Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) History The Religious Society of Friends, whose members are known as or ǡ was founded in England in the seventeenth century as a Christian religious denomination by people who were dissatisfied with the existing denominations and sects of Christianity As the movement expanded, it faced opposition and persecution Friends were imprisoned and beaten in Great Britain, Ireland and the British colonies Historians generally credit George Fox with being the principal co-founder or most important early leader There are two reputed origins of the term ǣ The first refers to people “quaking” or trembling when feeling moved by the Holy Spirit to speak in meetings for worship The other is when George Fox was arrested in 1650 and charged with blasphemy since he saw himself as an apostle restoring the true church George Fox was questioned over an eight-hour period, during which at one point, George Fox told the magistrates, “ ” It was one of the magistrates who coined the name for the followers of George Fox The name came many years later in the eighteenth century.1 Although this is disputed by some, Quakers are believed to have roots of origin within the (a group of French Protestants, mostly peasants, who resisted the attempts of Louis XIV’s government to convert them to Roman Catholicism) Many were imprisoned, tortured, and martyred Observers reported tongues: uneducated peasants and young children prophesying in pure, elegant French, enthusiastic, demonstrative worship, and people “seized by the Spirit” Some Camisards fled to England to avoid persecution, making converts there The Camisards maintained that “God has no where in the Scriptures concluded himself from dispensing again the extraordinary Gifts of