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Early Days

The Quaker movement began in England in the early 1650s. Traditionally George Fox has been taken to be the founder or at least the most important early figure, but modern scholarship suggests a more complicated picture. Most likely, a number of radical Puritans, among them Fox, James Nayler and Edward Burroughs, independently came to similar positions, eventually came into contact with one another, and then began to coordinate their preaching. However, since Fox outlived most of the others, his account of the early days as recorded in his Journal, while it may exaggerate his role, is the most detailed one available.

Fox and the other early Quaker preachers believed that direct experience with God was available to all people, without any mediation (e.g. through a pastor, or through sacraments). Friends have often expressed this belief by referring to "that of God in Everyone", "inner light", "inward Christ", "the spirit of Christ within", and many other terms.

Fox left home at age 19 in 1644 on a religious search that lasted about three years, until he reported hearing the voice of Christ, and undergoing a process of personal transformation by the workings of the "inward light". He began preaching publicly in 1648. At that time, Puritanism was predominant in England under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, but religious and political dissent were increasing. Fox was a highly vocal dissenter, as he considered many of the religious practices of the time to be inconsistent with Christian faith. In particular, he rejected the notion of a paid priesthood and of governmentally sanctioned church buildings (which he derided as "steeple-houses"), believing instead that everyone can be a minister and that any worshipful gathering of true Christians is equally legitimate. Thus, traditional Quaker worship had no individual in charge of conducting a planned service; instead, worshippers gathered in silence, which was only interrupted when someone in attendance felt moved by the Spirit to speak. Fox also believed the Puritans were wrong to regard literal reading of Scripture as a higher authority than personal experience of the divine, quoting Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians that "the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."

He began his career by speaking in outdoor public places and in congregations—something he continued to do throughout his life. In many cases this resulted in his abuse and imprisonment—especially when he came into "steeple-houses" to denounce the sermons after the minister had finished, which was the custom and legal during the Commonwealth. From 1652 onward Fox was closely associated with an earlier, very loosely organized movement of religious dissenters, the Seekers. Seekers typically believed that there was no true church in existence, and resigned themselves to waiting for God to reestablish his kingdom, either spiritually or temporally. They had many practices that were similar to the emerging Quaker movement; they had discarded all ceremony in worship and begun the practice of silent meetings which, as Fox rapidly gained followers among the Seekers, became the practice of Friends.

Fox was equally critical of many aspects of English culture besides religious dogma, particularly those that he saw as symptoms of pride and misuse of authority. In 1661, he and other leading Quakers made their first public profession of the peace testimony; it is unclear how universal pacifism was before then, many Quaker converts being sympathetic with the Puritan revolution or even members of the New Model Army, as James Nayler was. After that point, the Quakers maintained that the proper response to injustice was neither violence nor acquiescence, but peaceful non-cooperation. Fox's criticisms of his society were similar to those of the Seekers, Ranters, and Levellers, and he drew followers from all of these groups (as well as from dissatisfied members of Cromwell's movement), but differed from them in his urgent call for a revival of what he saw as original Christian faith and practice, based on obedience to the inwardly revealed word of God and public resistance to injustice. Early Friends saw themselves as "primitive Christianity revived", in William Penn's words, and saw their Puritan and Anglican persecutors as analogous to the Pharisees.

Nayler's sign

In 1656, a popular Quaker minister, James Nayler, went beyond the standard beliefs of Quakers when he rode into Bristol on a horse in the pouring rain, accompanied by a handful of men and women saying "Holy, holy, holy" and strewing their garments on the ground — clearly imitating Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. While this was apparently an attempt to emphasize that the "Light of Christ" was in every person, most observers believed that Nayler and his followers believed him to be Jesus Christ. The group was arrested by the local authorities and handed over to Parliament, where they were tried, probably illegally. Parliament was sufficiently incensed by Nayler's heterodox views that they punished him savagely and sent him back to Bristol to jail indefinitely. This was especially bad for the movement's respectability in the eyes of the Puritan rulers because some considered Nayler (and not Fox, who was in jail at the time) to be the actual leader of the movement. Many historians see this event as a turning point in early Quaker history because many other leaders, especially Fox, made efforts to increase the authority of the group over the leadings of the individual, to prevent similar behavior. In the 1660s and 1670s Fox traveled the country setting up a more formal structure of monthly (local) and quarterly (regional) meetings, which still survives today.

Persecution in the New World

Friends suffered persecution in the British Isles. They came under persecution again as they migrated to America. The first Friends came to the New World in order to spread their beliefs. In 1656 Mary Fisher and Ann Austin did so, and were imprisoned and banished by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their books were burned, and most of their property was confiscated.

In 1657 a group of Friends from England landed at Long Island in what was then called New Amsterdam. One of these Friends, Robert Hodgson preached to large crowds of people. He was arrested, imprisoned, and flogged. Some sympathetic Dutch colonists were able to get him released. The preaching continued with some positive response as well as some continued persecution. Finally, on December 27, 1657 some of the citizens of Flushing wrote to the governor in protest. They reminded Governor Peter Stuyvesant that the colony's charter allowed for freedom of conscience. The document is called the Flushing Remonstrance. It is the first instance in the American colonies of settlers petitioning for religious freedom.

Some Friends in New England were only imprisoned or banished. A few were also whipped, branded, or otherwise corporally punished. A few were acutally executed by the Puritan leaders, usually for ignoring and defying orders of banishment. Mary Dyer was thus executed in 1660. Three other martyrs to the Quaker faith in Massachusetts were William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson, and William Leddra.

Later history

The Society in Ireland, and later, the United States suffered a number of separations during the 19th century. In 1827, Elias Hicks was expelled for expressing universalistic views, and in 1828, a number of Friends in sympathy with him separated to form a parallel system of yearly meetings in America. The remaining Orthodox Friends in America were exercised by a transatlantic dispute between John Joseph Gurney of England and John Wilbur of Rhode Island. Gurney, troubled by the example of the Hicksite separation, emphasized Scriptural authority and favored working closely with other Christian groups. Wilbur, in response, defended the authority of the Holy Spirit as primary, and worked to prevent the dilution of Friends tradition of Spirit-led ministry. After privately criticizing Gurney in correspondence to sympathetic Friends, Wilbur was expelled from his yearly meeting in a questionable proceeding in 1842. Over the next several decades, a number of Wilburite-Gurneyite separations occurred. (See A short history of Conservative Friends for further information.)

Friends in Britain remained united for the most part during the course of these separations.

Starting in the late 19th century, many American Gurneyite Quakers adopted the use of paid pastors, planned sermons, hymns and other elements of Protestant worship services. This type of Quaker meetings is known as "programmed meetings". Worship of the traditional, silent variety is called an "unprogrammed meeting", although there is some variation on how the unprogrammed meetings adhere strictly to the lack of programming. Some unprogrammed meetings may have also allocated a period of hymn-singing or other activity as part of the total period of worship, while others maintain the tradition of avoiding all planned activities.