters, and servants, called Quakers, the house and houses, barn, kiln, stable and all the land with the garden and orchard, being about three acres of land, more or less, with the commonings, peats, turfings, moss, and whatsoever other privileges that belong to it, called Swarthmore, in the parish of Ulverstone. "And also my ebony bedstead, with the painted curtains, and the great elbow-chair that Robert Widders sent me and my great sea-case or cellarage with the bottles in it. These I do give to stand in the house as heirlooms when the house is made use of for a meeting place : so that a friend may have a bed to lie on and a chair to sit in, and a bottle to hold a little water to drink. " It being free of land, and being free from all tithe both great and small ; and all this I do freely give up to the Lord, and for the Lord's service and his people's to make it a meeting place of. " It is all the land and house I have in England, and it is given up to the Lord, for it is for his service and for his children's. "GEORGE FOX. " I do and have given up Petty's which I bought of the children Susanah Fell and Rachael Fell for seventy two pounds : for God's people to meet in when they do not meet at Swarthmore Hall, and let the rest of the ground and malt house maintain the meeting house, which may be made fit either the barn or the house as the Lord shall let Friends see which is best, and to slate it and pave the way to it, that so Friends may go dry to their meetings. And let or set part of the house and land to maintain itself for ever for the Lord's service. And you may let any poor honest Friend live 404 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. in any part of the house. And so let it be for the Lord's service to the end of the world, and for his people to meet in to keep them from the winter cold and the wet, and the summer's heat." The foregoing extracts are taken from papers written at Kings- ton-on-Thames in 1687, and were sent to Margaret Fell's son-in- law, Thomas Lower, who was entrusted with the conduct of this business. In letters written to the same person about a month afterwards, George gives some interesting and minute instructions as to the repair and alteration of the property : " Dear Thomas," he says, " I have sent thee a copy of my mind concerning Petty's, which thou mayest privately show to thy mother, and the list of the names. You that live in the country may know which of these are the fittest to put into the deed of trust. Choose out first four of the most faithful and substantial Friends in this list, or other that you may approve of to join your four brothers, unto whom the first deed of trust is to be made and then you eight are to make it over by a deed of uses to ten or twelve Friends more : you may con- sider who are fit to put into that second deed, the four names that are to be joined with you, thou must send up as shortly as thou canst, that so the deed may be confirmed as soon as may be. "This will be a confirmation of what has all along been in thy mother's mind that the meeting will be continued at Swarthmore, and as concerning the ten or twelve Friends more unto whom you are to make a deed of uses, the names of them may be considered afterwards when this is done. And as concerning the meeting place itself whether the barn or the house, I shall leave it to you. But if the barn will do better ; if you could make it wider may be it may be better, because there will be the house to go into and the ground may be so raised that you may go up a step or two into the meeting house, and it will be more wholesome, and the yards are low which may be raised and made dry, and you have stones enough and poor men to get them. And I would have all the thatch pulled off the houses and laid in a heap to rot for manure to be laid upon the close ; and let all the houses be slated, and the walls about it to be made substantial to stand and laid in lime and sand. " And I would have a porch made to the meeting-place, on the common side, into the yard ; and with rubbish and earth, as before you may raise the yard and floors. And I would have the meeting- place large for truth may increase. The barn make as wide again, APPENDIX. 405 which you may do with pillars, or otherwise, and which I leave to thee and the workmen ; and I w ould have thee take Robert Barrow's advice in it. If you think fit to have the kiln continued, you may fit it up, if it be worth the charge of doing. But these things I must leave to you. " I would have it gone about and prepare things beforehand, as soon as you can ; when you have viewed it and see what you will want ; either lime, sand wood or stone. And I would have Robert Barrow do it, if he can. And I would have, next winter, an orchard planted where you see fit ; you may get some trees to set in it where thou sees fit. And I would have some trees set about the close, and if thou wilt set some of thy fir-trees there thou may. And when all is done and fitted completely for the Lord's service and his people's, let it stand till there be occasion for it. I desire thee to be very careful in this thing, and let it be done as soon as may be ; for it is not for myself, but for the service of the Lord and his people ; and let it be done substantially." In a later letter he directs : — " And you mind to buy all the things at the best hand, beforehand, to be ready. I am in the same mind still, not to put any Friend to a farthing charge. But if Friends of the meeting, or thereaway will come with their carts, and help to fetch stone, lime, wood, sand, or slate, I shall take it kindly ; or to get stone off the common, if need be ; and you may speak to Joseph Sharp, for he is a willing man to help in anything. " The twenty pounds of J. R's. which you are to receive, I have and do order for that service ; and the fifteen pounds thou hast in thy hands of Jane and Robert Widders, I order for that service, and for the building ; and the five pounds Susannah brought up, I took of her, and what more ye do want, when it is wanted let me know. And so dear Thomas, my love is to thee and all the rest of Friends in the holy and peaceable truth, that is stronger than all they that be out of it. And God Almighty keep you in it, and in the order of it. Amen." "G. F." (" Memoir of George Fox.'') 406 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. NOTE K. Page 345. List of the Principal Writings of George Fox. (Extracted, by permission, from Mr. Joseph Smith's " Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books," 1867.) Date. To all Ignorant people, the Word of the Lord, who are under the blind Guides, the Priests . . . Unknown Reprinted in " Several papers given forth," etc.. . . 