James Nayler 1618-1770. The Quaker Indicted by Parliament (review)

Book Reviews Edited by Edwin B. Bronner James Nayler 1618-1770. The Quaker Indicted by Parliament. By William G. Bittle. York, England: William Sessions Ltd. in association with Friends United Press, Richmond, Indiana, USA, 1986. viii, 240 pp. Illus., index. $14.95. Professor Bittle has written a new and scholarly work on the life of James Nayler. Unlike earlier lives by Mabel Brailsford and Emilia Fogelklou, this biography does not come from a Quaker pen and seems to make no attempt at being "inspirational" or hagiographie. Rather it is an objective and sympathetically critical picture of Nayler and the Quaker movement during its first decade. Bittle also gives a fine analysis of the broader significance of the celebrated trial of Nayler before the House of Commons in 1656. The first chapter contains the information available about James Nayler's early life, his military career in the Parliamentary army, and his conversion to Quakerism in 1652. Very soon he was being prosecuted for actions disrespectful of the authorities and did time in prison. The second chapter describes Nayler's literary activity in the noisy pamphlet wars of the 1650s. He quickly became a leading Quaker polemicist and achieved prominence nearly equal to that of George Fox. Bittle reviews succinctly the Quaker ideas of this period, using Nayler's writings, along with others, to illustrate his points. Chapter III takes Nayler from his itinerant preaching in the north of England to his mission work in the south, in Bristol and then in London, where he arrived in June 1655 to begin a sensationally successful career spreading the new faith. He preached, he disputed, he wrote tracts and he ministered without stint to the spiritual needs of individuals, both high and low. In the process he came to be surrounded by admirers whose loyalty hardly stopped short of adulation . The resulting stress brought him illness and depression, especially as the enthusiasm of his devotees caused division among Friends. When Nayler went to Bristol in July 1656, probably hoping to find the change of scene beneficial to his mental health, his coterie of "groupies" (Edward Burrough called them "goats, rough and hairy") followed him there as well. George Fox, who was then suffering horrible conditions in the prison at Launceston, summoned Nayler to come and confer with him. On the way Nayler and his companions were themselves arrested and jailed in Exeter. Meanwhile Fox was released and came to Exeter where the famous encounter between the two leading Quakers took place. Fox's words to Nayler about kissing his foot Bittle characterizes as an "enormous affront" (p. 99). On the whole, however, the author maintains a genuine impartiality in recounting the sorry conflict between these two remarkable figures. A month later occurred Nayler's notorious re-entry into Bristol in a manner that most English contemporaries found so shockingly blasphemous. Chapters V and VI are especially valuable in showing how the Nayler incident was brought before the Second Protectorate Parliament and exploited by those who sought not only to crush the young Quaker movement, but beyond that, to reverse the policy of religious toleration supported by Cromwell and the more radical elements in his army. Bittle shows that Nayler was cast into the midst of conflicts that concerned fundamental political and constitutional issues. For most of two weeks Parliament debated what to do with Nayler, many speaking in favor of executing him. Behind the hundred or so speeches 48 Book Reviews49 made by members of the House during the Nayler trial there lay momentous questions about the authority of Parliament, the validity of the new written constitution (the Instrument of Government), the powers of the Lord Protector , the need for an "other house" (i.e. of Lords) and even whether or not England should again become a monarchy. Employing some thirty statistical tables in his appendix, Bittle analyzes the participation, attitudes and motives of the MP's who spoke and voted on the Quaker's fate. There appear to be some interesting correlations between political positions and stands taken on Nayler's punishment. Though Nayler's life was narrowly spared, he was subjected to a barbarous punishment and then kept incarcerated for nearly three...