The Society of Friends
A Quaker memorial meeting leads Alan to reflect on the denomination’s turbulent origins
Recently I attended a Quaker memorial meeting, to celebrate the life and work of a friend who had passed away. Going to a meeting was a new experience for me: I found it very moving and thoughtprovoking. Long periods of reflective silence were interspersed with spoken thoughts and observations by some of those present. It was calm, peaceful, quiet and dignified.
Attending the meeting for Malcolm had another dimension for me as a historian. While sitting there, I also thought about the circumstances in which the Society of Friends came into being – the terrible turmoil of the mid-17th century, when political and religious upheavals shattered the fabric of British society.
In theory the people of England and Scotland all belonged to a single Anglican and Protestant Church, with the king as its supreme head. The reality was dramatically different. Many remained loyal to the ‘Old Faith’, the Catholic Church, which had been illegal for 90 years and subject to draconian legislation. And everywhere the Protestants were themselves divided, with splits and secessions and all shades of belief and observance, from colourful and lavish ritual to minimalist simplicity. Throw into the equation the bitter political arguments (mere words in the 1630s, brutal war in the 1640s) and we see the bewildering world which our forebears had to deal with.
It wasn’t just the people at the top, either. Everybody was affected by the passions and anger of faith and politics. From peasants in church on a Sunday, trying to work out what was going on, to the smallholders whose crops were trampled by passing armies, and townspeople experiencing sieges.
It was fertile ground for the emergence of new sects. Many people thought the end of the world was nigh and God was punishing a sinful and cursed people. A lunatic fringe spoke of crazy ideas – all property should be communally owned, every man should have the vote, all men are born equal, all men are equal. In this whirlwind of ideas and fears dissenting groups flourished, and the Society of Friends or Quakers was born.
The founder, George Fox (1624-1691), a Leicestershire man, left home aged 19 “to seek the truth”. He became convinced that God spoke to people directly through the Risen Christ, not through the mediation of a priest or minister – from the perspective of the authorities, a madness which threatened to undermine the fabric of society.
Interrupted by periods of imprisonment, Fox wandered through the Midlands and the North. In 1652, on the summit of Pendle in East Lancashire, he had a vision of a great number of people “waiting to be gathered”. His mission was clear. A couple of days later he preached to a large crowd at Firbank Fell near Sedbergh. The establishment of the Society of Friends is usually dated from this time. He travelled north, into Cumbria, and found sanctuary at Swarthmoor, Ulverston, home of Judge Fell and his wife, Margaret. From this haven, Fox and his disciples spread the word. Their rejection of a priesthood or professional ministry brought them into conflict with the authorities. Quakers refused to pay Church rates or tithes, rejected worship in ‘the steeple house’ (as they termed churches) and waged campaigns of civil disobedience. They refused to bow before ‘superiors’, and would not doff their hats to their ‘ betters’.
They were persecuted for half a century, suffering imprisonment, fines and public whippings. But in 1689 when (for reasons of political expediency) freedom of conscience and worship was extended to dissenters, Quakers were grudgingly accepted. When Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753 introduced the licensing of places where marriages could be conducted, only Church of England parish churches were authorised, with two exceptions: Jewish synagogues, and Quaker meeting houses.
Every man should have the vote, all men are born equal, all men are equal