Chapter XXII: Act 1689: put an end to the persecution of Quakers (along with other (1)

Dissenters) for non-attendance at church. For many years after this they were liable to imprisonment for non-payment of tithes, and, together with other Dissenters, they remained under various civil disabilities, the gradual removal of which is part of the general history of England. In the years succeeding the Toleration Act at least twelve of their number were prosecuted (often more than once in the spiritual and other courts) for keeping school without a bishop's licence. It is coming to be recognized that the growth of religious toleration owed much to the early Quakers who, with the exception of a few Baptists at the first, stood almost alone among Dissenters in holding their public meetings openly and regularly.

The Toleration Act was not the only law of William and Mary which benefited Quakers. The legislature has continually had regard to their refusal to take oaths, and not only the said act but also another of the same reign, and numerous others, subsequently passed, have respected the peculiar scruples of Friends (see Davis's _Digest of Legislative Enactments relating to Friends_, Bristol, 1820).

Period of Decline.

2. _Period 1689-1835._--From the beginning of the 18th century the zeal of the Quaker body abated. Although many "General" and other meetings were held in different parts of the country for the purpose of setting forth Quakerism, the notion that the whole Christian church would be absorbed in it, and that the Quakers were, in fact, the church, gave place to the conception that they were "a peculiar people" to whom, more than to others, had been given an understanding of the will of God. The Quakerism of this period was largely of a traditional kind; it dwelt with increasing emphasis on the peculiarities of its dress and language; it rested much upon discipline, which developed and hardened into rigorous forms; and the correction or exclusion of its members occupied more attention than did the winning of converts.

Excluded from political and municipal life by the laws which required either the taking of an oath or joining in the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Established Church, excluding themselves not only from the frivolous pursuits of pleasure, but from music and art in general, attaining no high average level of literary culture (though producing some men of eminence in science and medicine), the Quakers occupied themselves mainly with trade, the business of their Society, and the calls of philanthropy. From early times George Fox and many others had taken a keen interest in education, and in 1779 there was founded at Ackworth, near Pontefract, a school for boys and girls; this was followed by the reconstitution, in 1808, of a school at Sidcot in the Mendips, and in 1811, of one in Islington Road, London; it was afterwards removed to Croydon, and, later, to Saffron Walden. Others have since been established at York and in other parts of England and Ireland. None of them are now reserved exclusively for the children of Friends.

During this period Quakerism was sketched from the outside by two very different men. Voltaire (_Dictionnaire Philosophique_, "Quaker," "Toleration") described the body, which attracted his curiosity, his sympathy and his sneers, with all his brilliance. Thomas Clarkson (_Portraiture of Quakerism_) has given an elaborate and sympathetic account of the Quakers as he knew them when he travelled amongst them from house to house on his crusade against the slave trade.

3. _From 1835._--During the 18th century the doctrine of the Inward Light acquired such exclusive prominence as to bring about a tendency to disparage, or, at least, to neglect, the written word (the Scriptures) as being "outward" and non-essential. In the early part of the 19th century an American Friend, Elias Hicks, pressed this doctrine to its furthest limits, and, in doing so, he laid stress on "Christ within" in such a way as practically to take little account of the person and work of the "outward," i.e. the historic Christ. The result was a separation of the Society in America into two divisions which persist to the present day (see below, "Quakerism in America"). This led to a counter movement in England, known as the Beacon Controversy, from the name of a warning publication issued by Isaac Crewdson of Manchester in 1835, advocating views of a pronounced "evangelical" type. Much controversy ensued, and a certain number of Friends (Beaconites as they are sometimes called) departed from the parent stock. They left behind them, however, many influential members, who may be described as a middle party, and who strove to give a more "evangelical" tone to Quaker doctrine. Joseph John Gurney of Norwich, a brother of Elizabeth Fry, by means of his high social position and his various writings (some published before 1835), was the most prominent actor in this movement. Those who quitted the Society maintained, for some little time, a separate organization of their own, but sooner or later most of them joined the Evangelical Church or the Plymouth Brethren.

Other causes have been at work modifying the Quaker society. The repeal of the Test Act, the admission of Quakers to Parliament in consequence of their being allowed to affirm instead of taking the oath (1832, when Joseph Pease was elected for South Durham), the establishment of the University of London, and, more recently, the opening of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to Nonconformists, have all had their effect upon the body. It has abandoned its peculiarities of dress and language, as well as its hostility to music and art, and it has cultivated a wider taste in literature. In fact, the number of men, either Quakers or of Quaker origin and proclivities, who occupy positions of influence in English life is large in proportion to the small body with which they are connected. During the 19th century the interests of Friends became widened and they are no longer a close community.

_Doctrine._--It is not easy to state with certainty the doctrines of a body which (in England at least) has never demanded subscription to any creed, and whose views have undoubtedly undergone more or less definite changes. There is not now the sharp distinction which formerly existed between Friends and other non-sacerdotal evangelical bodies; these have, in theory at least, largely accepted the spiritual message of Quakerism. By their special insistence on the fact of immediate communion between God and man, Friends have been led into those views and practices which still mark them off from their fellow-Christians.

Public worship.

