George Fox

George Fox (July 1624 – January 13 1691) was an English Dissenter and the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers. Living in a time of great social upheaval, he rebelled against the religious and political consensus by proposing an unusual and uncompromising approach to the Christian faith. His journal is a text popular even among non-Quakers for its vivid account of his personal journey.

Early life

Fox was born at Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England (now known as Fenny Drayton), 24 km (15 miles) southwest of Leicester. His father, Christopher Fox, was a weaver, called "righteous Christer" by his neighbours; his mother, Mary Lago, was—he tells us—"of the stock of the Martyrs". From childhood, Fox was of a serious, religious disposition. His education was based around the faith and practice of the Church of England, of which his parents were members; he had no formal schooling, but was able to read and write. Even at a young age, he was fascinated by the Bible, which he studied continually. "When I came to eleven years of age," he said, "I knew pureness and righteousness; for, while I was a child, I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be faithful, in all things, and to act faithfully two ways; viz., inwardly to God, and outwardly to man." (Jones 1908 http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/ch01.html)

Related Topics:
Leicestershire - England - Fenny Drayton - Leicester - Weaver - Church of England - Bible - Jones

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As he grew up, his relations "thought to have made him a priest," but he was instead made an apprentice to a shoemaker and . This suited his contemplative temperament, and he became well-known for his diligence among the wool traders who had dealings with his master. A constant obsession for Fox was the pursuit of "simplicity" in life, meaning humility and the abandonment of luxury, and the short time he spent as a shepherd was important to the formation of this view. Towards the end of his life, he wrote a letter for general circulation pointing out that Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David were all keepers of sheep or cattle, and that a learned education should not therefore be seen as a qualification for ministry. (Marsh 1847, 364)

Related Topics:
Shoemaker - Shepherd - Abel - Noah - Abraham - Jacob - Moses - David - Marsh

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Even so, he felt no shame in friendship with educated people. He frequently visited Nathaniel Stephens, the clergyman of his hometown, to engage in long discussions on religious matters. Stephens considered Fox to be a gifted young man, but the two disagreed on so many issues that he later called Fox a madman and spoke against him in his subsequent career. George Fox also had friends who were "professors" (followers of the standard religion), but by the age of nineteen he had begun to look down on their behaviour, in particular their drinking of alcohol. He records that in prayer one night he heard an inner voice saying, "Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; and thou must forsake all, both young and old, and keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all." (Jones 1908 http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/ch01.html#upfn12)

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First travels

For this reason, he left Drayton-in-the-Clay in September 1643, wandering in a state of mental torment and confusion. While in Barnet, Fox would alternately shut himself in his room for days at a time, or go out alone into the countryside. He thought intensely about Jesus' temptation in the desert, which he compared to his own spiritual condition, but drew strength from his conviction that God would support and preserve him. At times, he attracted the attention of various religious scholars, but he rejected them because he did not feel they lived up to the doctrines they taught. Fox did actively seek out the company of clergy, but "found no comfort from them", as they too seemed unable to help with the matters that were troubling him. One clergyman in Worcestershire advised him to take tobacco (which Fox detested) and sing psalms; another, in Coventry, was helpful at first but lost his temper when Fox accidentally stood on a flower in his garden; a third suggested that bloodletting would cure the "mind diseased". (Jones 1908, footnote 19 http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/ch01.html#upfn19)

Related Topics:
1643 - Barnet - Jesus - Temptation in the desert - Worcestershire - Tobacco - Psalms - Coventry - Bloodletting - Jones

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Disillusioned and dejected, he returned home in June 1644. But there was no help to be found there either: Fox's family and friends offered either marriage or military service as a solution to his troubles. He soon decided that he would have to go travelling again, but this time with a more questioning approach towards the religious figures he would encounter. Fox was determined to challenge those he disagreed with, rather than shrink away from them. (Marsh 1847, 31–32)

Related Topics:
1644 - Marriage - Military service - Marsh

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Unique beliefs begin to form

Over the next few years, George Fox continued to travel around the country as his particular religious beliefs took shape. In prayer and meditation, he came to a greater understanding of the nature of his faith and what it required from him. This process he called "opening", because he experienced it as a series of sudden revelations of ideas that were already complete by the time he became conscious of them. He also came to what he deemed a deep inner understanding of standard Christian beliefs in creation and salvation. Among his ideas were:

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• Christians differ in external practice, but all are considered "saved" because of their belief; rituals can therefore be safely ignored, as long as one experiences a true spiritual conversion.
• The qualification for ministry is given by the Holy Spirit, not by ecclesiastical study. This implies that anyone has the right to minister, assuming the Spirit guides them, including women.
• God "dwelleth in the hearts of his obedient people": religious experience is not confined to a church building. Indeed, Fox refused to apply the word "Church" to a building, using instead the name "steeple-house", a usage maintained by many Quakers today. Fox preferred to worship in fields and orchards, believing that God's presence could also be felt in the natural world.

Fox had some experience among "English Dissenters", groups of people who had broken away from the major churches because of their unusual beliefs. He had hoped that the dissenters would be able to help his spiritual understanding, where the established church could not, but this was not the case: he fell out with one group, for example, because he maintained that women had souls. From this comes the famous passage from his journal:

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:But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those esteemed the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition . And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition"; and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give Him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus when God doth work, who shall let it? and this I knew experimentally . (QFP §19.02)

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