¹ Fox, George, To the Protector and Parliament of England (London, 1658), p. 58Google Scholar.

² The literature on millenarianism during this period is voluminous. For a sampling, see Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium (Fairlawn, N.J., 1957)Google Scholar; Lamont, William M., Godly Rule: Politics and Religion, 1603–60 (London, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hill, Christopher, “The Millennium and After,” pp. 253–342Google Scholar, in The Collected Essays of Christopher Hill: Volume Two, Religion and Politics in 17th Century England (Amherst, Mass., 1986)Google Scholar, The Experience of Defeat: Milton and Some Contemporaries (New York, 1985), pp. 51–68Google Scholar; Toon, Peter, ed., Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel: Puritan Eschatology 1600 to 1660 (London, 1970)Google Scholar; Capp, Bernard, “The Fifth Monarchists and Popular Millenarianism,” in McGregor, J. F. and Reay, B., eds., Radical Religion in the English Revolution (Oxford, 1986), pp. 165–90Google Scholar; The Fifth Monarchy Men: A Study in Seventeenth-century English Millenarianism (Totowa, N.J., 1972)Google Scholar; and Liu, Tai, Discord in Zion: The Puritan Divines and the Puritan Revolution, 1640–1660 (The Hague, 1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³ For the most recent overview of popular notions about millenarianism, see Capp, “Fifth Monarchists and Popular Millenarianism.”

⁴ Ibid., 189.

⁵ See my forthcoming biography, tentatively entitled, “First among Friends: George Fox and the Quakers” (Oxford University Press).

⁶ On this theme, see Ingle, H. Larry, “George Fox: In an Age of Revolution,” unpublished paper, American Society of Church History meeting, December 30, 1991Google Scholar, Chicago, Illinois, and “On the Folly of Seeking the Quaker Holy Grail,” Quaker Religious Thought 25 (1991): 17–29Google Scholar.

⁷ Gwyn, Douglas, Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox (Richmond, Ind., 1986), p. xGoogle Scholar.

⁸ Barbour, Hugh, The Quakers in Puritan England (New Haven, 1964), p. xiGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Underwood, T. L., “Early Quaker Eschatology,” in Toon, , ed., Puritan Eschatology, pp. 91–103Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Hill's, most important book in this regard was The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution (1972; Harmondsworth, 1975)Google Scholar.

¹¹ On the historiography of early Quakerism, see Ingle, H. Larry, “From Mysticism to Radicalism: Recent Historiography of Quaker Beginnings,” Quaker History 76 (1987): 79–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Another recent authority makes clear that Quakers sought more to transform the world than to transcend it. Sommerville, C. John, “Anglican, Puritan, and Sectarian in Empirical Perspective,” Social Science History 13 (1989): 119CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Philip Gura's attention to Quakers in his work on Puritan radicalism in New England offers a welcome corrective to the theological approach. Gura, Philip, A Glimpse of Sion's Glory: Puritan Radicalism in New England, 1629–1660 (Middletown, Conn., 1984), pp. 144–52Google Scholar.

¹² For an example of this approach, see Hill's student, Reay, Barry, The Quakers and the English Revolution (London, 1985), p. 34Google Scholar.

¹³ Capp, , Fifth Monarchy, p. 38Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Hill, , “The Millennium,” pp. 329–30Google ScholarPubMed.

¹⁵ Capp, , Fifth Monarchy, pp. 192, 266Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Gura, , Glimpse, p. 135Google Scholar.

¹⁷ On this theme, see Clouse, R. G., “The Rebirth of Millenarianism,” in Toon, , Puritan Eschatology, pp. 42–65Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Baxter, Richard, Reliquiae Baxterianae: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times (London, 1696), 1: 97Google Scholar. (In all seventeenth-century quotations, I have modernized spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.)

¹⁹ Nuttall, Geoffrey F., Richard Baxter (London, 1965), pp. 64–74Google Scholar. See also Lamont, William, Richard Baxter and the Millennium (London, 1979), pp. 33, 158-59, 164Google Scholar.

²⁰ The most recent study of Bunyan is Hill, Christopher, A Turbulent, Seditious, and Factious People: John Bunyan and his Church (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar, stressing his millenarian views. See also Greaves, Richard L., “John Bunyan and the Fifth Monarchists,” Albion 13 (1981): 83–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and two more recent studies, Owens, W. R., “‘Antichrist must be Pulled Down’: Bunyan and the Millennium,” in Laurence, Anne, Owens, W. R., Sim, Stuart, eds., John Bunyan and his England, 1628–88 (London, 1990), pp. 77–94Google Scholar, and Ross, Aileen M., “Paradise Regained: the Development of John Bunyan's Millenarianism,” in van Os, M. and Schutte, G. J., eds., Bunyan in England and Abroad (Amsterdam, 1990), pp. 73–89Google Scholar.