Nearly all their distinctive views (e.g. their refusal to take oaths, their testimony against war, their disuse of a professional ministry, and their recognition of women's ministry) were being put forward in England, by various individuals or sects, in the strife which raged during the intense religious excitement of the middle of the 17th century. Nevertheless, before the rise of the Quakers, these views were nowhere found in conjunction as held by any one set of people; still less were they regarded as the outcome of any one central belief or principle. It is rather in their emphasis on this thought of Divine communion, in their insistence on its reasonable consequences (as it seems to them), that Friends constitute a separate community. The appointment of one man to preach, to the exclusion of others, whether he feels a divine call so to do or not, is regarded as a limitation of the work of the Spirit and an undue concentration of that responsibility which ought to be shared by a wider circle. For the same reason they refuse to occupy the time of worship with an arranged programme of vocal service; they meet in silence, desiring that the service of the meeting shall depend on spiritual guidance. Thus it is left to any man or woman to offer vocal prayer, to read the Scriptures, or to utter such exhortation or teaching as may seem to be called for. Of late years, in certain of their meetings on Sunday evening, it has become customary for part of the time to be occupied with set addresses for the purpose of instructing the members of the congregation, or of conveying the Quaker message to others who may be present, all their meetings for worship being freely open to the public. In a few meetings hymns are occasionally sung, very rarely as part of any arrangement, but almost always upon the request of some individual for a particular hymn appropriate to the need of the congregation. The periods of silence are regarded as times of worship equally with those occupied with vocal service, inasmuch as Friends hold that robustness of spiritual life is best promoted by earnest striving on the part of each one to know the will of God for himself, and to be drawn into Christian fellowship with the other worshippers. The points on which special stress is laid are:--(1) the share of responsibility resting on each individual, whether called to vocal service or not, for the right spiritual atmosphere of the Meeting, and for the welfare of the congregation; (2) the privilege which may be enjoyed by each worshipper of waiting upon the Lord without relying on spoken words, however helpful, or on other outward matters; (3) freedom for each individual (whether a Friend or not) to speak, for the help of others, such message as he or she may feel called to utter; (4) a fresh sense of a divine call to deliver the message on that particular occasion, whether previous thought has been given to it or not. The idea which ought to underlie a Friends' meeting is thus set forth by Robert Barclay: "When I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up" (_Apology_, xi. 7). In many places Friends have felt the need of bringing spiritual help to those who are unable to profit by the somewhat severe discipline of their ordinary manner of worship. To meet this need they hold (chiefly on Sunday evenings) meetings which are not professedly "Friends' meetings for worship," but which are services conducted on lines similar to those of other religious bodies, with, in some cases, a portion of time set apart for silent worship, and freedom for any one of the congregation to utter words of exhortation or prayer.

From the beginning Friends have not practised the outward ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, even in a non-sacerdotal spirit. They attach, however, supreme value to the realities of which the observances are reminders or types--on the Baptism which is more than putting away the filth of the flesh, and on the vital union with Christ which is behind any outward ceremony. Their testimony is not _primarily_ against these outward observances; their disuse of them is due to a sense of the danger of substituting the shadow for the reality. They believe that an experience of more than 250 years gives ample warrant for the belief that Christ did not command them as a perpetual outward ordinance; on the contrary, they hold that it was alien to His method to lay down minute, outward rules for all time, but that He enunciated principles which His Church should, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, apply to the varying needs of the day. Their contention that every event of life may be turned into a sacrament, a means of grace, is summed up in the words of Stephen Grellet: "I very much doubt whether, since the Lord by His grace brought me into the faith of His dear Son, I have ever broken bread or drunk wine, even in the ordinary course of life, without the remembrance of, and some devout feeling regarding, the broken body and the blood-shedding of my dear Lord and Saviour."

Ministers.

When the ministry of any man or woman has been found to be helpful to the congregation, the Monthly Meeting (see below) may, after solemn consideration, record the fact that it believes the individual to have a divine call to the ministry, and that it encourages him or her to be faithful to the gift. Such ministers are said to be "acknowledged" or "recorded"; they are emphatically _not_ appointed to preach, and the fact of their acknowledgment is not regarded as conferring any special status upon them. The various Monthly Meetings appoint Elders, or some body of Friends, to give advice of encouragement or restraint as may be needed, and, generally, to take the ministry under their care.

Women.

With regard to the ministry of women, Friends hold that there is no evidence that the gifts of prophecy and teaching are confined to one sex. On the contrary, they see that a manifest blessing has rested on women's preaching, and they regard its almost universal prohibition as a relic of the seclusion of women which was customary in the countries where Christianity took its rise. The particular prohibition of Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35) they regard as due to the special circumstances of time and place.

War.

Friends have always held that war is contrary to the precepts and spirit of the Gospel, believing that it springs from the lower impulses of human nature, and not from the seed of divine life with its infinite capacity of response to the Spirit of God. Their testimony is not based _primarily_ on any objection to the use of force in itself, or even on the fact that war involves suffering and loss of life; their root objection is based on the fact that war is both the outcome and the cause of ambition, pride, greed, hatred and everything that is opposed to the mind of Christ; and that no end to be attained can justify the use of such means. While not unaware that with this, as with all moral questions, there may be a certain borderland of practical difficulty, Friends endeavour to bring all things to the test of the Realities which, though not seen, are eternal, and to hold up the ideal, set forth by George Fox, of living in the virtue of that life and power which takes away the _occasion of war._

Oaths.

Friends have always held that the attempt to enforce truth-speaking by means of an oath, in courts of law and elsewhere, tends to create a double standard of truth. They find Scripture warrant for this belief in Matt. v. 33-37 and James v. 12. Their testimony in this respect is the better understood when we bear in mind the large amount of perjury in the law courts, and profane swearing in general which prevailed at the time when the Society took its rise. "People swear to the end that they may speak truth; Christ would have men speak truth to the end they might not swear" (W. Penn, _A Treatise of Oaths_).

Theology.

