Quakers
Quakers,the religious body properly called the Society of Friends. They originally called themselves Children of Truth, Children of Light, or Friends of Truth, and received their sobriquet either because of association with highly emotional states manifested physically or because their leader once commanded a judge to “tremble at the word of the Lord.” The Society of Friends arose in England under the guidance of George Fox (1624–91), who after 1647 preached a simple personal religion, as opposed to formal worship and ceremonial. Their fundamental doctrines do not differ greatly from those of other Christian bodies, but they avoid rigid creeds, making their belief less a system than an attitude of mind. They believe that the same spirit that gave forth the Scriptures still guides men to a right understanding of them, and therefore they refuse set forms of worship and have no trained leaders. Because they declined to support the Established Church,...
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