²¹ But Christopher Hill (A Turbulent People, ch. 20) and W. R. Owens (“Bunyan and the Millennium”) have both made a valiant effort. Aileen M. Ross has also, while conceding that he was a “conservative, orthodox Christian” and “impeccably orthodox” (“Paradise Regained,” pp. 73, 76), adjectives difficult to use to describe Fox and his approach.

²² On this point, see McGee, J. Sears, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan (Oxford, 1987), 3: xxxii–xlvGoogle Scholar.

²³ Capp, , Fifth Monarchy Men, ch. 9, esp. pp. 223–24Google Scholar.

²⁴ As Reay, , Quakers and the Revolution, pp. 81–111Google Scholar, and Greaves, Richard, Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660–1663 (New York, 1986), p. 11Google Scholar, make clear, rumors were rife during the Interregnum and the Restoration that Quakers were conspiring against the government; some in fact did become involved.

²⁵ On this point, see Hill, , Experience of Defeat, pp. 132–33Google Scholar. Both the near classic studies by Gooch, G. P. (English Democratic Ideas in the 17th Century [2nd ed.; New York, 1959])Google Scholar, who saw Quakers “impregnated with Millenarian ideas,” p. 233n2, and Nuttall, Geoffrey F. (The Holy Spirit in Puritan Faith and Experience [Oxford, 1947], pp. 111–12Google Scholar) stress the connections between millenarianism and Quakers.

²⁶ See for example, Luke 16:8, John 12:36, Ephesians 5:1-8, and I Thessalonians 5:4-5.

²⁷ Fox, George, Gospel Truth Demonstrated (London, 1706), p. 457Google Scholar. The quotation is from Revelation 22:5. The year 1666 briefly fed millennial hopes. Greaves, Richard L., Enemies under his Feet: Radicals and Nonconformists in Britain, 1664–1667 (Stanford, Calif., 1990), pp. 38, 199Google Scholar.

²⁸ On Nayler, see Bittle, William G., James Nayler, 1618-1660: The Quaker Indicted by Parliament (York, 1986)Google Scholar.

²⁹ Nayler, James, Lamb's Warre against the Man of Sinne (London, 1657)Google Scholar, A Foole answer'd according to his Folly (London, 1655)Google ScholarPubMed, and Foot yet in the Snare (London, 1656)Google Scholar. Some modem Friends, with an eye for a telling phrase, have appropriated it to apply to the Quaker mission, then and now. For this usage, see Barbour, Hugh and Roberts, Arthur O., eds., Early Quaker Writings, 1650–1700 (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1973), p. 104Google Scholar. For the best analysis of Quaker notions about the Lamb's War, see Oliver, Pamela M. C., “Quaker Testimony and the Lamb's War” (Ph.D. diss., University of Melbourne, 1977)Google Scholar.

³⁰ Reay, Barry, “The Quakers and 1659: Two Newly Discovered Broadsides by Edward Burrough,” Journal of the Friends Historical Society 54 (1977): 101–11Google Scholar. Oliver identifies Burrough with those who believed the Kingdom could be realized within history by the appearance of the Messiah. Oliver, , “Quaker Testimony,” p. 107Google Scholar. See also Burrough, “A great cry….,” Swarthmore MSS, V, 6, Library of the Society of Friends (London) (hereafter cited as LSF).

³¹ Hubberthome, Richard, The Good Old Cause Briefly Demonstrated (London, 1659), esp. p. 11 [3]Google Scholar. On Hubberthome's millenarianism, see H. Larry Ingle, “Richard Hubberthome and History: The Crisis of 1659.”

³² The most recent study, however, deemphasizes this designation. See Kunze, Bonnelyn Y., “The Family, Social and Religious Life of Margaret Fell” (Ph.D. diss., University of Rochester, 1986), p. 2Google Scholar.

³³ Fell, Margaret, For Manasseh Ben Israel, the Call of the Jewes out of Babylon (London, 1656)Google Scholar, and A Loving Salutation to the Seed of Abraham among the Jewes (London, 1656)Google Scholar. On the relation between Jewish conversion and millennial expectations, see Hill, Christopher, “‘Till the conversion of the Jews,’”, in Hill, , Essays: Volume Two, pp. 269–300Google Scholar.