With regard to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, the belief of the Society of Friends does not essentially differ from that of other Christian bodies. At the same time their avoidance of exact definition embodied in a rigid creed, together with their disuse of the outward ordinances of Baptism and the Supper, has laid them open to considerable misunderstanding. As will have been seen, they hold an exalted view of the divinity and work of Christ as the Word become flesh and the Saviour of the world; but they have always shrunk from rigid Trinitarian _definitions_. They believe that the same Spirit who gave forth the Scriptures still guides men to a right understanding of them. "You profess the Holy Scriptures: but what do you witness and experience? What interest have you in them? Can you set to your seal that they are true by the work of the same spirit in you that gave them forth in the holy ancients?" (William Penn, _A Summons or Call to Christendom_). At certain periods this doctrine, pushed to an extreme, has led to a practical undervaluing of the Scriptures, but of late times it has enabled Friends to face fearlessly the conclusions of modern criticism, and has contributed to a largely increased interest in Bible study. During the past few years a new movement has been started in the shape of lecture schools, lasting for longer or shorter periods, for the purpose of studying Biblical, ecclesiastical and social subjects. In 1903 there was established at Woodbrooke, an estate at Selly Oak on the outskirts of Birmingham, a permanent settlement for men and women, for the study of these questions on modern lines. The outward beginning of this movement was the Manchester Conference of 1895, a turning-point in Quaker history. Speaking generally, it may be noted that the Society includes various shades of opinion, from that known as "evangelical," with a certain hesitation in receiving modern thought, to the more "advanced" position which finds greater freedom to consider and adopt new suggestions of scientific, religious or other thinkers. The differences, however, are seldom pressed, and rarely become acute. Apart from points of doctrine which can be more or less definitely stated (not always with unanimity) Quakerism is an _atmosphere_, a manner of life, a method of approaching questions, a habit and attitude of mind.

_Quakerism in Scotland._--Quakerism was preached in Scotland very soon after its rise in England; but in the north and south of Scotland there existed, independently of and before this preaching, groups of persons who were dissatisfied with the national form of worship and who met together in silence for devotion. They naturally fell into this Society. In Aberdeen the Quakers took considerable hold, and were there joined by some persons of influence and position, especially Alexander Jaffray, sometime provost of Aberdeen, and Colonel David Barclay of Ury and his son Robert, the author of the _Apology_. Much light has been thrown on the history of the Quakers in Aberdeenshire by the discovery in 1826 at Ury of a MS. _Diary_ of Jaffray, since published with elucidations (2nd ed., London, 1836).

_Ireland._--The father of Quakerism in Ireland was William Edmondson; his preaching began in 1653-1654. The _History of the Quakers in Ireland_ (from 1653 to 1752), by Wight and Rutty, may be consulted. Dublin Yearly Meeting, constituted in 1670, is independent of London Yearly Meeting (see below).

_America._--In July 1656 two women Quakers, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, arrived at Boston. Under the general law against heresy their books were burnt by the hangman, they were searched for signs of witchcraft, they were imprisoned for five weeks and then sent away. During the same year eight others were sent back to England.

In 1656, 1657 and 1658 laws were passed to prevent the introduction of Quakers into Massachusetts, and it was enacted that on the first conviction one ear should be cut off, on the second the remaining ear, and that on the third conviction the tongue should be bored with a hot iron. Fines were laid upon all who entertained these people or were present at their meetings. Thereupon the Quakers, who were perhaps not without the obstinacy of which Marcus Aurelius complained in the early Christians, rushed to Massachusetts as if invited, and the result was that the general court of the colony banished them on pain of death, and four of them, three men and one woman, were hanged for refusing to depart from the jurisdiction or for obstinately returning within it. That the Quakers were, at times, irritating cannot be denied: some of them appear to have publicly mocked the institutions and the rulers of the colony and to have interrupted public worship; and a few of their men and women acted with the fanaticism and disorder which frequently characterized the religious controversies of the time. The particulars of the proceedings of Governor Endecott and the magistrates of New England as given in Besse's _Sufferings of the Quakers_ (see below) are startling to read. On the Restoration of Charles II. a memorial was presented to him by the Quakers in England stating the persecutions which their fellow-members had undergone in New England. Even the careless Charles was moved to issue an order to the colony which effectually stopped the hanging of the Quakers for their religion, though it by no means put an end to the persecution of the body in New England.

It is not wonderful that the Quakers, persecuted and oppressed at home and in New England, should turn their eyes to the unoccupied parts of America, and cherish the hope of founding, amidst their woods, some refuge from oppression, and some likeness of a city of God upon earth. As early as 1660 George Fox was considering the question of buying land from the Indians. In 1671-1673 he had visited the American plantations from Carolina to Rhode Island and had preached alike to Indians and to settlers; in 1674 a portion of New Jersey (q.v.) was sold by Lord Berkeley to John Fenwicke in trust for Edward Byllynge. Both these men were Quakers, and in 1675 Fenwicke with a large company of his co-religionists crossed the Atlantic, sailed up Delaware Bay, and landed at a fertile spot which he called Salem. Byllynge, having become embarrassed in his circumstances, placed his interest in the land in the hands of Penn and others as trustees for his creditors; they invited buyers, and companies of Quakers in Yorkshire and London were amongst the largest purchasers. In 1677-1678 five vessels with eight hundred emigrants, chiefly Quakers, arrived in the colony (then separated from the rest of New Jersey, under the name of West New Jersey), and the town of Burlington was established. In 1677 the fundamental laws of West New Jersey were published, and recognized in a most absolute form the principles of democratic equality and perfect freedom of conscience. Notwithstanding certain troubles from claims of the governor of New York and of the duke of York, the colony prospered, and in 1681 the first legislative assembly of the colony, consisting mainly of Quakers, was held. They agreed to raise an annual sum of L200 for the expenses of their commonwealth; they assigned their governor a salary of L20; they prohibited the sale of ardent spirits to the Indians and imprisonment for debt. (See NEW JERSEY.)