1671 To the Parliament of this Commonwealth .... 1652 The Unmasking and Discovering of Antichrist, with all the false Prophets, by the true light which comes from Christ Jesus, written forth to convince the Seducers, and for the undeceiving of the seduced 1653 Truth's Defence against the Refined subtility of the Serpent, etc. (By Fox and Hubberthorn) 1653 A Warning to the Rulers of England, not to usurp Dominion over the Conscience, not to give forth Lawes contrary to that in the Conscience 1653 True JUDGEMENT or, the Spiritual-Man Judging all Things but himself judged of NO MAN . . . 1654 Reprinted with additions 1655 SAUL'S ERRAND to Damascus, with His Packet of Letters from the High Priests against the Disciples of the Lord, or a faithful Transcript of a Petition contrived by some persons in Lancashire, who call themselves Ministers of the Gospel, breathing out threatenings and slaughters against a peaceable and godly people, by them nick- named QUAKERS. Together with the Defence of the persons thereby traduced, against the slanderous and false suggestions of that Petition ; and other untruths charged upon them, etc 1653 (Fox was assisted in compiling this by James Nayler and John Lawson.) A Warning from the Lord to all such as hang down the head for a Day, and pretend to keep a Fast unto God, when they smite with the Fist of Wickedness, and suffers the innocent to be Oppressed. Occasioned by a late De- claration ; stiled A DECLARATION of His Highness the Lord Protector, Inviting the People of England and Wales to a Day of solemn Fasting and Humiliation . 1654 APPENDIX. 4C7 Date. NEWES coming up out of the NORTH, sounding towards the SOUTH, or a Blast out of the North up into the South, and so to fiie abroad into the World ; and a warning to all England and Nations elsewhere, etc. . 1654 The TRUMPET of the LORD sounded, and his Sword drawn, and the separation made between the Precious and the Vile, etc 1654 The VIALS of the Wrath of God Poured forth, Upon the Seat of the MAN of SIN, and upon all Professors of the WORLD, who denieth the light of Christ which he hath enlightened every one withal, and walk contrary to it, etc. . . . ' . . • » • • • J ^S4 A WARNING to the WORLD That are groping in the dark, after SECTS, OPINIONS, and NOTIONS, Which are all with the Light condemned ; and by the Children of Light Declared against .... 1655 To the High and Lofty ones No Date The TEACHERS of the World unveiled. Wherein the ground of their Ministry is manifested, both in doctrine and practice, to be out of the light which cometh from Christ, in the witchcraft deceiving the people . . . 1655 A VISITATION to the JEWES from Them whom the Lord hath visited from on high, among whom he hath performed his promise made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to his seed which Moses saw, etc. Given forth by G. F. . . . 1656 A WARNING from the LORD to the POPE and to all His Train of Idolatries : with a Discovery of his false Imitations, and Likenesses, and Traditional Inventions, which is not in the Power of God, etc. By a lover of Souls. G. F I . . . .1656 The Woman learning in Silence, or the MYSTERIE of the Woman's Subjection to Her Husband, as also The Daughter prophesying, wherein the Lord hath, and is fulfilling that he spake by the Prophet Joel, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, etc. .... 1656 Omnibus Magistratibus Gubernatoribusq : universo mundo To all Magistrates and Governors in the whole world . 1656 Of BOWINGS, shewing such as are not to Bow, nor worship, nor so to doe, are commanded of God, such as Bow, 4oS GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Date. and worship without, and contrary to the command- ment of God. Such as are to Bow according as God hath commanded 1657 Concerning Good-Morrow, and Good-Even ; The World's CUSTOMS : but By the Light which into the World is come, by it made manifest to all who be in the darkness 1657 A TESTIMONY of the TRUE LIGHT of the WORLD, etc 1657 The Priests and Professors CATECHISME For them to Try their Spirits : whether it be after the doctrine of Godliness j or after the Traditions of men, which are vainly ftnft up in their fleshly viindcs, etc. . . .1657 The LAW of GOD the Rule for Law-makers, the Ground of all first Laws, and the corruption of English Laws and LAWYERS discovered 1658 The PAPIST'S STRENGTH, Principles, and Doctrines, answered and confuted 165S The PEARLE found in ENGLAND. This is for the poor distressed, scattered ones in Forraigne Nations. From the Royall seed of God and Heirs of Salvation, called Quakers, who are the Church of the Living God, built up together of living stones in England : a Visitation and uniting to the Pearl of God, which is hid in all the World, that every one may turn into himself and there feel it and finde it 1658 The Great MISTERY of the Great Whore unfolded, and Antichrist's Kingdom Revealed unto Destruction, in answer to many False Doctrines and Principles which Babylon's Merchants have traded with, being held forth by the Professed Ministers and Teachers and Pro- fessors in England, Ireland, and Scotland, taken under their owne Hands, and from their owne Mouths, sent forth by them from time to time, against the despised people of the Lord, called Quakers, who are of the Seed of that woman who hath long fled into the Wildernes. Also an Invasion upon the Great City Babylon, with the spoling of Her golden cup and delicate Merchan- dize, etc . 