9 - On shaky ground: Quakers, Puritans, possession and high spirits

Summary

The impact of the emergence of ‘Quakers’ on the contested field of religious orthodoxy and propriety in the 1650s, particularly when measured by the means of print exchanges, was considerable. While the ‘actual’ impact in terms of numbers is easily exaggerated, this should not lessen attention paid to the vicious negotiation of the arguments, portrayals and counter-portrayals. These negotiations made a crucial contribution to the process of identity among ‘liberated’ radicals, possibly those strongest in their denunciations of the Quakers and, to an even greater extent, the more plastic identity of the emergent group. I intend to bring different light on this process using the lens of the discourse of possession, and what follows is a case study with the central concern of possession, of good or evil spirits, means of discernment and treatment, and the context-dependent apprehension and representation of physical and spiritual ‘symptoms’. I have chosen this particular field for a number of reasons, not least because the role of contested readings of possessions in the formation of early Quaker identity has been underestimated or under-explored. Certainly we have benefited from attention paid to the anti-popery and the witchcraft tropes in the literature against the early Quakers (not unconnected to possession), but focus on possession opens new windows which, I hope, will prove profitable.