877 



QUAKERS. 



QUAKERS. 



878 



proceedings to the treasury. (Cic., ' in Verr.,' ii. 1. 14 ; and Ascon. Fed., 

 p. 107, ed. Orelli.) 



With the extension of the Roman empire, a greater number of 

 quaestores was required for the financial administration of the con- 

 quered countries and the provinces, and it was chiefly owing to this that 

 their number increased in proportion as the empire became greater. 

 The praetor was therefore usually accompanied in his province by 

 a quaestor, who had the whole financial department under his con- 

 trol, but was, like the other quasstores, accountable to the treasury ; in 

 case of his death, the praetor appointed a pro-quaestor in his stead. 

 (Cic., ' in Verr.,' ii. 1. 15.) When the praetor was absent from his pro- 

 vince, the quaestor usxially supplied his place, and was then attended 

 )>y lictors. (Cic., ' ad Fam.,' ii. 15 ; ' pro Plane.,' 41.) There seems to 

 be no doubt that the quaestors at all times, after the year of their 

 office was over, had a right to take their seat in the senate ; of Sulla 

 it is expressly said that he raised their number to twenty, for the pur- 

 pose of filling up the vacancies in the senate. 



In the time of the emperors we have mention of some quaestors who 

 bore the title of Candidati principis, and who were not sent into 

 provinces, but had only to read in the senate the communications 

 which the emperor had to make to that assembly. From the time 

 of the emperor Claudius it became customary for quxstores, on enter- 

 ing upon their office, to give gladiatorial spectacles to the people, 

 and accordingly none but the wealthiest Romans could aspire to the 

 office. 



The quiestores, in the provinces of the Populus Romanus, had the 

 jurimlictio of the curule ajdiles, and consequently the right of pro- 

 mulgating edicts. No edicts were promulgated in the provinces of the 

 Caesar. (Gaius, i. 6.) 



C. W. Gottling's ' Geschichte der Roinischen Staatsverfassung," 

 1840, may also be consulted, and W. A. Becker's ' Handbuch der 

 Romischen Alterthumer,' 1843-56. 



QUAKERS, the name first given " in scorn," and since habitually, 

 to the sect of Christians who call themselves the " Society of Friends." 

 [Fox, GEOUUK, in Bioo. Drv.] 



Oriyin. The founder, or rather the first member of this society was 

 George Fox, who towards the middle of the 1 7th century, after long 

 wanderings about the country and much spiritual conflict and inquiry 

 into the merits of the sects then raging against each other in England, 

 separated himself from all, feeling that " none could speak to his con- 

 dition." By degrees his religious opinions assumed a distinct form, 

 and in the year 1647, when he was 23 years of age, he commenced his 

 ministry by preaching at Dukinfield near Manchester. In a short 

 time the number of believers in his doctrines increased ; in 1648 large 

 meetings attended his ministry in Nottinghamshire,and, notwithstanding 

 cruel persecution, the society spread from the poor and uniustructed to 

 many of the more opulent and educated classes. 



It is not our intention to describe the process by which George Fox 

 was led to adopt bis peculiar opinions, or the course of conduct which 

 these induced him, whilst yet a very young man, to pursue. Such a 

 narrativi- might cast on the sect an air of extravagance, which belongs 

 less to this body in particular than to the period of religious excite- 

 ment in which it had its rise. Notwithstanding instances of indiscre- 

 tion or enthusiasm in some of its first members, the early history of 

 the society is full of examples of undaunted courage in passive and 

 ultimately successful resistance to oppression. 



'/' ,nt*.- The Society of Friends have no articles of creed, subscrip- 

 tion to which is required of their members. Then- principal tenets 

 may 1. gathered from the writings of George Fox, William 



IVmi, and Robert Barclay, and their other approved authors, and from 

 the minutes and epistles issued by their yearly meeting in London to 

 the subordinate meetings. 



They believe that it is the prerogative of God alone to declare him- 

 self to man ; and therefore they prefer expressing their religious 

 opinions in the language of Holy Scripture. In full accordance with 

 sacred writings, they have ever believed that there is one God 

 ither of all, of whom are all things ; that there is one Lord Jesus 

 . by whom all things were made, who was glorified with the 

 i before the world was, who is over all, God blessed for ever ; 

 that there is one Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father and the Sou, 