1659 The LAMB'S OFFICER is gone forth with the LAMB'S MESSAGE, Which is the Witnesse of God in all Consciences, etc 1659 APPENDIX. 409 Date. Here you may see what was the True Honour amongst the Jewcs, to Magistrates, Kings, Fathers, Mothers, Masters, Dames and Old Men; which did not use the putting off the Hat, nor scraping backwards the Foot ; and what was the Honour they forbade ; and what is the Honour Peter speaks of, etc 1659 Scriptunculse Quaedam Anglico-Latinae, Magistratibus de Insula Maltensi. Some Papers given forth in English and Latine to the Magistrates of the Isle of Milita, and to the Emperour of the House of Austria, and to all the Princes under Him. To the King of France. — Spain, and lastly to the Pope 1660 A BATTLE-DOOR for Teachers and Professors to learn SINGULAR and PLURAL ; You to Many, and Thou to One: Singular, One, Thou; Plural, Many, You. Wherein is shown forth by Grammar, or Scripture Examples, how several Nations and People have made a distinction between Singular and Plural. And first, in the Former part of this Book, called The English Battle-Door, may be seen how several People have spoken Singular and Plural, as the ApharsatJikites, the Tarpclites, the Apharsitcs, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susancliites, the Depavites, the Elani- ites, the Tcmanites, the Naomites, the Shuites, the Buzites, the Moabites, the Hiviies, the Edomites, the Philistines, the Amalekites, the Sodomites, the Hittites, the Midianitcs, etc. Also in this Book is set forth Examples of the Singular and Plural, about Thou and You in several Languages divided in distinct Battle- doors or Forms, or Examples : English, Latine, Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Cat dee, Syr lack, Arabic!;, Persiack, Ethiopick, Samaritan, Coptic!;, or Egyptick, Armenian, Saxon, Welch, Mence, Cornish, French, Spanish, Por- tugal, High-Dutch, Low-Dutch, Danish, Bohemian, Slavonian, and how the Emperrors and others have used the Singular word to One j and how the word You (to one) came first from the Pope. Likewise some examples, in the Polonian, Litlivanian, Irish, and East-Indian, together with the Singular and Plural words, thou and you, in Swedish, Turkish, Muscovian, and Curlandian tongues. — In the latter part of this Book are contained 4io GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Date. severall bad unsavoury words gathered forth of certain School Books, which have been taught Boyes in Eng- land, which is a Rod and a Whip to the School Masters in England and elsewhere who teach such Books . . 1660 (This book is principally by John Stubbs and Benjamin Furly. Fox, however, supplied much of the matter, and revised and enlarged the manuscript.) For the POPE, Cardinals and Jesuites, and all the rest of his Family of PAPISTS ; being a Discovery of 74 Errors which they walk in, contrary to their own Trans- lation of the Scriptures, being proved thereby, which they say are not Clipped nor Minced as the Protestant Scriptures . ... . . . . . . 1661 The EXAMINATION and TRYALL of Margaret Fell and George Fox, at the several Assizes held at LAN- CASTER 1664 A Generall Epistle to Friends, and all People, to Rcade over and Consider, in the Fear of God 1667 Something in ANSWER to Lodovick Muggleton's Book, Which he calls, The Quaker's Neck-Broken, Wherein in Judging others he has Judged himself, etc. . . 1667 The ARRAIGNMENT of POPERY, etc. (Partly by Elias Hookes.) 1667 Gospel Liberty and the Royal-Law of Love, from Christ Jesus, who has all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto Him ; set above Artaxcrxes and Nebuchadnezer's Law and Commands, and above the Medes and Persians, and Darius his Decrees, etc. ...... 1668 Several Papers given forth for the spreading ol TRUTH, and Detection of DECEIT; wherein The Plain, Honest, and Sober Conversation of the Saints in Fear and Trembling is Justified, against the idle Babblings of Formal Professors, the wicked Fashions, and Heathen- ish Customs of these Nations, under the pretence of Civillity 167 1 Iconoclastes : or a HAMMER to break down all inverted Images, Image-Makers, and Image- Worshippers. Shew- ing how contrary they are both to the Lav/ and Gospel. 1671 instructions for Right Spelling, and Plain DIRECTIONS for Reading and Writing True English, etc. By G. F. and E. H ' . . 1673 APPENDIX. 411 Date. Primitive ORDINATION and Succession of BISHOPS, DEACONS, PASTORS and TEACHERS in the CHURCH of CHRIST 1675 Concerning Christ, the Spiritual and holy Head over his holy Church, and his Churche's Stedfastne-ss, and Confi- dence, and Unity, and Oneness in him .... 1677 The Hypocrites Fast and Feast not God's Holy-day. Hat Honour to Men Man's Institution, not God's. Presented to the view and consideration of Papistical and Protes- tant Time servers and Day-observers, Will-worshippers and Persecutors ; and satisfaction of the moderate Inquirer .......... 1677 31 Xcfo=Enn;[ano=iFirc=Brant!=£hicnrijfO, being an Answer unto a Slanderous Book, Entituled, GEORGE FOX Digged out of his Burrows, etc. Printed at Boston in the Year 1676 by Roger Williams of Providence in New England. Which he dedicatcth to the King, with Desires, That, if the Most-High please, Old and New England may Flourish when the Pope & Mahomet, Rome & Con- stantinople, arc in their ashes. 1 1678 Concerning the Living God of Truth and the WORLD'S GOD, in whom there is no Truth 16S0 TRYING of SPIRITS In our age now, as in the 3postIrs' Dags by the Spirit of Christ Anointing Within, etc. . 