William Penn.

But beyond question the most interesting event in connexion with Quakerism in America is the foundation by William Penn (q.v.) of the colony of Pennsylvania, where he hoped to carry into effect the principles of his sect--to found and govern a colony without armies or military power, to reduce the Indians by justice and kindness to civilization and Christianity, to administer justice without oaths, and to extend an equal toleration to all persons who professed a belief in God. The history of this is part of the history of America and of Pennsylvania (q.v.) in particular. The chief point of interest in the history of Friends in America during the 18th century is their effort to clear themselves of complicity in slavery and the slave trade. As early as 1671 George Fox when in Barbados counselled kind treatment of slaves and ultimate liberation of them. William Penn provided for the freedom of slaves after fourteen years' service. In 1688 the German Friends of Germantown, Philadelphia, raised the first official protest uttered by any religious body against slavery. In 1711 a law was passed in Pennsylvania prohibiting the importation of slaves, but it was rejected by the Council in England. The prominent anti-slavery workers were Ralph Sandiford, Benjamin Lay, Anthony Benezet and John Woolman.[3] By the end of the 18th century slavery was practically extinct among Friends, and the Society as a whole laboured for its abolition, which came about in 1865, the poet Whittier being one of the chief writers and workers in the cause. From early times up to the present day Friends have laboured for the welfare of the North American Indians. The history of the 19th century is largely one of division. Elias Hicks (q.v.), of Long Island, N.Y., propounded doctrines inconsistent with the orthodox views concerning Christ and the Scriptures, and a separation resulted in 1827-1828 (see above). His followers are known as "Hicksites," a name not officially used by themselves, and only assented to for purposes of description under some protest. They have their own organization, being divided into seven yearly meetings numbering about 20,000 members, but these meetings form no part of the official organization which links London Yearly Meeting with other bodies of Friends on the American continent. This separation led to strong insistence on "evangelical" views (in the usual sense of the term) concerning Christ, the Atonement, imputed righteousness, the Scriptures, &c. This showed itself in the Beaconite controversy in England (see above), and in a further division in America. John Wilbur, a minister of New England, headed a party of protest against the new evangelicalism, laying extreme stress on the "Inward Light"; the result was a further separation of "Wilburites" or "the smaller body," who, like the "Hicksites," have a separate independent organization of their own. In 1907 they were divided into seven yearly meetings (together with some smaller independent bodies, the result of extreme emphasis laid on individualism), with a membership of about 5000. Broadly speaking, the "smaller body" is characterized by a rigid adherence to old forms of dress and speech, to a disapproval of music and art, and to an insistence on the "Inward Light" which, at times, leaves but little room for the Scriptures or the historic Christ, although with no definite or intended repudiation of them. In 1908 the number of "orthodox" yearly meetings in America, including one in Canada, was fifteen, with a total membership of about 100,000. They have, for the most part, adopted, to a greater or less degree, the "pastoral system," i.e. the appointment of one man or woman in each congregation to "conduct" the meeting for worship and to carry on pastoral work. In most cases the pastor receives a salary. A few of them demand from their ministers definite subscription to a specific body of doctrine, mostly of the ordinary "evangelical" type. In the matters of organization, disuse of the outward ordinances (this point is subject to some slight exception, principally in Ohio), and women's ministry, they do not differ from English Friends. The yearly meetings of Baltimore and Philadelphia have not adopted the pastoral system; the latter contains a very strong conservative element, and, contrary to the practice of London and the other "orthodox" yearly meetings, it officially regards the meetings of "the smaller body" (see above) as meetings of the Society of Friends. In 1902 the "orthodox" yearly meetings in the United States established a "Five Years' Meeting," a representative body meeting once every five years to consider matters affecting the welfare of all, and to further such philanthropic and religious work as may be undertaken in common, e.g. matters concerning foreign missions, temperance and peace, and the welfare of negroes and Indians. Two yearly meetings remain outside the organization, that of Ohio on ultra-evangelical grounds, while that of Philadelphia has not taken the matter into consideration. Canada joined at the first, and having withdrawn, again joined in 1907.

See James Bowden, _History of the Society of Friends in America_
(1850-1854); Allan C. and Richard H. Thomas, _The History of Friends
in America_ (4th edition, 1905); Isaac Sharpless, _History of Quaker
Government in Pennsylvania_ (1898, 1899); R. P. Hallowell, _The Quaker
Invasion of Massachusetts_ (1887), and _The Pioneer Quakers_ (1887).

_Organization and Discipline._--The duty of watching over one another for good was insisted on by the early Friends, and has been embodied in a system of discipline. Its objects embrace (a) admonition to those who fail in the payment of their just debts, or otherwise walk contrary to the standard of Quaker ethics, and the exclusion of obstinate or gross offenders from the body, and, as incident to this, the hearing of appeals from individuals or meetings considering themselves aggrieved; (b) the care and maintenance of the poor and provision for the Christian education of their children, for which purpose the Society has established boarding schools in different parts of the country; (c) the amicable settlement of "all differences about outward things," either by the parties in controversy or by the submission of the dispute to arbitration, and the restraint of all proceedings at law between members except by leave; (d) the "recording" of ministers (see above); (e) the cognizance of all steps preceding marriage according to Quaker forms; (f) the registration of births, deaths and marriages and the admission of members; (g) the issuing of certificates or letters of approval granted to ministers travelling away from their homes, or to members removing from one meeting to another; and (h) the management of the property belonging to the Society. The meetings for business further concern themselves with arrangements for spreading the Quaker doctrine, and for carrying out various religious, philanthropic and social activities not necessarily confined to the Society of Friends.