 the Leader, Sancti tier, anil (Jomfmter of his people: and that these 

 are one God. Whilst objecting to scholastic terms and dis- 

 tinctions, and to all attempt* to be wise in the deep things of God, 

 beyond what He has plainly revealed, they have ever professed their 

 in the real manhood as well as the true deity of our Lord and 

 Saviour Jesus Christ ; that the Word which was in the beginning with 

 God, and was God, was made flesh and dwelt amongst men. They 

 maintain that man in the fall is separated and alienated in his nature 

 from God ; that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, 

 and are therefore exposed to divine wrath ; and that it is solely through 

 the mercy of God in Christ Jesus that any are brought into recon- 

 ciliation with him ; receiving remission of sins through faith in the 

 one propitiator offering of the Lamb of God, and sanctilicatimi of 

 through the influences of the Holy Spirit. They believe the 

 Holy Scriptures to be given by inspiration of God, and to be profitable 

 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 

 ness ; and they have always professed their entire readiness that their 

 tenets and practices should be tried thereby 



But that which may be regarded as the doctrine mainly distin- 

 guishing them from other Christians, is what they apprehend to be a 

 fuller recognition both of the universality and of the teaching of the 

 Holy Spirit. They believe that the light of the spirit of Christ does in 

 measure enlighten every man that cometh into the world ; that the 

 effects of the death of Christ are coextensive with those of Adam's 

 transgression, accordiug to the declaration of the Apostle, "As in 

 Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive ; " and, as a 

 consequeuce hereof, that even those who have not the outward 

 knowledge of the Gospel history may, by giving heed to their 

 measure of this light, become partakers of that salvation which comes 

 by Jesus Christ. 



They moreover believe that the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to be 

 experienced by every sincere believer in Christ, in reference both to 

 his religious duties and to his daily walk in life, that to be guided by 

 the Spirit is the practical application of the Christian religion. They 

 also maintain that this manifestation of the Spirit, given to every man 

 to profit withal, is the only essential qualification of the Christian 

 for service iu the church, and is independent of human choice or 

 appointment. They hold it to be the prerogative of Christ to call and 

 qualify by the Holy Spirit his sen-ants to minister in word and 

 doctrine, and that, as in the earliest period of the Christian church, this 

 Spirit was poured upon servants and upon handmaidens, so he con- 

 tinues to call from women as well as from men, from the young and 

 from the old, from the unlearned and from the poor, from the wise 

 and from the rich, those whom he commissions to declare unto others 

 the way of salvation. As such have freely received the gift of the 

 ministry, so are they freely to give without hire or bargaining, far less 

 to use it as a trade to get money by. Hence they refuse the payment 

 of tithes and all other ecclesiastical imposts. They believe that the 

 true worship of God is offered in the inward and immediate moving 

 and drawing of his own Spirit ; and that all other worship, beginning 

 and ending in man's pleasure, ought to be rejected. Hence they 

 abstain from the use of all prescribed forms of prayer, and refuse to 

 observe appointed days of thanksgiving, or of fasting and humiliation. 

 They believe that as all the types and shadows and ordinances of the 

 law were fulfilled in Christ, so he established no new ordinances to be 

 administered or to be observed in his church, that his baptism is that 

 of the Holy Ghost and of fire, that he himself is the bread of life, and 

 that the communion of his body and blood is inward and spiritual, and 

 that iu thus partaking of the substance, the figures are no longer 

 needed. They assert that as God hath assumed to himself the 

 dominion of conscience, all punishment for conscience sake is there- 

 fore contrary to the truth ; provided that no man under the pretence 

 of conscience prejudice his neighbour. They believe that true religion 

 delivers man from the spirit and vain conversation of this world, and 

 leads him to inward communion with God ; and that hence all foolish 

 and superstitious formalities and all frivolous recreations ought to be 

 rejected ; thus all public rejoicings are disapproved of. 



Friends deem the taking of all oaths unlawful, and much of their 

 sufferings arose from the firmness with which in former days they 

 refused the oaths often wantonly tendered to them. They believe too 

 that all wars and fightings are inconsistent with pure Christianity, and 

 they refuse all participation directly or indirectly in them. They 

 believe marriage to be a divine ordinance, but in their marriages they 

 do not use the intervention of a minister, for whose interference they 

 allege that there is no Scripture warrant. When any of the Society 

 intend to marry, they acquaint their respective men's and women's 

 meetings of their intentions, and the necessary inquiries having been 

 made as to the consent of parents, the freedom of the parties from all 

 previous engagements, and, if the woman is a widow with children, as 

 to the security of a due provision for these, the parties in a public 

 meeting for worship solemnly take each other in marriage, and a 

 certificate of the fact is given to them. Friends abstain from all pomp 

 in the burial of their dead and from the use of mourning apparel or of 

 grave-stones. They do not use the heathen names of the days or 

 mouths, but designate them by their numbers ; and they object to 

 address an individual in the plural number, or by his title of courtesy, 

 or by any designation which they consider as either inconsistent with 

 Christian truthfulness, or as irreverent or merely complimentary ; hut 

 they have no scruple against the use of the simple names of dignity or 

 office. 



Discipline. The discipline of the society was at least indicated and 

 to a great extent established by George Fox with much foresight ; for 

 notwithstanding the great increase of the body and the altered circum- 

 stances of the times, the system has been found adequate to the pro- 

 tection and the government of the society. 



The members of one or more congregations (according to their size) 

 hold monthly meetings for looking to the orderly conversation of the 

 members, for taking care of their poor (a duty which the society 

 rigidly fulfils to the superseding of all parochial relief), for regulating 

 the proceedings in relation to marriage, and for other matters affecting 

 the well-being of the body. 



There are quarterly meetings throughout the nation, to which 

 representatives are sent from the subordinate monthly meetings. There 

 are also monthly and quarterly meetings of women Friends similarly 

 constituted. 



There are meetings for worship on Sunday, and in the forenoon of 