1683 A Distinction betwixt the Oaa Suppers of Cljrist, namely the Last Supper in the same night that he was betrayed, before he was Crucified, and the supper after he was risen and ascended at the right hand of God, which he calls People to in Rev. 3, to hear his voice, and open 1 The Roger Williams here mentioned was an orthodox minister in New England, with whom Fox and the Friends who accompanied him on his visit to America had several unsatisfactory and acrimonious discussions. In the account Williams gives of these -contests, he makes no charge of discourtesy against Fox, but complains bitterly of the treatment he received at the hands of Edmundson and the others. "My disadvantages in our contests," he writes, " were great and many; for though John Stubbs and John Burnyeat were more civil and ingenious, yetWm. Edmundson was nothing but a bundle of ignorance and boistcrousness ; he would speak first and all, though all three were constantly upon me at once." The unfairness with which he was treated provoked Williams to write the book, to which " A New-England-Fire-Brand- Quenched " is an answer. 412 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Date. the door, and he will sup with them, and they shall sup with him ......... 1685 Concerning the ANTIQUITY of the tropic of 6o» called QUAKERS : Their Worship : their Mother, New and Heaveidy Jerusalem; Their Faith and who is the Author and Finisher of it; Their Belief; Their Way; Their Original; Their Hope, distinct from the Hope of the Hypocrite that Perishes ; Their Gospel ; The True Ministers ; Their Leader and Teacher, and that which gives them Knowledge ; Their Mediator; Their Over- seer; The Church of Christ's Prayer, and in What ; Their Cross; and Their Baptism 1689 The Enfoarii anU Spiritual 8S5arfare, and the False Pretence of it : and a Distinction between the True Liberty and the False, etc 1690 A JOURNAL, or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, Christian Experiences, and Labour of Love in the 2Mork of the fHtmstrg of that Ancient, Eminent, and Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ, George Fox, etc. [With a Preface by Wm. PENN.] First edition published in 1694 A Second Edition in 2 volumes was published in 1709, and in 1765 a third, which however was altered and cor- rected. In 1827 the book was reprinted from the original edition, and has since been reprinted in 1827, 1836, and 1852, the last time with historical and bio- graphical notes by Wilson Armistead. In America it has also been three times republished. Fox's Doctrinal works were printed in 1706 under the title of" Gospel Truth Demonstrated," in a COLLECTION of Doctrinal Books ; Given forth by that Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, GEORGE FOX, containing Principles essential to Christianity and Salvation, held among the People called QUAKERS. A complete edition of the works of George Fox was published in Philadelphia in eight volumes in 1 S3 1. Besides his English works, there area number of broadsides and tractates in Dutch which have never been translated into English, I N D EX. ABERDEEN, 350. Act, Conventicle, of 1670, 302 ; Toleration, 374, 385. Abjuration, Oath of (1655), 128. Aldam, Thomas, 66, 83, 85, 180. Alexandria, Quakers at, 209. Algiers, Collection for the release of Quakers at, 368. Alkyn, Judge, 361. Allegiance, Oath of, 232. America, Fox in, 319. Ames, William, 87, 354. Amsterdam, 88, 355, 366. Anabaptists, 40, 41. Anglican Church, Objections of the Puritans to the, 3 ; and the Nonconformists, 3, 35; and Quakerism, 36. Antinomians, The, 40. Apjohn, John, 155. "Apology? The, 350. Appleby, 85. Arminians, The, 39. Armscot, 329. Armside, 103. Army, Fox offered commission in the Parliamentary, 120. Arnside, 185. Athcrton, Oliver, 248. Audland, John, 86. Austin, Anne, 220. Author, Fox as an, 342. "Autobiography? or Journal, of George Fox, 343. "BABELS Builders? 274. Baker, Daniel, 210. Balby (Boultby), 64, 1 52 ; Yearly Meeting at (in 1660), 182. Banishment of Quakers, 276. Baptism, 151. Baptist, Fox disputes with a, at Leicester, 252. Baptists, 38, 392. Barbadoes, 223 ; Fox sails for, 310; Quakerism in, 313; Slavery in, 315 ; Epistle from Fox to the Governor of, 318, 399- Barclay, Robert, 186, 347, 349. Barnet, 15. Barton, Colonel, 46. " Battledore? The, 206. Beaumont, Lord, orders arrest of Fox, 234; Fox visits, 239. Bennet, Justice, of Derby, 44, 48. Bennet, Colonel (governor of Launceston gaol), 140. Benson, Justice, and wife visit Fox in Carlisle gaol, 106. Benson, Gervase, 124. '3 414 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Berwick, 95, 160. Besse, "The Sufferings," 178. Beverley, 55. Bible, The Great, its influence on England, 4; Quaker love for the, 41. Bishop, George, 277. Blagdon, Barbara, Sufferings of, 175- Blasphemy, Fox accused of, at Derby, 34 ; Naylor accused of, 144. Bodmin, Fox meets Desborough near, 131. Bond, Nicholas, 164. Boston (New England), 220, 222, 225, 310. Borough, Edward, 68, 91, 164 ; Appeals to Charles on behalf of the Quakers in America, 224. Boultby, see Balby. Boyes, " Priest," 60. Bradden, Captain, 134. Bradford, 68. Brawling, 50, 64. Breeches, Fox called, The man in the leathern, 22. Briggs, Thomas, 267. Bristol, 92, 115, 143, 145 ; Fox at, 148, 234, 282, 327 ; Fox married at, 297 ; severe sufferings of Quakers at, 200, 202. Brownists, 37. Buckingham, Duke of, friendly to Quakers, 284. Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, 377 ; Fox buried at, 378. Bunyan, John, released through the mediation of a Quaker, 37°- Burneyate, John, 319, 411. Butterflies, Quakers called, 160. CALAIS, 98. Calvinism, 37. Cambridge, 127. Camm, Anne, 97 ; John, 97. Captives, Collection for the re- lease of Quakers in Algiers, 368. Carisbrook, 24. Carlisle, 89, 105, 205. Carolina, 324. " Cases, The Book of," 231, 337. Caton, William, 97, 154, 175, 381. Ceely, Major, 130, 134. Certificate, Marriage, of George Fox with Margaret Fell, 297. Chamberlain, Colonel, 313. Character of George Fox, 379. Charles I., 6, 24. Charles II. stops persecution of Quakers in New England, 224 ; directs release of Mar- garet Fell, 308; Fox appeals to, 335 ; offers Fox a pardon, 335; liberates Quakers from prison, 369. Cheshire, petition from, against Quakers, 145. Children, Quaker, whipped and imprisoned, 177, 202, 203. China, Several Friends go as missionaries to, 210. " Christ which sanctifieth," 34. Christian, Wenlock, 223. Church faith, The book of, 170. Church, The, flesh not stone, 26; Quaker disturbance in a (in I74S), 385- INDEX. 