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Late Seventeenth-Century Quakerism and the Miraculous: A New Look at George Fox’s ‘Book of Miracles’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Rosemary Moore
Rosemary Moore*
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Extract

George Fox, chief among the founders of Quakerism, died in 1691, leaving a huge mass of papers for publication together with funds to support the project. In the event, some of his papers were never published and were lost, and little was known about them until the discovery in 1932 of an annotated list of all Fox’s papers, which had been compiled in the 1690s, and which included references to two unknown books, a ‘Book of Miracles’ and a ‘Book of Examples of God’s Judgements on Evildoers’. The finder was Henry J. Cadbury (1883–1974), who is best known in non-Quaker circles as a New Testament scholar, and the skills he needed for the analysis of New Testament documents were invaluable in handling the Fox corpus. He was able to gain an idea of the contents of these lost books, particularly the ‘Book of Miracles’, and his partial reconstruction of it, published in 1948 with a comprehensive introduction, is still an important source for any study of the miraculous element in early Quakerism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 41: Signs, Wonders, Miracles Representations of Divine Power in the Life of the Church , 2005 , pp. 335 - 344
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2005

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References

1 Henry Joel Cadbury was Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University and author of many books and pamphlets on the Bible and on Quakerism. Cadbury edited the list of Fox’s papers, and published it as The Annual Catalogue of George Fox’s Papers: Compiled in 1694–1697(Haverford, PA, and London, 1939).

2 George Fox’s ‘Book of Miracles’, ed. Henry J. Cadbury, with a foreword by Rufus M. Jones (Cambridge, 1948, repr. with additional forewords, Philadelphia, PA, and London, 2000). Cadbury’s conclusions regarding the ‘Book of Examples’ were more tentative, and were included in The Narrative Papers of George Fox, ed. Henry J. Cadbury (Richmond, IN, 1972), 209–32.

3 ‘Book of Miracles’, 59.

4 Ibid., 73–85.

5 The Introduction to the ‘Book of Miracles’, 4–32, contains a full account of the evidence for early Quaker miracles, performed by Fox and others. Barry Reay and Larry Ingle, scholars who might have been expected to be sceptical, also ignored the problem of historicity: see H. Larry Ingle, First among Friends: George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism (New York and Oxford, 1994), 64, 102, 240; Barry Reay, The Quakers and the English Revolution (London, 1985), 36–7.

6 ‘Book of Miracles’, 55.

7 See for instance Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic. For Quakers, in addition to the introduction to the ‘Book of Miracles’, see Kenneth, Carroll, ‘Sackcloth and Ashes and Other Signs and Wonders’, Journal of the Friends’ Historical Society 54 (1957), 314–25 Google Scholar; idem, ‘Early Quakers and “Going Naked as a Sign”’, Quaker History 67 (1978), 69–87: summary in Rosemary Moore, The Light in their Consciences: Early Quakers in Britain, 1646–1666 (University Park, PA, 2000), 91,126.

8 This story can be found in John Gilpin, The Quakers Shaken (2nd edn, London, 1655), in Strange and Terrible Newesfrom Cambridge being a relation of the Quakers bewitching M. Philips (London, 1659) and in [John Denham], A Relation of a Quaker that attempted to Bugger a Mare near Colchester (London, 1659).

9 London, Society of Friends, Swarthmore MSS I.217, also known from other references: cited in ‘Book of Miracles’, 11–12.

10 Thomas More, An Antidote against the spreading Infection of Antichrist (London, 1655), 8; [John Camm and Francis Howgill], Answer to a Book that Samuel Eaton put up to Parliament (London, 1654), 16, and George Fox, The Great Mistery of the Great Whore (London, 1659), 31, repr. of the 1831 edn in The Works of George Fox, ed. T. H. S. Wallace, New Foundation Edition, 8 vols (State College, PA, 1990), 3: 80. All these examples and others are cited in the ‘Book of Miracles’, 23–32.

11 For ‘fringe’ Quakerism, see Moore, Light in their Consciences, 28, 45, 52, 133–4, 195, 222–3.

12 See for instance, Jonathan Clapham, A Full Discovery and Confutation of the wicked and damnable doctrines of the Quakers (London, 1656), cited in ‘Book of Miracles’, 19–21. For ‘providences’, see “Book of Miracles’, 15–16.

13 Swarthmore MSS I.372, Farnworth to Nayler, July 1652.

14 Francis, Higginson, Brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers (London, 1653), 29 Google Scholar, cited in ‘Book of Miracles’, 19; London, Society of Friends, A. R. Barclay MS 21.