³⁴ People there even read the writings of the notorious Digger Gerrard Winsranley. Stephens, Nathaniel, A Plain and Easie Calculation of the Name, Mark, and Number of the Name of the Beast (London, 1656), p. 267Google Scholar.

³⁵ On Stephens, see Calamy, Edward, The Nonconformist's Memorial, ed. Palmer, Samuel (London, 1775), 2: 112–14Google Scholar, and Journal of George Fox, ed. Penney, Norman (New York, 1973), 1: 394Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Penney Journal). On his book, see Stephens, Plaine & Easie Calculation. Edward Calamy the elder, the moderate but Restoration-ejected Presbyterian, wrote an introduction endorsing Stephens' book. See also Nichols, John, Antiquities in Leicestershire (London, 1790), 7: 318Google Scholar.

³⁶ Journal of George Fox, ed. Ellwood, Thomas (London, 1694), p. 4Google Scholar (hereafter cited Journal).

³⁷ Ibid., p. 6.

³⁸ Fox, , Gospel Truth, pp. 447–57Google Scholar.

³⁹ Ibid., p. 182.

⁴⁰ Journal, p. 247.

⁴¹ Fox, George, Concerning Revelation, Prophecy, Measure, and Rule, and the Inspiration and Sufficiency of the Spirit (n.p., 1676), pp. 42, 46Google Scholar.

⁴² For Fox's use of this phrase, see Pickvance, Joseph, A Reader's Companion to George Fox's Journal (London, 1989), pp. 66–67Google Scholar.

⁴³ Fox, , To the Protector, p. 61Google ScholarPubMed.

⁴⁴ Journal, p. 73; The Short Journal and Itinerary Journals of George Fox, ed. Penney, Norman (Cambridge, 1925), p. 28Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Short Journal).

⁴⁵ On this point, see Gager, John G., Kingdom and Community: The Social World of Early Christianity (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1975)Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Judging from a recent statistical sampling of Quaker literature, the theme of divine judgment was one of the most common among Quaker authors, including Fox. See Sommerville, “Anglican, Puritan, and Sectarian.”

⁴⁷ Journal, pp. 67, 245.

⁴⁸ Short Journal, pp. 21-22.

⁴⁹ This was increasingly true after the traumatic Nayler scandal of 1656.

⁵⁰ or this sometime irrational fear of Ranterism and why it was encouraged, see especially Davis, J. C., Fear, Myth and History: The Ranters and the Historians (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar. Robert Barclay, first theologian of Quakerism, penned a major attack on ranterism and dissidents within the movement. The Anarchy of the Ranters and other Libertines (n.p., 1676).

⁵¹ Fox, George, A Warning from the Lord to all such as hang down the head for a Day (London, 1654), p. 1Google Scholar.

⁵² Fox, George, “As for our Silent Meetings,” 1674Google Scholar, Richardson MS. (transcript), 239, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, Pa.

⁵³ Fox, George, The Law of God, the Rule for Law-makers (London, 1658), p. 32Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ See his 1653 epistle explaining this designation in Swarthmore MSS, II, 55, LSF, published the first time in Ingle, H. Larry, “George Fox as Enthusiast: An Unpublished Epistle,” Journal of the Friends Historical Society 55 (1989): 265–70Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Fox, George, et al., Several Letters Written to the Saints of the Most High (London, 1654), pp. 13–15Google Scholar. “Deceit” or some variant was one of the most common terms in his lexicon.

⁵⁶ Fox, , Gospel Truth, p. 455Google Scholar. Fox held that abiding in the son meant abiding in eternal life. See Epistle 184 in Works of George Fox (Philadelphia, Pa., 1831), 7: 172–74Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Fox, George, News coming up out of the North, Sounding towards the South (London, 1654) p. 5-9, 11Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Fox, George, A Declaration of the Ground of Error & Errors, Blasphemy, Blasphemers and Blasphemies (London, 1657), pp. 1-5, 15Google Scholar. Bunyan wrote also of the evil of riches, but he did so to warn the wealthy of the dangers of hellfire after death. Bunyan, A Few Sighs from Hell, in Underwood, T. L., ed., The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan (Oxford, 1980), 1: 231–382Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Journal, p. 167.

⁶⁰ Fox, George, The Glorie of the Lord Arising, Shaking terribly the Earth, and Overturning All, Until Righteousness Be set up (London, 1655), pp. 1–2Google Scholar, passim.

⁶¹ Fox, George, To all Freinds and People in the whole of Christendome (London, n.d.), p. 28Google Scholar. These images were straight from Revelation, while the allegories were suffused with meanings given them by seventeenth-Century Protestants, e.g., the “great whore” referred to the Church of Rome; the “dragon,” the Devil; the “bride,” the true church; the “Lamb,” Christ.

