Recording the Rise of Truth

THE BULLETIN OF Friends Historical Association Vol. 41Spring Number, 1952No. 1 FOR THE TERCENTENARY OF QUAKERISM RECORDING THE RISE OF TRUTH By Henry J. Cadbury* ^ f"T^HE slothful man roasteth not that which he took in I hunting." So wrote a biblical sage centuries ago. Many a scholar knows how applicable the proverb is to his own temptation. To collect your information, to catch the facts, is so much more fun than to dress them up in orderly form, to finish them off in a publishable book or article for permanent record or public consumption. In the case of early Quaker historiography one observes a similar lag. There was assiduity to assemble the data, but great delay, or permanent neglect in making them available. Hence the rough materials about the rise of Quakerism were much more abundant than the early and systematic presentation of them. The reasons for this lag or lapse are not altogether clear. I have no intention of implying by my text that it was due to sloth. Other reasons suggest themselves—the sheer difficulty of sifting and compilation, the rapidly changing circumstances of the Society, both inward and outward, absence of historical perspecttive in the later generation, and tastes in Quaker literature alien * Henry J. Cadbury, Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard University, is well-known to readers of the Bulletin. He has recently written an account of George Fox's later years, to be published as an appendix in the forthcoming edition of Fox's Journal, edited by John L. Nickalls. 3 4 Bulletin of Friends Historical Association to the analysis of the Quaker past. The personal journal as a literary genre continues in the epigonous generation, but it is individual and self-analytical. It makes little contribution to the social history of a religious movement, as it shows little interest therein. The zeal of George Fox in accumulating historical material is for his time and his own education rather extraordinary. Either he alone or Friends collectively under his influence were assiduous in collecting, recording, and preserving several types of materials useful for later history writing. In some cases the motives were contemporary. Thus the elaborate system of meeting records, including births, marriages, and deaths, was partly in imitation of other church records and partly protective. It served to defend Friends from charges of irregularity, promiscuity , and illegitimacy. Their enemies admired it and subsequent genealogists have wondered at its widespread currency and completeness. Records of sufferings were regularly reported to London and there compiled. In time they filled forty-four folio volumes of manuscript.1 They were intended to honor the sufferers. They were again and again made the basis of appeal to the government. But the persecutors regarded them askance, since they reflected by name on informers, complainants, sheriffs, and judges. Fox projected a book of "Lives of Friends in the Ministry." This was to honor them after their death, and to hold up to the survivors their example of godly living and service. It was never completed. The memorials prepared by meetings for their deceased members continued this practice. The printed outcome was individual "Testimonies"2 and Piety Promoted. Autobiographical record was used in these later printed works· and indeed had long been encouraged by Fox. In 1676, the year to which so much historical self-consciousnss belongs, 1 Not to mention fuller collections in the several counties, of which a printed sample is Record of the Sufferings of Quakers in Cornwall, 1655-1686, ed. Norman Penney (London, 1928) . 2 Joseph Smith, Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books (London, 1867) , II, 706-731. Recording the Rise of Truth5 he wrote from Swarthmoor Hall to the Yearly Meeting in London: And now Friends, all you that have been ancient labourers, and have known the dealings of the Lord these twenty years (more or less) as I have often said to you, to draw up what you can, of that which the Lord hath carried you through by his power, the passages and sufferings; and how by the Lord you have been supported from the first.3 Following a local arrangement was the elaborate plan to secure a record of the first Publishers of Truth...