THE DOCTRINE OF THE INNER LIGHT, EVANGELICALISM AND WOMEN IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
MartinMeeker
The Society of Friends, known more commonly as the Quakers, were unique among the Christian sects which arose during the nonconformist and anti-royalist period in England known as the Interregnum (1646-1660).While they were similar to other nonconformist churches of the era in regards to a dislike of the Church of England, the Quakers' beliefs and practices set them apart. Specifically, the members of the Society saw themselves as a "peculiar" people who took great heed to the biblical demand, "Be not conformed to this world."1 However, the early Quakers' reliance on the Bible as a source of spiritual knowledge and inspiration was secondary to their belief in the Inner Light as the primary path to salvation and communication with God.2
George Fox, a founder of the Society of Friends, understood the Inner Light to be the cornerstone of belief and salvation: "I saw it shine through all, and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation and came to the light of life." However, he did not experience the Light through scripture: "This (revelation) I saw in the pure openings of the Light without the help of any man, neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures." Fox concluded, "I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that inward light...
1Romans 12:2. This was employed prominently by Quakers from the founding of the Society of Friends through the nineteenth century.
2As evidenced in the journal of George Fox and epistles, issued in theearlyyearsofQuakerism,thephrase"InnerLight"wasrarelyused;rather, phrasessuchas"lightofJesus," "light of Christ," "inward light," or simply "thelight"werefrequentlyused.Ihavechosen to use the phrase, "Inner Light," because once the theological dust of the English Civil War settled and evangelicalismwasindecline,thephrase"InnerLight"wasmostcommonly applied to the concept; see Caroline Stephen, Quaker Stron2holds. ed. by Mary Gould Ogilvie (ca. 1890; Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill,1951).
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by which all might know their salvation, and their way to God."3 The Inner Light also proved to be a powerful and unique doctrine outside the realm of the mystical, and into the arena of gender relations. The idea that no man, or priest, should stand between man, woman and God led to the belief in spiritual equality for the sexes. As a result, this doctrine gave rise to multitudes of consequences for the position of women within the Society of Friends and how they saw themselves in the world.4
For nearly two hundred years, the doctrine of the Inner Light served as the foundation for Quaker theology. Nevertheless, the doctrine of the Inner Light proved to be historically and theologically unstable in Quakerism during the religious turmoil caused by the rise of English evangelicalism in the early nineteenth century. This atmosphere of religious upheaval forms the backdrop for the study of the doctrine of the Inner Light, evangelicalism and women in the Society of Friends. In this context, the emphasis on the Inner Light was shunned in favor of a reliance on the infallibility of the Bible to insure one's salvation. Therefore, through the Society's official emphasis on the primacy of biblical scripture, Quaker women were no longer encouraged to be guided by the doctrine of Inner Light. Curiously, it was exactly in this period that Quaker women began consistently lobbying for an expansion of their rights as women. As will be discussed later at length, the rising agitation of Victorian Quaker women culminated in their first public demands for equal organizational and political rights in the setting of the 1873 Quaker London YearlyMeeting.
While the burgeoning women's rights and suffrage movements and the increasing involvement of women in many aspects of
3George Fox, The Journal of Geoq e Fox, revised edition by John L. Nickalls (ca. 1694; Cambridge: University Press, 1952), pp. 33-35; also see, B...u.il.k of Christian Discipline of the Society of Friends, (London: Samuel Harris & Co., 1883), pp. 3-28.
4For the radical consequences the doctrine of the Inner Light had for seventeenth century women, see, Phyllis Mack, Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth Century En&Jand, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
Christian vocation played a large part in encouraging Quaker women to demand expanded rights, this essay examines how and why these women used language and actions directly related to Quaker theology. Thus, the aim is to explore Quaker women's lives and their position within the Society of Friends in relation to the theological concepts of the Inner Light and evangelicalism in Victorian England. Specifically, the answer to the question of whether evangelicalism, with its emphasis on misogynist biblical scripture,5 played a preventative or encouraging role in women's agitation for expanded rights will be addressed. Moreover, it is expected that the extent to which the doctrine of the Inner Light helped to raise women's and men's consciousness regarding the inequality of the sexes in the material world will be discovered. Finally, these questions will be framed within the enduring debate in women's history and the history of religion regarding the degree to which Christianity has played a liberating or oppressive role in women's lives.6
While Quaker theology has previously been examined in relation to the beliefs and practices of its members, 7 only allusions have been made to its implications for women and their position within the Society of Friends. A number of articles have been written looking specifically at the individual activist and radical Victorian Quaker woman.8 However, these articles seem to downplay the role of religion as a motivating and organizing principle in the
5For two instructive examples see, 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.
