938 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.ann.14 



When the firedid occur as he had predicted, he stood before, the names 

 with arms outstretched, as if to stay their advance, until forcibly 

 brought away by his friends. 



In mental and physical temperament Fox seems to have closely 

 resembled Mohammed and the Indian prophets of the Ghost dance. 

 We are told that he had much mental suffering and was often 

 under great temptation. "He fasted much, and walked abroad in 

 solitary places. Taking his Bible, he sat in hollow trees or secluded 

 spots, and often at night he walked alone in silent meditation." At 

 onetime -'he fell into such a condition that he looked like a corpse, 

 and many who came to see him supposed him to be really dead. In 

 this trance he, continued fourteen days, after which his sorrow began 

 to abate, and with brokenness of heart and tears of joy he acknowl- 

 edged the infinite love of God.'' (Janney, George Fox.) 



The sect obtained the name of Quakers from the violent tremblings 

 which overcame the worshipers in the early days, and which they 

 regarded as manifestations of divine power on them. So violent were 

 these convulsions that, as their own historian tells us, on one occa- 

 sion the house itself seemed to be. shaken. According to another au- 

 thority, men and women sometimes fell down and lay upon the ground 

 struggling as if for life. Their ministers, however, seem not to have 

 encouraged such exhibitions, but strove to relieve the fit by putting 

 the patient to bed and administering soothing medicines. (•' Quakers," 

 Encyclopedia Britannica.) 



The Fifth-Monarchy Men were a small band of religionists who arose 

 about the same time, proclaiming that the "Fifth Monarchy" prophe- 

 sied by Daniel was at hand, when Christ would come down from heaven 

 and reign visibly upon earth for a thousand years. In 1(>.">7 they formed 

 a plot to kill Cromwell, and in 1H61 they broke out in insurrection at 

 night, parading the streets with a banner on which was depicted a lion, 

 proclaiming that Christ had come and declaring that they were invul- 

 nerable and invincible, as "King Jesus'' was their invisible leader. 

 Troops were called out against them, but the Fifth-Monarchy Men, 

 expecting supernatural assistance, refused to submit, and fought until 

 they were nearly all shot down. The leaders were afterward tried and 

 executed. {Janney^s George Fox and SchajPs Religious Encyclopedia.) 



FRENCH PROPHETS 



Forty years later, about the end of the seventeenth century, another 

 sect of convulsionists, being driven out of France, " found an asylum in 

 Protestant countries [and] carried with them the disease, both of mind' 

 and body, which their long sufferings had produced." They spread 

 into Germany and Holland, and in L706 reached England, where they 

 became known as "French prophets." Their meetings were character- 

 ized by such extravagance of convulsion and trance performance that 

 they became the wonder of the, ignorant and the scandal of the more 