15 Moore, Light in Their Consciences, 148–9.

16 The Journal of George Fox, ed. Norman Penney, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1911), 1: 394, n. 1 [hereafter: Cambridge Journal] from the Minutes of London Yearly Meeting.

17 Cambridge Journal, Introduction, I : ix.

18 Richard, Bailey, New Light on George Fox and Early Quakerism: the Making and Unmaking of a God (San Francisco, CA, 1992), esp. 92–9 Google Scholar; Nigel, Smith, ‘Hidden Things brought to Light’, in Corns, Thomas N. and David, Loewenstein, eds, The Emergence of Quaker Writing: Dissenting Literature in Seventeenth-Century England (London, 1995), 63–8 Google Scholar; Moore, Light in Their Consciences, 76–9; Kuenning, Lawrence S., ‘The Bunyan-Burrough Debate of 1656–57 Analyzed Using a Computer Hypertext’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA, 2000, 169–95, online at http://www.qhpress.org/texts/bvb/lkbbda.html), ch. 7 (consulted: 14 February 2004)Google Scholar

19 Moore, Light in Their Consciences, 78–9.

20 Fox, ‘Great Mistery’, 9, 11, in Works, 3: 46, 51. The reference is to Eph. 5, 30b (now considered spurious and not found in modern versions) and to Gen. 29,14.

21 Smith, ‘Hidden Things’, 65–6, for mid-seventeenth century ideas of the body.

22 Bailey, New Light, 75–136, presents persuasive arguments for Fox and Nayler being regarded as divine, though one may regret his choice of the word ‘avatar’ in this connection.

23 Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, ed. Licia Kuenning (S. I, 1678; repr. Glenside, PA, 2002), Fifth and Sixth propositions, par. XIII, 120–1.

24 See Moore, Light in Their Consciences, 40–7, for the breach between Fox and Nayler and its aftermath. The best book for the interpretation of Nayler is probably Leo Damrosch, The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus: James Nayler and the Puritan Crackdown on the Free Spirit (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1996).

25 See for instance Fox’s pugnacious Quaker version of the traditional creed, Something in answer to such as falsely say the Quakers are no Christians (London, 1682), but written earlier, esp. the final page, 28.

26 Barclay, Apology, Tenth Proposition, par. XII, 251.

27 Examples, cited ‘Book of Miracles’, 26, are George Keith, Immediate Revelation … not ceased (London, 1668), 4, 11; William Penn, A Serious Apology for the Principles and Practices of the People called Quakers (London, 1671), Part II, 86–8.

28 ‘Book of Miracles’, 27, 54, 66. More heard the story from Mercurius van Helmont, and included it in his own collection of miracles. More and van Helmont, together with Keith, Barclay and Penn, were all members of Lady Conway’s circle of friends at her home at Ragley.

29 ‘Book of Miracles’, 62–72: see, in this volume, Alexandra Walsham, ‘Miracles in Post-Reformation England’, 273–306.

30 The Short Journal and Itinerary Journals of George Fox, ed. Norman Penney (Cambridge, 1925), 17, 32–3, and note. These passages were omitted from the corresponding passages in later versions of the ‘Journal’.

31 Cadbury, Narrative Papers, 216.

32 One that does have another mention is the healing of John Banks’s arm, ‘Book of Miracles’, no. 62a, 120, which was described in circumstantial detail in Banks’s journal. However, this was not published until 1712, and his account appears to have been written a long time after the event.

33 Bailey, New Light, 195, 265–9, analyses these reports according to date, and suggests that there is a pattern showing that most ‘miracles’ occurred during periods when Fox was particuarly self-confident.

34 Ingle, First among Friends, 256.

35 Ibid., final chapters.

36 A Journal or historical account of the life, travels, sufferings, Christian experience and labour of love in the work of the ministry, of that ancient, eminent and faithful servant of Christ, George Fox…, ed. Thomas Ellwood (London, 1694). The Journal makes up vols 1–2 of the Works of George Fox.

37 See the Introductions to the Cambridge Journal, esp. 1: xiii-xxvi (by T. Edmund Harvey) and 1: xl-xli, for details of Ellwood’s alterations; cf. also ‘Book of Miracles’, 35–8.

38 For a summary of Bugg’s attacks, see ‘Book of Miracles’, 75–8.

39 First published by Sowle in 1698, now making up vols 7–8 of The Works of George Fox.

40 Vols 4–6 of The Works of George Fox, known as Gospel Truth Demonstrated, or the ‘Doctrinals’.

41 This practice was described by Christine Trevett in her presidential address to the Friends’ Historical Society in 2001, published as ‘Not fit to be printed: the Welsh, the Women and the Second Day’s Morning Meeting’, Journal of the Friends’ Historical Society 59 (2001, issued 2004), 115–44.