6This debate is directly addressed in a number of recent books and articles; see Dale A. Johnson, Women in Enelish Relieion, 1700-1925. (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1983); Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness; From the Middle Aees to 1870, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); and Janet Horowitz Murray, Strone-Minded Women and Other Lost Voices from Nineteenth Century Eneland, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982).
7For a general discussion of Victorian Quakerism, see Elizabeth Isichei, Victorian Quakers, and Rufus M. Jones, The Later Periods of Quakerism, (London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1921).
8See Kenneth Cornfield, "Elizabeth Heyrick: Radical Quaker," Relieiop
in the Lives of Enelish Women:1760-1930, ed. by Gail Malmgreen(London: Croom Helm, 1986); and Gail Malmgreen, "AnneKnightandtheRadical Subculture," Quaker History, (Fall 1982), pp.100-13.
lives of Quaker women. At least three works have specifically addressed the issues of gender and the relations between the sexes in the atmosphere of the richly gendered discourse of Quakerism. 9 However. the works expressly deal with the beginnings of Quakerism and consequently have only a contextual relevance to an essay dealing with the interactions between evangelicalism, the doctrine of the Inner Light and Quakerwomen.
An anonymous article published in the Quaker journal, The Friend, two months prior to the 1873 Yearly Meeting, set the stage for the event that was to take place. The article specifically addressed the issues of women in the ministry. the segregation of the Yearly Meetings and Quaker theology. Initially, the author asserted that when discussing the "rightful position of women in various relationships in life. . . it is natural to revert to the principles long advocated by Friends considering the true sphere of Women."10 The author continued by discussing George Fox's advocacy of women's spiritual equality in the context of the doctrine of the Inner Light. She stated that the advocates of women's rights claimed their demands only to be an extension of Quaker theology. but the author recognized the apprehension of many Quakers when writing, "The very phrase 'Woman's Rights' conveys a distasteful impression to most of us. The words have an ungentle sound."11 However, instead of using such reasoning to dismiss women's equality, the author concluded:
9For a rather traditional article on the relations between the sexes in regard to marriage, see Jacques Tuai, "Sexual Equality and Conjugal Harmony: The Way to Celestial Bliss. A View of Early Quaker Matrimony," The Journal of
the Friends' Historical Society, (1988), Volume 55: pp. 161-74. For a more expansive, ambitious discussion of gender in that era, see Phyllis Mack, Visionary Women. American Quaker gender relations in the nineteenth century are discussed in the collection of essays, Witnesses for Chan e; Quaker Women Oyer Three Centuries, ed. by Elisabeth Potts Brown and Susan Mosher Stuard (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1989).
10 The Friend, (1873), p. 56.
11 Ibid., p. 56.
But can times of change and revolution in the existing order of things ever be beautiful? A great movement is undoubtedly in progress, long-established ideas concerning the sphere of women are being overturned... politically... we cannot but think that there are rights withheld, and that the possession of the vote would exercise an educating influence upon women... As Friends should we not be the first to admit that every woman has a right to fulfill (sic) her mission, whatever it may be--and wherein her mission lies it is not for others to determine. I2
Thus, the issue of women's rights within the Society of Friends was ripe for a truly significant occurrence in which women not only demanded expanded rights, but a degree of organizational and political equality with male Quakers.
The 1873 Women's Yearly Meeting began quietly with the usual expressions of sympathy for the personal losses of the preceding year and continued with its usual business of reading and discussing queries as well as the reading of the minutes of the previous mee ti ng. 13However, as the meeting progressed, more substantial issues began to be raised, such as the danger of religion in becoming too sentimental if emotions were discussed and, on the final day of the meeting, an extremely controversial issue was forced into discussion.
