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Quaker Pennsylvania: Refuge from Priestcraft?
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Calvert – 3
Quakers as Papists in Late Seventeenth-Century England
The root of the suspicions of Quakers in Pennsylvania began in seventeenth-century
England when they were accused of popery. While it seems counterintuitive that radically Protestant Quakerism could be compared in any way with Catholicism, the controversial literature abounds with equations of Quaker and Catholic theologies. The comparisons made between the two focused on the perception that Catholics and Quakers both denied the primacy of Scripture and exalted a false authority in its stead. The main tenet of Quaker theology is the Doctrine of the Inward Light, which holds that the believer can know God within himself, and that the Scriptures, while vital, are only a similar expression of God’s spirit found in man, and not an authority over him.
7
Polemicists looking to attack Quakers compared the Quakers’
reverence for the Light Within to the Catholics’ reverence for the Pope. “The one party to set up the Pope at Rome, as absolute in matters of Religion,” explained John Faldo in Quakerism no Christianity (1675). “The other to set up the Pope within, as absolute, and more than he, in the little world of every individual man.”
8
He continued, explaining that “the Light within is no such
infallible Teacher as the Quakers brag of; like the Papists infallible Judg, it’s not without its gross mistakes.”
9
Other authors agreed that Quakerism was merely “Antichristian Popery put
forth in a new dress.”
10
The fact that Quakerism grew and spread very quickly during this period in England gave
its opponents a sense of urgency to expose its popery and warn their fellow Protestants.
11
Faldo
clarified for those who did not already know, “In plain terms, Quakerism in the point of Justification is Popery new-born into the world; it’s no false charge to say, That the Quakers have a Pope in their bellies; their books have the same Papal doctrine.”
12
Those “deluded
Quakers”
who succumbed to these teachings had had “nothing else but Trent-Popery infused into
them by subtil Popish Priests.”
13
One of their greatest “priests” was George Fox, the founder of
Quakerism and its best early proselyte. He was accused of practicing “Fox-craft” to lure new members into the den of Quakerism.
14
Once convinced of Quakerism, the new Quaker “is
become a stout Champion under the Pope’s banner.”
15
Faldo explained, “This Quaker doth but
actum agere, act the Popish old part over again, to amuse unwary Christians with the rehearsal of them.”
16
Thus the danger was not even Quakerism in and of itself, but rather the Quakers’ plans
to “propagate” it in England.
17
7
The authoritative source of seventeenth-century Quaker theology is Robert Barclay, Apology for the True Christian
Divinity (London, 1678).
8
John Faldo, Quakerism no Christianity: Or, a Thorow Quaker no Christian proved by the Quakers Principles,
detected out of their chief Writers…with…an Account of their Foundation laid in Popery (London, 1675), 120.
9
Faldo, 8.
10
Misoplanes and Philalethes, The Papists Younger Brother: Or, the Vileness of Quakerism, detected… (London,
1679), 1.
11
On the rise of early Quakerism, see Hugh Barbour, The Quakers in Puritan England (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1964).
12
Faldo, 22.
13
Ibid.
14
Daniel Leeds, The great mistery of Fox-craft discovered… (New York, 1705)
15
Faldo, 11.
16
Ibid., 23.
17
Ibid., 22.
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Calvert – 3
Quakers as Papists in Late Seventeenth-Century England
The root of the suspicions of Quakers in Pennsylvania began in seventeenth-century
England when they were accused of popery. While it seems counterintuitive that radically
Protestant Quakerism could be compared in any way with Catholicism, the controversial
literature abounds with equations of Quaker and Catholic theologies. The comparisons made
between the two focused on the perception that Catholics and Quakers both denied the primacy
of Scripture and exalted a false authority in its stead. The main tenet of Quaker theology is the
Doctrine of the Inward Light, which holds that the believer can know God within himself, and
that the Scriptures, while vital, are only a similar expression of God’s spirit found in man, and
not an authority over him.
Polemicists looking to attack Quakers compared the Quakers’
reverence for the Light Within to the Catholics’ reverence for the Pope. “The one party to set up
the Pope at Rome, as absolute in matters of Religion,” explained John Faldo in Quakerism no
Christianity (1675). “The other to set up the Pope within, as absolute, and more than he, in the
little world of every individual man.”
infallible Teacher as the Quakers brag of; like the Papists infallible Judg, it’s not without its
gross mistakes.”
forth in a new dress.”
The fact that Quakerism grew and spread very quickly during this period in England gave
its opponents a sense of urgency to expose its popery and warn their fellow Protestants.
clarified for those who did not already know, “In plain terms, Quakerism in the point of
Justification is Popery new-born into the world; it’s no false charge to say, That the Quakers
have a Pope in their bellies; their books have the same Papal doctrine.”
Quakers”
who succumbed to these teachings had had “nothing else but Trent-Popery infused into
them by subtil Popish Priests.”
Quakerism and its best early proselyte. He was accused of practicing “Fox-craft” to lure new
members into the den of Quakerism.
become a stout Champion under the Pope’s banner.”
actum agere, act the Popish old part over again, to amuse unwary Christians with the rehearsal of
them.”
7
The authoritative source of seventeenth-century Quaker theology is Robert Barclay, Apology for the True Christian
Divinity (London, 1678).
8
John Faldo, Quakerism no Christianity: Or, a Thorow Quaker no Christian proved by the Quakers Principles,
detected out of their chief Writers…with…an Account of their Foundation laid in Popery (London, 1675), 120.
9
Faldo, 8.
10
Misoplanes and Philalethes, The Papists Younger Brother: Or, the Vileness of Quakerism, detected… (London,
1679), 1.
11
On the rise of early Quakerism, see Hugh Barbour, The Quakers in Puritan England (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1964).
12
Faldo, 22.
13
Ibid.
14
Daniel Leeds, The great mistery of Fox-craft discovered… (New York, 1705)
15
Faldo, 11.
16
Ibid., 23.
17
Ibid., 22.
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