415 Civil War, The, 13. Clark, Mary, 222. Claus, John, 355. Claypole, Mrs., 167. Cleveland, 58. Colchester, 90. Coleridge, Opinion of, on Fox's Journal, 344. Colton, 86. Conference, The Savoy, 170. Confessions of Faith, Quaker, 3i3, 353- Connecticut, 321. Constables sometimes reluctant to apprehend Quakers, 240, 363- Constantinople, John Kelsey at, 212. Conventicle Act, The, 302. Corbett, Thomas, barrister, pleads for Fox, 337. Cork, 272, 295. Cornwall, 129, 145, 181. Costrop, Richard, 210. Craddock, Dr., 18. Crisp, Stephen, 378. Cromwell, Henry, Letter from, to Thurloe, 294. Cromwell, Oliver, requires Fox not to take up arms against him, 117 ; his first interview with Fox, 119; offers Fox a commission in the army, 120 ; interferes on Fox's behalf, 137 ; interview of, with Fox in Hyde Park, 149 ; third interview with Fox, 149 ; the sufferings of the Quakers laid before, 166 ; warned by Fox not to become king, 167 ; Fox's last sight of, 168; death of, 169 ; not a persecutor of the Quakers, 178 ; letters to, from justices, 115, 394. Cromwell, Richard, is made Protector, 169. Crook, John, 163 ; 318. Crosslands, Sir Jordan, 266 ; gives Fox a free pass, 267 ; protects Friends, 267 ; in- vites Fox to his house, 293. Curtis, Thomas, 188. DEATH of Fox, 377. Derby, 34, 181 ; gaoler of, letter from, 233 ; Countess of, cruel treatment of a Quaker by, 248. Desborough, General, 131, 140. Devonshire, Petition from, against Quakers, 145. Devonshire House, Meeting at, 363- Dewsbury, William, 55, 67, 107 ; imprisoned for saying grace at an inn, 200 ; scene at his trial, 259. Discipline, Meetings for, estab- lished, 151 ; institution of the, 282. Dole, Erasmus, 123. Doomsdale, a dungeon at Lan- caster, 136. Doncaster, 64. Downer, Anne, the first female Quaker minister in London, 125 ; attends on Fox in Launceston gaol, 137. Drayton-in-the-Clay, 11, 111, 128. Dress, Fox's advice regarding, 368. Diury, Captain, 1 17. 4 i6 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Dukinfield, 22. U unbar, 160. Durham, 145, 161. Dyer, Mary, Martyred in New England, 223. ECCLES, Solomon, 269 ; his expedient for discovering the true religion, 272 ; writings of, 273 ; accom- panies Fox to America, 310, 319. Edinburgh, 158, 160. Edmonton (Waltham), Boys' school founded at, 288. Edmundson, William, 310, 411. Education, Fox's love for, 162 ; Quaker, 288. Elizabeth of Bohemia, Letter from, 355. Ellwood, Thomas, chosen to edit Fox's Journal, 344 ; testimony of, to Fox, 382. England, Condition of, in the sixteenth century, 2 ; alter- ation in the state of, while Fox was in Derby prison, 52. England, New. See New Eng- land. Epistle to the Yearly Meeting, Extracts from the, 339. Epistle, Fox's last, 374. Erastians, Tenets of the, 39. Evesham, 129. Evil eye, The, 68. Exchequer, Fox sued for tithes in the Court of, 360. Exeter, 142, 149. FAITH, Quaker Confessions of, 318 ; Quaker Confession of, addressed to Parliament, 353- Farnsworth, Richard, 68, 83, 112, 318. Fast on account of dearth in 1657, 154. Fasting woman, A, 22. Fasting, Quakers object to, 154. Fathers, The Pilgrim, 217 ; the, consulted by desire of Fox, 231. Fell, Henry, 195, 209 ; Judge, 70, 76, 81 ; Leonard, 186. Fell, Margaret, 71, 77, 188 ; her account of Fox's first visit to Swarthmore, 71, 75; and Ann Curtis visit London to intercede for the release of George Fox, 190; intercedes with Charles II. for the Quakers, 198 ; again asks release of Fox, 335; pra> munired at Lancaster, 261 ; imprisoned, 281; a dis- charge is sent to, 308 ; is again imprisoned, 300 ; married to Fox, 296 ; at Bristol, 327 ; letters to, from Fox, 327, 329, 357 ; is sued for tithes, 359; fined for per- mitting meetings at Swarth- more, 367. Fell, Sarah, 301. Fells, The, of Swarthmore, 76. Fenny Drayton, see Drayton-in- the-Clay. Fifth Monarchy Men, Rising of the, 193. First-day Meetings, 282. Fisher, Mary, Interview of, with the sultan, 213 ; in New England, 220. INDEX. 417 Fisher, Samuel, 88, 278. Fox, Captain, 139. Fox, George, not strictly the originator of Quaker doc- trines, but founder of the sect, 9 ; born at Drayton- in-the-Clay, 1 1 ; boyhood and parentage of, 12 ; his early piety, 13 ; his appren- ticeship, 13 ; his constancy, 14; refuses to drink healths, 14 ; his religious mental depression, 15; his early wanderings, 15, 19; consults many "priests," 16, 18; consults Stevens, 17 ; his avoidance of society, 19 ; his early disputes, 20 ; solitary travels, 21 ; he makes a convert, 22 ; the leather breeches, 22 ; his revela- tions, 23, 26, 27, 69, 101, 1 03 ; his power in prayer, 2 5 ; disputes in a church, 25; he begins to hold meetings, 27; refuses " hat honour," and insists on the equality of mankind, 29; his objection to church bells, 29 ; speaks in St. Mary's, Nottingham, 30 ; is sent to gaol, 31; re- leased, 32 ; interrupts a lecture at Derby, 33 ; his visitors in the gaol, 34 ; his treatment in gaol, 43 ; his letters to magistrates, etc., of Derby, 46, 49; his hatred of cruel laws, 47; the magis- trates puzzled how to get rid of him, 48 ; is asked to join the Parliamentary army, 48; is liberated from Derby gaol, 49 ; the effect of his imprisonment on his character, 50 ; resumes his ministerial work, 52; his eccentric conduct at Lich- field, 53; was he insane? 