Periodic "meetings."

The present organization of the Quaker church is essentially
democratic; every person born of Quaker parents is a member, and,
together with those who have been admitted on their own request, is
entitled to take part in the business assemblies of any meeting of
which he or she is a member. The Society is organized as a series of
subordinated meetings which recall to the mind the Presbyterian model.
The "Preparative Meeting" usually consists of a single congregation;
next in order comes the "Monthly Meeting," the executive body, usually
embracing several Preparative Meetings called together, as its name
indicates, monthly (in some cases less often); then the "Quarterly
Meeting," embracing several Monthly Meetings; and lastly the "Yearly
Meeting," embracing the whole of Great Britain (but not Ireland).
After several yearly or "general" meetings had been held in different
places at irregular intervals as need arose, the first of an
uninterrupted series met in 1668. From that date until 1904 it was
held in London. In 1905 it met in Leeds, and in 1908 in Birmingham.
Its official title is "London Yearly Meeting." It is the legislative
body of Friends in Great Britain. It considers questions of policy,
and some of its sittings are conferences for the consideration of
reports on religious, philanthropic, educational and social work which
is carried on. Its sessions occupy a week in May of each year.
Representatives are sent from each inferior to each superior meeting,
but they have no precedence over others, and all Friends may attend
any meeting and take part in any of which they are members. Formerly
the system was double, the men and women meeting separately for their
own appointed business. Of late years the meetings have been, for the
most part, held jointly, with equal liberty for all men and women to
state their opinions, and to serve on all committees and other
appointments. The mode of conducting these meetings is noteworthy. A
secretary or "clerk," as he is called, acts as chairman or president;
there are no formal resolutions; and there is no voting or applause.
The clerk ascertains what he considers to be the judgment of the
assembly, and records it in a minute. The permanent standing committee
of the Society is known as the "Meeting for Sufferings" (established
in 1675), which took its rise in the days when the persecution of many
Friends demanded the Christian care and material help of those who
were able to give it. It is composed of representatives (men and
women) sent by the quarterly meetings, and of all recorded Ministers
and Elders. Its work is not confined to the interests of Friends; it
is sensitive to the call of oppression and distress (e.g. a famine) in
all parts of the world, it frequently raises large sums of money to
alleviate the same, and intervenes, often successfully, and mostly
without publicity, with those in authority who have the power to bring
about an amelioration.

The offices known to the Quaker body are: (1) that of _minister_ (the
term "office" is not strictly applicable, see above as to
"recording"); (2) of _elder_, whose duty it is "to encourage and help
young ministers, and advise others as they, in the wisdom of God, see
occasion"; (3) of _overseer_, to whom is especially entrusted that
duty of Christian care for and interest in one another which Quakers
recognize as obligatory in all the members of a church. In most
Monthly Meetings the care of the poor is committed to the overseers.
These officers hold, from time to time, meetings separate from the
general assemblies of the members, but the special organization for
many years known as the Meeting of Ministers and Elders, reconstituted
in 1876 as the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight, came to an end in
1906-1907.

This present form both of organization and of discipline has been
reached only by a process of development. As early as 1652-1654 there
is evidence of some slight organization for dealing with marriages,
poor relief, "disorderly walkers," matters of arbitration, &c. The
Quarterly or "General" meetings of the different counties seem to have
been the first unions of separate congregations. In 1666 Fox
established Monthly Meetings; in 1727 elders were first appointed; in
1752 overseers were added; and in 1737 the right of children of
Quakers to be considered as members was fully recognized. Concerning
the 18th century in general, see above.

Of late years the stringency of the Quaker discipline has been
relaxed: the peculiarities of dress and language have been abandoned;
marriage with a non-member or between two non-members is now possible
at a Quaker meeting-house; and marriage elsewhere has ceased to
involve exclusion from the body. Above all, many of its members have
come to "the conviction, which is not new, but old, that the virtues
which can be rewarded and the vices which can be punished by external
discipline are not as a rule the virtues and the vices that make or
mar the soul" (Hatch, _Bampton Lectures_, 81).

Philanthropic interests.

A genuine vein of philanthropy has always existed in the Quaker body.
In nothing has this been more conspicuous than in the matter of
slavery. George Fox and William Penn laboured to secure the religious
teaching of slaves. As early as 1676 the assembly of Barbados passed
"An Act to prevent the people called Quakers from bringing negroes to
their meetings." On the attitude of Friends in America to slavery, see
the section "Quakerism in America" (above). In 1783 the first petition
to the House of Commons for the abolition of the slave trade and
slavery went up from the Quakers; and in the long agitation which
ensued the Society took a prominent part.

In 1798 Joseph Lancaster, himself a Friend, opened his first school
for the education of the poor; and the cause of unsectarian religious
education found in the Quakers steady support. They also took an
active part in Sir Samuel Romilly's efforts to ameliorate the penal
code, in prison reform, with which the name of Elizabeth Fry (a
Friend) is especially connected, and in the efforts to ameliorate the
condition of lunatics in England (the Friends' Retreat at York,
founded in 1792, was the earliest example in England of kindly
treatment of the insane). It is noteworthy that Quaker efforts for the
education of the poor and philanthropy in general, though they have
always been Christian in character, have not been undertaken primarily
for the purpose of bringing proselytes within the body, and have not
done so to any great extent.

Education.

