hide Matching Documents

The documents where this entity occurs most often are shown below. Click on a document to open it.

Document Max. Freq Min. Freq
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 2 0 Browse Search
View all matching documents...

Your search returned 2 results in 1 document section:

Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Quakers. (search)
led Quakers in derision, was founded at about the middle of the seventeenth century. At first they were called Professors (or children) of the light, because of their fundamental principle that the light of Christ within was God's gift of salvation—that Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. It is said that George Fox (q. v.), the founder of the sect, when brought before magistrates at Derby, England, in 1650, told them to quake before the Lord, when one of them (Gervase Bennet) caught up the word quake, and was the first who called the sect Quakers. They were generally known by that name afterwards. They spread rapidly in England, and were severely persecuted by the Church and State. At one time there were 4,000 of them in loathsome prisons in England. The most prominent of Fox's disciples was William Penn, who did much to alleviate their sufferings. Many died in prison or from the effects of imprisonment. Grievous fines were imposed, a large portion of