54; at Beverley, 55 ; rebukes a " priest " in a church, 57; is refused food, 58; " famishes the people from words," 60 ; means of sub- sistence, 61 ; at Patrington, 62 ; is released on account of the cleanness of his linen, 63; is beaten with a Bible, 64; undervalues an educated ministry, 68 ; at Newton Cartmel, 70 ; visits Swarth- more, 73 ; interview with Judge Fell, 75 ; a warrant is issued against him, 81 ; visits the judges at Lancas- ter, 100 ; in Carlisle gaol, 105 ; is visited by James Parnel, 107; at Drayton-in- the-Clay, 111; is arrested and sent to London, 116; his first interview with Cromwell, 119; is offered a commission in the army, 120]; and Richard Hubber- thorn accused of stealing a horse, 127; his letter to Cromwell, 128 ; his long hair, 130; imprisoned at Launceston, 131; tried and released, 1 32-14 1 ; meets with and reproves James Naylor at Exeter, 142 ; third interview with Crom- well, 149; teaching regard- ing the sacraments, 151 ; E E 418 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Fox {continued ). doubtful whether he in- tended to found a sect, 153 ; visits Wales, 155; his kind- ness to animals, 156; visits Scotland and is ordered to leave, 1 5 7; prevents a college being founded at Durham, 161 ; love for education, 162, 288 ; his dispute with a Jesuit, 164; his "last sight" of Cromwell, 168 ; illness, 180; he revisits Swarthmore, 188; is sent to Lancaster gaol, 190 ; sent to London and calls on his judges, 191; apprehended in Pall Mall, 195 ; objects to retaliation, 206; hisshareinthe "Battle- dore," 206; reproves the New England magistrates, 227 ; his respect for authority, 231 ; is arrested at Swan, nington, and refuses to take the oaths, 234; committed to Leicester gaol, 236 ; tried at the assizes, 238 ; is re- leased, 239; careful never to avoid arrest, 242 ; again at Swarthmore, 242; is tried at Lancaster, 246, 248, 252; his health gives way, and he is removed to Scarborough Castle, 262; patience under suffering, 265 ; long illness, 280 ; the importance he attached to marriage, 284 ; visits Ireland, 294 ; his marriage, 296 ; various letters, 301, 302, 329, 370; arrested at a meeting at Gracechurch Street, and taken before the Lord Mayor, 303; again taken ill, 307; sails for America, 310; in Barbadoes, 313; his views on slavery, 315; his epistle to the Governor of Barba- does, 318, 399; in Jamaica, 319; North America, 319; the treatment of Indians, 320 ; returns to England and lands at Bristol, 326; arrested by Justice Parker and sent to Worcester gaol, 329 ; at Swarthmore, 338 ; in London, 341 ; as a preacher, 342 ; his gift in prayer, 342 ; his writings and his Journal, 343 ; visits Holland, 347 ; again at Swarthmore, 359 ; is sued for tithes, 359 ; directs his followers to be careful lest they endanger other men's goods, 365 ; inculcates plain- ness of dress, 368; failure of his health, 371; last illness, 376 ; care for the spread of truth, 376 ; his death and funeral, 377; his character, 379; Ellwood's "Testimony to him, 382 ; his religious teaching, 383 ; conveyance toFriends of land at Swarth- more, 371, 402 ; list of his principal writings, 406. Fox, George, the younger, 208, 318. Friends, Society of, see Quakers. Funeral of George Fox, 377. Furly, Benjamin, joint author with Stubbs of the " Battle- dore" 207, 355. INDEX. 419 GAOLER, Letter to Fox from a, 233- Germany, 216. Glyn, Lord Justice, 132, 145. Goodyear, 55, 67. " Good-morrow and good-even," 29. Goldney, Henry, 376. Goldsmith, Ralph, 225. Gooses, 372. Governor of Barbadoes, Fox's letter to the, 318, 399. Gracechurch-street meeting,303, 357, 375- Grahamstown (U.S.), 317. Gravesend, Fox sails for Barba- does from, 309. Green, Thomas, 370. Greenwell, Benjamin, 125. HACKER, Colonel, arrests Fox, and sends him to Cromwell, 116. Hale, Fox tried before Sir Mat- thew, 337. Halhead, Miles, 78, 93; his visit to Major-General Lambert, 96. Hammersley, Thomas, 123. Hampton Court, 168. Harwich, 356. Hat honour, 29, 127, 132. Henry, Philip, 199. Hereford, cruel Treatment of Quakers at, 1 77. Heresy, Fox's letter against Perrot's, 228. Highlands, The, 159. Holland, 98, 216, 262, 347, 357. Hooten, Elizabeth, is Fox's first convert, 22; accompanies Fox to Barbadoes, 310; dies at Jamaica, 319. Hotham, Fox's visit to Justice 56. Hovvgill, Francis, 68, 85, 88, 97 118, 188. Hubbersty, 78. Hubberthorn, Richard, 78, 126; applies to Charles 1 1, for the release of the Quakers, 192 Huntingdon, Robert, 205. IBBITT, Thomas, 268. Illness, Fox's serious, 307; Fox's last, 376. Independent woman, intolerant 57- Independents, 37. India, 209. Indian affection for Quakers, 321. Indians, Fox's interest in the, 320 ; alleged to be without " Light," 324. Informer, a Papist, 304. Innkeeper, dishonest, at Tops- ham, 129. Intolerance of the Presbyterians in New England, 218, 222. Ireland, 167, 294, 375. JAMAICA, 216, 319. James II. orders the release ot Quakers, 369. Jay, John, 324. Jealousy of Nonconformists, 65. Jerusalem, George Robinson at, 210. Jesuit, Fox disputes with a, 164. John the Quaker, see Kelsey, John. 420 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Journal, The, of George Fox, 343- Judges, Fox calls on, in London, 192. Justice, A Quaker Devonshire, sent to gaol as a Jesuit, 138. KEAT, Captain, 137. Keith, George, 347, 35 1 ; becomes an apostate, 352 ; his death, 353. Kelsey, John, attempts to con- vert the sultan, 212. Kendal, 69, 101. King's Bench, Fox tried in the Court of, 337. Kingston, 168, 329. Kirby, Colonel, 242, 259, 262, 294. LAMBERT, Major- General, visited by Miles Halhead, 96. Lampitt, Priest, of Ulverstone, 73 ; disputes with Miles Halhead, 95. Lancaster, 81, 99 ; Fox in prison at, 189; assizes, tried at, 248, 252 ; Margaret Fell imprisoned at, 300. Lancaster, James, 327. Launceston, 131, 136; mayor of, ill-treats the Friends, 138. Lawson, Wilfred, 105. Leddra, William, martyred in New England, 223. Leicester gaol, 235 ; meetings in, 238. Leicestershire, Ill-treatment of Quakers in, 1 76. Leith, 159. Leominster, 155. Leslie, Charles, an opponent of Quakerism, 299. Liberties, English, gained at Quaker trials, 338. Lichfield, 53. Liverpool, 294, 296. London, 16, 91, 1 17, 149, 163, 173, 181, 192, 234, 282, 293, 300, 328, 341, 375 ; foundation of Quakerism in, 124; Great Fire of, 267; Fox before Lord Mayor of, 304; success of Quakerism in, 292 ; be- comes the head-quarters of the society, 359. Lower, Dr., 331. Lower, Thomas, Meeting at the house of, 141; sent to Wor- cester gaol, 329 ; waits o Fox in prison, 333 ; is ap- pointed to convey George to London, 334. Lutterworth, 15. Lynn, 127. MACAULAY'S opinion of Fox, IS- Mackintosh, Sir James, on Bar- clay's Apology, 351. Madagascar, 209. Magistrates in Derby offer Fox liberty to walk a mile from the prison, 44 ; alarmed about the Swannington meeting, 114, 394 ; Fox before the, at Ulverstone, 189; Fox's letter to the, respecting the Conventicle Act, 1670, 302; sometimes reluctant to condemn Qua- kers, 363. INDEX. 