FRIENDS
306
FRIENDS
yearly — administer the affairs of the Society, includ-
ing in their supervision matters both of spiritual disci-
pline and secular policy. The monthly meetings,
composed of all the congregations within a definite
circuit, judge of the fitness of new candidates for
membership, supply certificates to such as move to
other districts, choose fit persons to be elders, to watch
over the ministry, attempt the reformation or pro-
nounce the expulsion of all such as walk disorderly,
and generally seek to stimulate the members to re-
ligious duty. They also make provision for the poor
of the Society, and secure the education of their chil-
dren. Overseers are also appointed to assist in the
promotion of these objects. At monthly meetings
also marriages are sanctioned previous to their solem-
nization at a meeting for worship. Several monthly
meetings compose a quarterly meeting, to which they
forwarii general reports of their condition, and at
which appeals are heard from their decisions. The
yearly meeting holds the same relative position to the
quarterly meetings that the latter do to the monthly
meetings, and has the general superintendence of the
Society in a particular country." (See Rowntree,
Quakerism, Past and Present, p. 60.) All the yearly
meetings are supreme and independent, the only bond
of union between them being the circular letters
which pass between them. The annual letter of Lon-
don Yearly Meeting is particularly prized. With the
passing away of its founders and the cessation of per-
secution, Quakerism lost its missionary spirit and
hardened into a narrow and exclusive sect. Instead
of attracting new converts, it developed a mania for
enforcing "discipline", and "disowned", that is, ex-
pelled, multitudes of its members for trifling matters
in which the ordinary conscience could discern no
moral offence. In consequence, they dwindled away
from year to year, being gradually absorbed by other
more vigorous sects, and many drifting into Unitari-
anism.
In the United States, where, in the beginning of the last century, they had eight prosperous yearly meet- ings, their progress was arrested by two schisms, known as the Separation of 1828 and the Wilburite Controversy. The disturbance of 1828 was occa- sioned by the preaching of Elias Hicks (1748-1830), an eloquent and extremely popular speaker, who, in his later years, put forth unsound views concerning the Person and work of Christ. He was denounced as a Unitarian; and, although the charge seemed well founded, many adhered to him, not so much from par- taking his theological heresies, as to protest against the excessive power and influence claimed by the eld- ers and overseers, .\fter several years of wrangling, the Friends were split into two parties, the Orthodox and the Hicksite, each disowning the other, and claiming to be the original society. Ten years later the Orthodox body was again divided by the opposi- tion of John Wilbur to the evangelistic methods of an English missionary, Joseph John Gurney. .\s the main body of the Orthodox held with Gurney, the Wilburite faction set up a schismatic yearly meeting. These schisms endure to the present day. There is also a microscopical sect known as " Primitive " Friends, mainly offshoots from the Wilburites who claim to have eliminated all the later additions to the faith and practice of the early founders of the society.
In the fields of education, charity, and philanthropy the Friends have occupied a place far out of propor- tion to their numbers. There exist in the United States many important colleges of their foundation. They are exemplary in the care of their poor and sick. Long before the other denominations, they denounced slavery and would not permit any of their members to own slaves. They did not, however, advocate the abolition of slavery by violent measures. They have also been eminently solicitous for the welfare and fair treatment of the Indians.
According to Dr. H. K. Carroll, the acknowledged
authority on the subject of religious statistics (The
Christian Advocate, Jan., 1907), the standing of the
various branches of Friends in the United States is as
follows: —
Ministers
Churches
Communicants
Orthodox
Hicksite
Wilburite
Primitive
1302
115
38
11
830
183
53
9
94,507
19,545
4,468
232
ScHAFF, Creeds of Christendom (New York, 1884), I, III;
Thomas, Allan C. and Richard H., History of the iSocietu of
Friends in America in American Church History Series (New
York, 1894), XII — contains excellent bibliography; Smith,
Joseph, Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books (London, 1867;
supplement, London, 1893); Idem, Bibliotheca Anti-Quakeriana,
A Catalogue of Books Adverse to the Society of Friends (London,
1873); Janney, History of the Religious Society of Friends from
the Rise to the year 1S2S (2nd ed.. Philadelphia, 1837-50). The
Works of Fox were published at London. 1694-1706; the Works
of Barclay were edited by Willi.\m Penn (London, 1692).
James F. Loughlin.
Friends of God (Ger. Gottesfreunde), an asso- ciation of pious persons, both ecclesiastical and lay, having for its object the cultivation of holiness; its name alludes no doubt to John, xv, 14, 15. The circle of the " Friends of God " appears to have had its origin in Basle between the years 1339 and 1343, and to have thence extended down the Rhine even as far as the Netherlands, the cities most prominent in its history being Basle, Strasburg, and Cologne. Seeing the dis- turbed state of society in the large territory, the holy associates united in their efforts to counteract the many evil influences of the time, by applying them- selves zealously to the practices of the interior life, and working diligently for the conversion of sinners. From this group of ascetics, whose sole bond of union was their common desire for holiness, the great school of German mystics took its rise. They aimed at be- coming saints, and at giving edification at Catholic devotion, not heterodox enthusiasm; at affective con- templation, not arid speculation. Their great leaders were two Dominicans, the eloquent preacher John Tauler (c. 1300-1361), and the contemplative writer Blessed Henry Suso (c. 1300-1365); to these must be added Henry of Xordlingen, Conrad of Kaiserheim, and the Dominicans John of Tambach (a celebrated theologian), John of Sternengassen, Dietrich of Col- mar, and Nicholas of Strasburg. Among those whom they directed in the path of perfection were several communities of nuns, chiefly Dominican (e. g. in Unterlinden, Engelthal). Of these Dominican- esses, the most renowned for sanctity are the myst ical writers Christina and Margaretha Ebner. Among their disciples living in the world, the following may be mentioned: Rulraan Merswin, a wealthy merchant of Strasburg (1382), Henry of Rheinfelden, and the knight of Landsberg. The sermons, treatises, and let- ters of the " Friends of God "are remarkable for beauty of style, those of Suso constituting the best prose of the fourteenth century, the correspondence of Henry of Xordlingen and Margaretha Ebner being the earliest examples of epistolary literature in the German lan- guage, and the sermons of Tauler being masterpieces of eloquence.
.\s long as the association remained under the guid- ance of men like Suso and Tauler. masters in the spiritual life, it was preserved from blemish. Suso was the founder of the Children of Mary, and, in an age that witnessed the decadence of scholasticism or scientific theology, both friends based all their mys- ticism on Catholic doctrine, particularly on the solid system of St. Thomas. As Suso's " Book of the Eter- nal Wisdom" was composed for spiritual reading, so was his " Book of Truth " written to refute the errors and fanatic excesses of the Beghards and the Brethren