By means of the Adult Schools, Friends have been able to exercise a
religious influence beyond the borders of their own Society. The
movement began in Birmingham in 1845, in an attempt to help the
loungers at street corners; reading and writing were the chief
inducements offered. The schools are unsectarian in character and
mainly democratic in government: the aim is to draw out what is best
in men and to induce them to act for the help of their fellows. Whilst
the work is essentially religious in character, a well-equipped school
also caters for the social, intellectual and physical parts of a man's
nature. Bible teaching is the central part of the school session: the
lessons are mainly concerned with life's practical problems. The
spirit of brotherliness which prevails is largely the secret of the
success of the movement. At the end of 1909 there were in connexion
with the "National Council of Adult-School Associations" 1818
"schools" for men with a membership of about 113,789; and 402 for
women with a membership of about 27,000. The movement, which is no
longer exclusively under the control of Friends, is rapidly becoming
one of the chief means of bringing about a religious fellowship among
a class which the organized churches have largely failed to reach. The
effect of the work upon the Society itself may be summarized thus:
some addition to membership; the creation of a sphere of usefulness
for the younger and more active members; a general stirring of
interest in social questions.[4]

A strong interest in Sunday schools for children preceded the Adult
School movement. The earliest schools which are still existing were
formed at Bristol, for boys in 1810 and for girls in the following
year. Several isolated efforts were made earlier than this; it is
evident that there was a school at Lothersdale near Skipton in 1800
"for the preservation of the youth of both sexes, and for their
instruction in useful learning"; and another at Nottingham. Even
earlier still were the Sunday and day schools in Rossendale,
Lancashire, dating from 1793. At the end of 1909 there were in
connexion with the Friends' First-Day School Association 240 schools
with 2722 teachers and 25,215 scholars, very few of whom were the
children of Friends. Not included in these figures are classes for
children of members and "attenders," which are usually held before or
during a portion of the time of the morning meeting for worship; in
these distinctly denominational teaching is given. Monthly organ,
_Teachers and Taught_.

Foreign missions.

A "provisional committee" of members of the Society of Friends was
formed in 1865 to deal with offers of service in foreign lands. In
1868 this developed into the Friends' Foreign Mission Association,
which now undertakes Missionary work in India (begun 1866), Madagascar
(1867), Syria (1869), China (1886), Ceylon (1896). In 1909 the number
of missionaries (including wives) was 113; organized churches, 194;
members and adherents, 21,085; schools, 135; pupils, 7042; hospitals
and dispensaries, 17; patients treated, 6865; subscriptions raised
from Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, L26,689, besides L3245
received in the fields of work. Quarterly organ, _Our Missions_.

_Statistics of Quakerism._--At the close of 1909 there were 18,686
Quakers (the number includes children) in Great Britain; and
"associates" and habitual "attenders" not in membership, 8586; number
of congregations regularly meeting, 390. Ireland--members, 2528;
habitual attenders not in membership, 402.

The central offices and reference library of the Society of Friends
are situate at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate Without, London.

_Bibliography._--The writings of the early Friends are very numerous:
the most noteworthy are the _Journals_ of George Fox and of Thomas
Ellwood, both autobiographies, the _Apology_ and other works of Robert
Barclay, and the works of Penn and Penington. Early in the 18th
century William Sewel, a Dutch Quaker, wrote a history of the Society
and published an English translation; modern (small) histories have
been written by T. Edmund Harvey (_The Rise of the Quakers_) and by
Mrs Emmott (_The Story of Quakerism_). _The Sufferings of the Quakers_
by Joseph Besse (1753) gives a detailed account of the persecution of
the early Friends in England and America. An excellent portraiture of
early Quakerism is given in William Tanner's _Lectures on Friends in
Bristol and Somersetshire_. _The Book of Discipline_ in its successive
printed editions from 1783 to 1906 contains the working rules of the
organization, and also a compilation of testimonies borne by the
Society at different periods, to important points of Christian truth,
and often called forth by the special circumstances of the time. _The
Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_ (London,
1876) by Robert Barclay, a descendant of the Apologist, contains much
curious information about the Quakers. See also "Quaker" in the index
to Masson's _Life of Milton_. Joseph Smith's _Descriptive Catalogue of
Friends' Books_ (London, 1867) gives the information which its title
promises; the same author has also published a catalogue of works
hostile to Quakerism. For an exposition of Quakerism on its spiritual
side many of the poems by Whittier may be referred to, also _Quaker
Strongholds_ and _Light Arising_ by Caroline E. Stephen; _The Society
of Friends, its Faith and Practice_, and other works by John
Stephenson Rowntree, _A Dynamic Faith_ and other works by Rufus M.
Jones; _Authority and the Light Within_ and other works by Edw. Grubb,
and the series of "Swarthmore Lectures" as well as the histories above
mentioned. Much valuable information will be found in _John Stephenson
Rowntree: His Life and Work_ (1908). The history of the modern forward
movement may be studied in _Essays and Addresses_ by John Wilhelm
Rowntree, and in _Present Day Papers_ edited by him. The social life
of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th is portrayed in
_Records of a Quaker Family, the Richardsons of Cleveland_, by Mrs
Boyce, and _The Diaries of Edward Pease, the Father of English
Railways_, edited by Sir A. E. Pease. Other works which may usefully
be consulted are the Journals of John Woolman, Stephen Grellet and
Elizabeth Fry; also _The First Publishers of Truth_, a reprint of
contemporary accounts of the rise of Quakerism in various districts.
The periodicals issued (not officially) in connexion with the Quaker
body are _The Friend_ (weekly), _The British Friend_ (monthly), _The
Friends' Witness_, _The Friendly Messenger_, _The Friends' Fellowship
Papers_, _The Friends' Quarterly Examiner_, _Journal of the Friends'
Historical Society_. Officially issued: _The Book of Meetings_ and
_The Friends' Year Book_. See also works mentioned at the close of
sections on Adult Schools and on Quakerism in America, Scotland and
Ireland, and elsewhere in this article; also FOX, GEORGE. (A. N. B.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] At the time referred to, and during the Commonwealth, the pulpits
of the cathedrals and churches were occupied by Episcopalians of the
Richard Baxter type, Presbyterians, Independents and a few Baptists.
It is these, and not the clergy of the Church of England, who are
continually referred to by George Fox as "priests."