421 Maidstone, 98. Mallet, Judge, 192. Man-of-war, A "Sally," chases ship containing Fox and his friends, 311. Mansetter, 18. Mansfield, 23, 27, 32. Market Bosworth, 32. Marriage, Trial regarding the legality of a Quaker, 230; Fox's, 296 ; certificate of George Fox and Margaret Fell, 397 ; Fox's advice re- garding, 284, 314; between Quakers and members of other sects not likely to be happy, 286 ; Quakers' care to register, 232, 288. Marsh, " Esquire," 195, 266, 289. Mary, Influence on Protestant- ism of Queen, 3. Maryland, 319, 320, 325. Mayor of London, Fox before the, 304. Mazarin, Cardinal, 122. Mead, William, 338, 360, 372. Meetings established in 1656, 151; for discipline estab- lished, 152; first day, 282; monthly, 153 ; quarterly, duties of, 283 ; women's separate, objected to, 340; yearly, 163, 339, 346, 374. Mennonites, Resemblance be- tween Quaker doctrines and those of the, 40. Middleton, Sir George, accuses Fox of denying God, 244. Millenarians, 193. Milner Jones, 102. Minehead, 289. Minister, Some New England magistrates wish Fox to remain as their, 326. Ministers, Quaker, 83; not paid, 62. Miracle, Fox believes himself cured by a, 79. Miracles, Fox believes he works, 103. Missions, Quaker, 209. Monk, General, protects Qua- kers, 178, 179. Montague, Judge, 361. Monthly meetings, 153. Moor, Thomas, 370. " Mustek Lector" A, 273. Myer, Richard, 102. NAILSWORTH, 296. Naked, Some Quakers go about, 100, 205. Naylor, James, 55, 68, 80, 142; meets Fox at Exeter, 143 ; insane conduct of, at Bris- tol, 143; his severe punish- ment, 144 ; death of, 147. Neison, Gertrud Derrick, 356. Newcastle, 95, 145, 160. New England, Foundation of, 217 ; cruel treatment of Quakers in, 220 ; laws a- gainst Quakers, 220 ; man- date forbidding persecution of Quakers in, 225; Presby- terians much alarmed at the interference of Charles II., 227 ; continued persecution in, 227 ; Fox in, 322 ; the persecutions renewed in, 357- New Jersey, Barclay appointed life governor of, 350. Newton Cartmel, 70, 359. 422 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Nieupoort writes to the States General about Quakerism, 295. Nonconformists, Jealousy of some, 35. Non-resistance, Quaker doctrine of, 185. Northumberland, Petition from, against Quakers, 145. Nottingham, 30, 230. Norwich, 181. OATES, Titus, His fabrica- tions injurious to the Friends, 362. Oath, The, of Abjuration, 128. Oaths of Allegiance and Supre- macy, 232; refused by Fox, 235, 238, 246, 256, 332; commonly refused by Qua- kers, 247. Osborn, Colonel William, 157. Owen, Dr., 149. Oxford, 150. PALESTINE, Quaker Missions in, 209. Papist, Fox disputes with a, 290 ; informer, a, 304. Pardon, Fox refuses to accept a, 335- Parker, Alexander, 378. Parker, Justice, 329, 331. Parliament, the Ouakers'petition to, for the release of Fox from Carlisle, 107 ; com- mittee of, try James Naylor, 144. Parnel, James, 89; imprisonment of, at Colchester, 90 ; death of, 91. Parsloe, Captain, 55. Patrington, 62. Pearson, Anthony, 84. Pearson, Justice, 94, 243. Pendennis Castle, 130. Penn, William, references to, 41, 168, 289, 318, 327, 328; endeavours to obtain re- lease of Fox, 335 ; visits Holland, 347. Pennington, Isaac, 168. Pennsylvania, foundation of, 348- Perrot, John, his attempt to convert the Pope, 216; heretical teaching of, 228, 251. Persecution in 1670, 303. Perth, 160. Peterborough, Lord, 348. Phipps, Joseph, 345. Pickering, 60. Pilgrim Fathers, The, 217. Plague, The Great, 271, 275. Plot in the North, The, 243. Plots, Fox writes against, 251; popish, Quakers perse- cuted on account of sup- posed, 363. Plymouth, 96. Poland, King of, Fox writes to, 358. Political condition of the coun- try in 1648, 24. Poor, Quaker care for the, 183. Pope, Stubbs tries to convert the, 110; other Quaker attempts to convert the, 216. Popish plots, Quakers perse- cuted on account of, 363. Porter, Justice, has Fox ar- rested, 188. INDEX. 423 Prcemnnire, Fox sentenced to penalties of a, 335. Prayer, Fox's gift in, 342. Preacher, Fox as a, 342. Presbyterian, Fox reported to have turned a, 296. Presbyterians, Tenets of the, 36 ; their hatred to toleration, 36 ; dissatisfied with their position, 65; in New Eng- land, intolerant, 218; means taken by some to avoid arrest, 281; Scotch, curse the Quakers, 157. Prester John's country, Several Quakers go as missionaries to, 210. "Priests," Why they disliked the Friends, 42; Fox dis- putes with, 58 ; avoid Fox, 59- Puritan sects, 36, 40. Puritanism, Rise of, 3. Puritans, Extravagant doctrines of some, 19, 39. Pyot, Edward, 139, 149. QUAKER, John the, see Kelsey. Quaker carefulness regarding marriages being properly contracted and registered, 288 ; children whipped and imprisoned, 177; confes- sions of faith, 318, 353; declaration against swear- ing, 193 ; girl punished for prison breaking, 137 ; mar- riages, see Marriages, Qua- ker; ministers unpaid, 62; missions, 209 ; preachers, two return money received for their ministrations, 86; dislike to Presbyterians, 37; principle of non-resistance, 185; a, requests Cromwell to be allowed to take the place of Fox in prison, 140 ; soldiers leave the army rather than take an oath, 109 ; sufferings, 167, 199, 362 ; women frequently brought needless persecu- tion on themselves, 203. Quakeresses, their extravagance in dress, 368. Quakerism, Causes of, 1; out- come of puritanism, 1 ; aggressive doctrines of, 8 ; its objects, 8 ; its effects, 9 ; increase of, 67, 82, 275 ; in London, 122, 124; in Barbadoes, 313; after the death of Fox, 384; its work, 386. Quakers, A marked people, 8 ; protected by Judge Fell, 76 ; obtain business on account of their honesty, 109; Parliament petitioned to take proceedings against, 145 ; petition Parliament on behalf of James Naylor, 147; object to fasting, 154; cursed by Scotch Presby- terians, 157 ; called Butter- flies, 160; persecution of, 1 72 ; brought before com- mittee of Parliament, 174; whipped, 175 ; Whitehead's reasons why they were persecuted, 177; several, foresee the restoration, 179; their care for the poor, 183; number in prison at 424 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Quakers {continued ). death of Cromwell, 193 ; persecuted on account of the rising of the Fifth Monarchy Men, 198; num- bers of the, who suffered persecution, 201 ; account of the persecution of some, 201 ; sufferings of, in New England, 220; persecuted in New England after Charles II.'s mandate, 227; refuse to take oaths, 232; their carefulness to register marriages, etc., 232; often refused to give categorical answers, 258; refused to have bell rung for those who died of the plague, 275 ; banished, 276; protected by " Esquire " Marsh, 292. persecuted in 1670, 303 ; Fox argues that the, are without the scope of the Conventicle Act, 305; and slavery, 316; and Indians, 321 ; persecuted on account of supposed popish plots, 362 ; when in danger of arrest arrange for the pro- tection of other people's property, 365 ; collection among, for the release of their brethren captive in Algiers, 367; released by Charles II. and James II., 369 ; do not entirely owe their quietism to George Fox, 384 ; their universal philanthropy, 385 ; in Scot- and, 395. Quarterly meetings, 282. Quietism not entirely due to Fox, 384. RANTERS, 39, 58; in New England, 322. Reading, 126, 180. Reasons for the dislike of Quakerism among the people, 42. Reformation, The, in England, 1. Religious condition of England in 1650, 35. Restoration, The, foreseen by some Quakers, 179. Revelation to Fox of the blood of the martyrs at Lichfield, 54- Rhode Island, Quakers in, 219. Richardson, Richard, asked to search in authorities re- garding what made a valid marriage, 232. Rickmansworth, 328. Rigg, a Quaker named, whipped at Southampton, 175- Robinson, George, 210. Robinson, Justice, 60. Robinson, William, 223. Rotterdam, 336. Rous, John, 310. SACRAMENTS, Quaker teach- ing regarding, 151. St. Ives (Cornwall), 129. Sale, Richard, 205. " Sally " man-of-war, 311. Saunders, Colonel, 123. Savoy Conference, 170. Sawrey, Justice, 73, 78; issues INDEX. 425 warrant for arrest of Fox, 81. Scafe, Philip, 58. Scarborough, Fox removed to, 264 ; Fox liberated at, 267 ; Fox visits Crosslands at, 294. Schisms in the Quaker society, 228, 275, 340. Scotland, Fox in, 157 ; Fox ordered to leave, 159; Qua- kers in, 395. Sect, doubtful whether Fox ever intended to found a, 153- Sects, peculiar, in the seven- teenth century, 19; list of Puritan, in 1650, 40. Seekers. See Ranters. Selby, 55. Shacklevvell, Girls' school found- ed at, 288. Shattock, Samuel, 225. Sheriff of Nottingham, 31. Simpson, William, 205. Singing, Some Quakers intro- duce, into meetings, 275. Skimming-dish hats, 368. Skippon, Major-General, 145. Skipton, 183. Slavery in Pennsylvania, 348. Slaves, Fox's advice regarding treatment of, etc., 315. Smith, Humphrey, 277. Smith, William, 318. Snyderhill Green, 281. Social effects of Quakerism, 43. Soldiers, Quaker, 109; Quakers abused by, 178; Quaker, in Scotland, 395. Stath, 58. Steeple-houses, once a common Puritan term for churches, 26. Stevens, Marmaduke, 223. Stevens, Nathaniel, Vicar of Drayton, 17, 19, 32, 112, 114. Stoddart, Amor, 127. Story, John, 274. Strickland, Mr., 146. Stubbs, John, 1 10, 175, 209, 294, 310, 411; one of the authors of the " Battledore? 207. Sultan, Kelsey's attempt to con- vert the, 212; several Quakers set off to see the, 213 ; Mary Fisher's inter- view with the, 213. Supremacy, Oath of, 232. Swannington, 114, 234, 239. Svvarthmore Hall, Fox's first visit to, 70. Swarthmore, 154, 242, 246, 338, 358 ; Fox gives land to Quakers at, 371, 402. Swearing, Quakers hold, to be forbidden, 233. TENBY, 155. "Thee and Thou," 28; book written in defence of, 206. Thompson, Justice, has Fox arrested, 81. Tickhill, Fox beaten in the church at, 64. Tithes, 66 ; a few Quakers pay, 340 ; Fox and his wife sued for, 359. Todd, Mary, 101. Toleration Act, The, 201, 374. Topsham, 129. Torrington, 175. Tredhaven Creek, 325. 426 GEORGE FOX AND THE EARLY QUAKERS. Turner, Judge, Fox tried before, 252. Twisden, Judge, Fox tried be- fore, 248, 260. Twycross, 33. ULVERSTONE, 70, 74, 78, 100, 188. VANE, Sir Harry, 174. Vernier's conspiracy, 193. Virginia, Laws against Quakers in, 221. WAKEFIELD, 55. Wales, 155. Walney Island, 80. Waltham (Edmonton) school founded, 288. Walton, 152. Warmsworth, 63, 83. Waterford, 102. Watts, George, 378. Weaver, Vale of, 27. Wedding, Fox's, 296. Whetstone, 116. Whitehall, 101, 119, 178, 196. Whitehead, George, 125, 177, 37°- Whitelock, Bulstrode, 145. Widders, Robert, 107, 157,310, 327- Wiggan, Major, 252. Wild, Judge, 336. Wilkinson, 275. Williams, Roger, 411. Williamson, John, Extraordinary conduct of the wife of, 102. Women, Quaker, frequently brought persecution on themselves, 203, 396 ; their preaching objected to, 340. Worcester, 181; gaol, Fox com- mitted to, 329; sessions, Fox brought before, 331, 334; assizes, Fox tried at, 334; Fox released from prison at, 338. Worcestershire, Fox and Lower appeal to the Lord Lieu- tenant and magistrates of, 329- Worship, several Puritan sects had no fixed form of, 37. Wrecking, Fox writes against, 181. Wrexham, the " light lady " at, 1 56. Writings, Fox's, 338, 406. YEARLY meeting, The, held at John Crook's, 163; extracts from Fox's epistle to a, 339 ; functions of the, 346 ; in 1690, 374. Yelland, 185. Yeomans, Isabel, 296, 347, 355. York, 58, 182, 201, 293. ZINSPENNING, Judith, 98. Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome. and London. MISS HACK'S LIVES OF DEVOTED WOMEN. CHRISTIAN WOMANHOOD. By Mary Pryor Hack. Uniform with "Consecrated Women" and "Self-Sur- render." Second Thousand. Price 5^. Elegantly bound. ' ' We know no more suitable present for a young lady than this charming book, with its sketches of Mary Fletcher, Elizabeth last Duchess of Gordon, Ann Backhouse, Frances Ridley Havergal, and others. 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