⁶² Fox, , Gospel Truth, pp. 143–44Google Scholar.

⁶³ Fox, George, To all that would know the Way to the Kingdome (n.p., [1654]), p. 5Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Journal, pp. 221-22.

⁶⁵ The O.E.D. gives its first use in 1638.

⁶⁶ Journal, pp. 22-24. Fox was strikingly ‘close to Jesus’ concept of the immediate appearance of the Kingdom. See Sheehan, Thomas, The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity (New York, 1986), pp. 58–62Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Penney, Journal, 1: 40Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Fox, George, This for each Parliament-Man (London, 1656), pp. 1–4Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ Fox, George, An Instruction to Judges & Lawyers (London, [1657]), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ Ibid., pp. 18-21.

⁷¹ Fox, George, Several Papers Given Forth (London, 1560), pp. 32–33Google Scholar.

⁷² Fox, George, This is to all Officers and Souldiers of the Armies in England, Scotland, and Ireland (London, 1657), p. 2Google Scholar.

⁷³ Fox, , Warning from the Lord, p. 2Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Fox, George, To the Councill of Officers of the Armie and the Heads of the Nation (n.p., [1659]), pp. 2-3, 8Google Scholar. Other contemporaries also advocated this kind of “millenarian imperialism.” See Hill, Christopher, A Nation of Change & Novelty: Radical Politics, Religion and Literature in Seventeeth-Century England (London, 1990), p. 232Google Scholar, and “The Millennium,” pp. 327-28. For the interest the English revolution evoked abroad, and thus encouraged English radicals to think internationally, see Hill, Christopher, Puritanism & Revolution: Studies in Interpretation of the English Revolution of the 17th Century (New York, 1964), pp. 132–42Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ Fox could border on an English chauvinism. Five years after the English executed their king, Fox explained that “God has showed wondrous works in this Island (called England) as [in] any nation; there is no nation [that] has tasted the life, wherein the glory of the Lord is made manifest in it above all nations”; then he judged: “in all nations there is not more persecution and imprisoning as in this nation.” Fox, , Warning from the Lord, p. 5Google Scholar. Later he dispatched an epistle to foreign nations explaining that the “pearl,” the truth that God had put in each person, had been located in England. Fox, George, The Pearle Found in England (London, 1658)Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Fox, George, A Warning to all the Merchants in London (London, 1658), pp. 2–5Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ Fox, George, The Serious Peoples Reasoning and Speech with the Worlds Teachers and Professors (London, 1659)Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ Fox, George, To the Parliament of the Comon-wealth of England, Fifty-nine particulars laid down for the Regulating things (London, 1659)Google Scholar. Interestingly, the pamphlet does not appear in Fox's collected writings—indeed, the bulk of his 1650-era pamphleteering, the most socially significant and radically millenarian, escaped the reprinters” eyes. On such omissions as reflecting problems in the interpretation of early Quakerism, see Ingle, “From Mysticism to Radicalism.”

⁷⁹ Fox, , To the Parliament, p. 20Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ For an outline of the Fifth Monarchist platform, see Capp, , “Fifth Monarchists and Popular Millenarianism,” p. 173Google Scholar.

⁸¹ This part of his proposal suggests something of the resentment that Fox and his commoner-followers harbored against those benefiting from the post-Reformation policy of selling church lands to government favorites.

⁸² Fox, , To the Parliament, pp. 3–13Google Scholar.

⁸³ Ibid., p. 5. The third adjective is printed “softy” though “lofty” is surely meant.

⁸⁴ Fox, George, et al., A Declaration from the Harmles & Innocent People of God Called Quakers (n.p., [1661]), p. 6Google Scholar. Fox had also disavowed plotting after the uprising of Sir George Booth in the summer of 1659, but his statement then was not as complete a repudiation of warfare as the one in 1661. For the 1659 statement, see Journal, pp. 200-02. Margaret Fell, later Fox's wife, wrote a statement for the King on June 5, 1660, with a passing reference to the Quakers' testimony against wars and contentions. Fox also signed it. Fell, Margaret, A Brief Collection of Remarkable Passages and Occurrences Relating to…Margaret Fell (London, 1710), pp. 202–210Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ On this theme, see Greaves, Deliver Us from Evil.

⁸⁶ On this point, see the excellent analysis by Oliver, , “Quaker Testimony,” p. 231Google Scholar, as well as Reay, Quakers in the English Revolution, ch. 5.

⁸⁷ Works of Fox, 8: 129Google Scholar.