[2] On the whole subject of preaching "after the priest had done,"
see Barclay's _Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the
Commonwealth_, ch. xii.

[3] Woolman's _Journal_ and _Works_ are remarkable. He had a vision
of a political economy based not on selfishness but on love, not on
desire but on self-denial.

[4] See _A History of the Adult School Movement_ by J. W. Rowntree
and H. B. Binns. The organ of the movement is One and All, published
monthly. See also _The Adult School Year Book_.

FRIES, ELIAS MAGNUS (1794-1878), Swedish botanist, was born at Femsjo, Smaland, on the 15th of August 1794. From his father, the pastor of the church at Femsjo, he early acquired an extensive knowledge of flowering plants. In 1811 he entered the university of Lund, where in 1814 he was elected docent of botany and in 1824 professor. In 1834 he became professor of practical economy at Upsala, and in 1844 and 1848 he represented the university of that city in the Rigsdag. On the death of Goran Wahlenberg (1780-1851) he was appointed professor of botany at Upsala, where he died on the 8th of February 1878. Fries was admitted a member of the Swedish Royal Academy in 1847, and a foreign member of the Royal Society of London in 1875.

As an author on the Cryptogamia he was in the first rank. He wrote
_Novitiae florae Suecicae_ (1814 and 1823); _Observationes
mycologicae_ (1815); _Flora Hollandica_ (1817-1818); _Systema
mycologicum_ (1821-1829); _Systema orbis vegetabilis_, not completed
(1825); _Elenchus fungorum_ (1828); _Lichenographia Europaea_ (1831);
_Epicrisis systematis mycologici_ (1838; 2nd ed., or _Hymenomycetes
Europaei_, 1874); _Summa vegetabilium Scandinaviae_ (1846); _Sveriges
atliga och giftiga Svampar_, with coloured plates (1860); _Monographia
hymenomycetum Suecicae_ (1863), with the _Icones hymenomycetum_, vol.
i. (1867), and pt. i. vol. ii. (1877).

FRIES, JAKOB FRIEDRICH (1773-1843), German philosopher, was born at Barby, Saxony, on the 23rd of August 1773. Having studied theology in the academy of the Moravian brethren at Niesky, and philosophy at Leipzig and Jena, he travelled for some time, and in 1806 became professor of philosophy and elementary mathematics at Heidelberg. Though the progress of his psychological thought compelled him to abandon the positive theology of the Moravians, he always retained an appreciation of its spiritual or symbolic significance. His philosophical position with regard to his contemporaries he had already made clear in the critical work _Reinhold, Fichte und Schelling_ (1803; reprinted in 1824 as _Polemische Schriften_), and in the more systematic treatises _System der Philosophie als evidente Wissenschaft_ (1804), _Wissen, Glaube und Ahnung_ (1805, new ed. 1905). His most important treatise, the _Neue oder anthropologische Kritik der Vernunft_ (2nd ed., 1828-1831), was an attempt to give a new foundation of psychological analysis to the critical theory of Kant. In 1811 appeared his _System der Logik_ (ed. 1819 and 1837), a very instructive work, and in 1814 _Julius und Evagoras_, a philosophical romance. In 1816 he was invited to Jena to fill the chair of theoretical philosophy (including mathematics and physics, and philosophy proper), and entered upon a crusade against the prevailing Romanticism. In politics he was a strong Liberal and Unionist, and did much to inspire the organization of the _Burschenschaft_. In 1816 he had published his views in a brochure, _Vom deutschen Bund und deutscher Staatsverfassung_, dedicated to "the youth of Germany," and his influence gave a powerful impetus to the agitation which led in 1819 to the issue of the Carlsbad Decrees by the representatives of the German governments. Karl Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue, was one of his pupils; and a letter of his, found on another student, warning the lad against participation in secret societies, was twisted by the suspicious authorities into evidence of his guilt. He was condemned by the Mainz Commission; the grand-duke of Weimar was compelled to deprive him of his professorship; and he was forbidden to lecture on philosophy. The grand-duke, however, continued to pay him his stipend, and in 1824 he was recalled to Jena as professor of mathematics and physics, receiving permission also to lecture on philosophy in his own rooms to a select number of students. Finally, in 1838, the unrestricted right of lecturing was restored to him. He died on the 10th of August 1843.

The most important of the many works written during his Jena
professorate are the _Handbuch der praktischen Philosophie_
(1817-1832), the _Handbuch der psychischen Anthropologie_ (1820-1821,
2nd ed. 1837-1839), _Die mathematische Naturphilosophie_ (1822),
_System der Metaphysik_ (1824), _Die Geschichte der Philosophie_
(1837-1840). Fries's point of view in philosophy may be described as a
modified Kantianism, an attempt to reconcile the criticism of Kant and
Jacobi's philosophy of belief. With Kant he regarded _Kritik_, or the
critical investigation of the faculty of knowledge, as the essential
preliminary to philosophy. But he differed from Kant both as regards
the foundation for this criticism and as regards the metaphysical
results yielded by it. Kant's analysis of knowledge had disclosed the
a priori element as the necessary complement of the isolated a
posteriori facts of experience. But it did not seem to Fries that Kant
had with sufficient accuracy examined the mode in which we arrive at
knowledge of this a priori element. According to him we only know
these a priori principles through inner or psychical experience; they
are not then to be regarded as transcendental factors of all
experience, but as the necessary, constant elements discovered by us
in our inner experience. Accordingly Fries, like the Scotch school,
places psychology or analysis of consciousness at the foundation of
philosophy, and called his criticism of knowledge an anthropological
critique. A second point in which Fries differed from Kant is the view
taken as to the relation between immediate and mediate cognitions.
According to Fries, the understanding is purely the faculty of proof;
it is in itself void; immediate certitude is the only source of
knowledge. Reason contains principles which we cannot demonstrate, but
which can be deduced, and are the proper objects of belief. In this
view of reason Fries approximates to Jacobi rather than to Kant. His
most original idea is the graduation of knowledge into knowing, belief
and presentiment. We know phenomena, how the existence of things
appears to us in nature; we believe in the true nature, the eternal
essence of things (the good, the true, the beautiful); by means of
presentiment (_Ahnung_) the intermediary between knowledge and belief,
we recognize the supra-sensible in the sensible, the being in the
phenomenon.

See E. L. Henke, _J. F. Fries_ (1867); C. Grapengiesser, _J. F. Fries,
ein Gedenkblatt_ and _Kant's "Kritik der Vernunft" und deren
Fortbildung durch J. F. Fries_ (1882); H. Strasosky, _J. F. Fries als
Kritiker der Kantischen Erkenntnistheorie_ (1891); articles in Ersch
and Gruber's _Allgemeine Encyklopadie_ and _Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie_; J. E. Erdmann, _Hist. of Philos._ (Eng. trans., London,
1890), vol. ii. S 305.

FRIES, JOHN (c. 1764-1825), American insurgent leader, was born in Pennsylvania of "Dutch" (German) descent about 1764. As an itinerant auctioneer he became well acquainted with the Germans in the S.E. part of Pennsylvania. In July 1798, during the troubles between the United States and France, Congress levied a direct tax (on dwelling-houses, lands and slaves) of $2,000,000, of which Pennsylvania was called upon to contribute $237,000. There were very few slaves in the state, and the tax was accordingly assessed upon dwelling-houses and land, the value of the houses being determined by the number and size of the windows. The inquisitorial nature of the proceedings aroused strong opposition among the Germans, and many of them refused to pay. Fries, assuming leadership, organized an armed band of about sixty men, who marched about the country intimidating the assessors and encouraging the people to resist. At last the governor called out the militia (March 1799) and the leaders were arrested. Fries and two others were twice tried for treason (the second time before Samuel Chase) and were sentenced to be hanged, but they were pardoned by President Adams in April 1800, and a general amnesty was issued on 21st May. The affair is variously known as the "Fries Rebellion," the "Hot-Water Rebellion"--because hot water was used to drive assessors from houses--, and the "Home Tax Rebellion." Fries died in Philadelphia in 1825.

See T. Carpenter, _Two Trials of John Fries ... Taken in Shorthand_
(Philadelphia, 1800); the second volume of McMaster's _History of the
United States_ (New York, 1883); and W. W. H. Davis, _The Fries
Rebellion_ (Doylestown, Pa., 1899).

FRIESLAND, or VRIESLAND, a province of Holland, bounded S.W., W. and N. by the Zuider Zee and the North Sea, E. by Groningen and Drente, and S.E. by Overysel. It also includes the islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog (see FRISIAN ISLANDS). Area, 1281 sq. m.; pop. (1900) 340,262. The soil of Friesland falls naturally into three divisions consisting of sea-clay in the north and north-west, of low-fen between the south-west and north-east, and of a comparatively small area of high-fen in the south-east. The clay and low-fen furnish a luxuriant meadow-land for the principal industries of the province--cattle-rearing and cheese- and butter-making. Horse-breeding has also been practised for centuries, and the breed of black Frisian horse is well known. On the clay lands agriculture is also extensively practised. In the high-fen district peat-digging is the chief occupation. The effect of this industry, however, is to lay bare a subsoil of diluvial sand which offers little inducement for subsequent cultivation. Despite the general productiveness of the soil, however, the social condition of Friesland has remained in a backward state and poverty is rife in many districts. The ownership of property being largely in the hands of absentee landlords, the peasantry have little interest in the land, the profits from which go to enrich other provinces. Moreover, the nature of the fertility of the meadow-lands is such as to require little manual labour, and other industrial means of subsistence have hardly yet come into existence. This state of affairs has given rise to a social-democratic outcry on account of which Friesland is sometimes regarded as the "Ireland of Holland." The water system of the province comprises a few small rivers (now largely canalized) in the high lands in the east, and the vast network of canals, waterways and lakes of the whole north and west. The principal lakes are Tjeuke Meer, Sloter Meer, De Fluessen and Sneeker Meer. The tides being lowest on the north coast of the province, the scheme of the Waterstaat, the government department (dating from 1879), provides for the largest removal of superfluous surface water into the Lauwerszee. But owing to the long distance which the water must travel from certain parts of the province, and the continual recession of the Lauwerszee, the drainage problem is a peculiarly difficult one, and floods are sometimes inevitable.

The population of the province is evenly distributed in small villages. The principal market centres are Leeuwarden, the chief towns, Sneek, Bolsward, Franeker (qq.v.), Dokkum (4053) and Heerenveen (5011). With the exception of Franeker and Heerenveen all these towns originally arose on the inlet of the Middle Sea. The seaport towns are more or less decayed; they include Stavoren (820), Hindeloopen (1030), Workum (3428), Harlingen (q.v.) and Makkum (2456).

For history see FRISIANS.