On that day the Women's Meeting was visited by Joseph Thorpe, J.J. Dymond and Joshua Green, in their capacity as deputies from the Men's Meeting. They came to discuss with the women members the state of the Society, and specifically, "to consider the cause of the relative numerical declension (in members), and the
12 Ibid., pp.56-57..
13 The following account of the events at the 1873 Women's Yearly Meeting and the subsequent debate which it stimulated, are relayed from the issues of The Friend, specifically the 06 May, 01 June, 01 August, 01 September,
01 October, and 01 December 1873 and 01 January 1874 issues.
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remedy, if such can be found."14 In response to the call for help, the woman clerk of the Meeting asked if the women members might be able to join the Men's Meeting, en mass, to discuss such an important
subj ect.15 Some women publicly asserted that they should not have
to ask, but should be invited to join the Men's Yearly Meeting. Apparently, the men became frustrated because they assumed that the women should have only been grateful for their concern; but, to their surprise, they were not. It was recorded by the clerk that the men abruptly left after an unsettling visit.
The visit proved to be more significant than most present would have imagined. When the August issue of The Friend was published it included what was to be the first in a six-month series of polemics, addressing the wider issue of women's position in the Society. The first letter was written by a women named H.P.B. Clark. She stated that the incident at the 1873 Yearly Meeting proved that claims about the advantages women held in the Society were merely a facade. She pointed out the hypocrisy when writing:
A body that recognizes the propriety of women's preaching would allow its female members to unite in its business meetings for business... Many are already painfully conscious of the unreality of their Meetings for Discipline, since the little business they do has been for the most part already done for them in the Men's Meetings... [C]an anyone wonder that the interest in these meetings should decline?I6
She concluded her letter by suggesting that it would be more appropriate to call a meeting to discuss the situation of the lack of status for Quaker women, than about the Society's declining
14 The Friend, (1873), p. 154.
15 Although by the 1870s it was fairly common for individuals or groups of women to visit the Men's Yearly Meeting, I was unable to find any instance prior to the 1873 Yearly Meeting in which women requested to hold a joint session of the Women's and Men's YearlyMeetings.
16 The Friend, (1873), p. 203.
membership.Inreality,itwasverylikelythattheissueswere strongly interrelated.
Clark's letter elicited numerous responses; some were supportive while others were not, but most had something new to add to the debate. The letter most supportive of Clark was written by Mary Waddington. In her letter to the editor, she went beyond Clark's assertion of inconsistency with the organizational rhetoric regarding the Inner Light, and insisted that when "there exists not merely a theoretical mistake, but an active evil in such (an) institution, then the time has come when it needs to be overhauled and ventilated, and made more healthy if it can be."17Waddington also took into account the history of the Women's Yearly Meetings by stating that the lack of power, and therefore interest, in the meetings had been a gradual development over the previous seventy years. She concluded that the only way to reverse the trend of the declining interest and substance of the Women's Meetings was to allow them to serve an actual function within the Society. She ended with an example by stating that before 1803, when the doctrine of Inner Light was paramount, the Women's Yearly Meeting controlled the funds for poor relief, and thus, had more responsibility than it had in 1873. Waddington's sentiment was echoed in another letter that hoped women would someday be able to do more than spend their Yearly Meetings "playing atbusiness."18
Whilemoretentativeinhisadvocacyofwomen'srights, William Pollard authored (it was actually a published lecture) an extensive and methodical article in which he asserted that the position of women must change in order to ensure progress. He thought that the Society of Friends had become stagnant, and withthe issue of women's rights it was not enough "to let well alone."19 Rather, he appealed to progressive impulses to encourage the "acting on the old Quaker belief of Light being given to every man, andevery generation, to profit withal, and building upon those old
17 Ibid., p. 226.
18 Ibid., p. 227.
19 Ibid., p. 337.
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foundations which prophets and apostles and reformers have found sure and safe."20 Specifically, he suggested three points to ensure the expansion of women's roles and their continued participation in the Society. The first was, "Let the liberty granted to women Friends in their corporate capacity be greatly increased," and the second was, "Let women have more real work to do in their meetings - for true work brings the sense of responsibility, and develops interest, and zeal, and strength." The final point was, "Let joint meetings of men and women Friends be regularly held."21 Thus, while his letters were not free of misogynist language, the overall thrust of his argument was advocacy of the expansion of women's opportunities. Pollard supported the Quaker women's agitation for a degree of equality in the Yearly Meetings.
The one letter directly opposing the demands of women for more power and meaningful work was written by a woman who signed her name A.B. She wrote, "I am a woman, and I have no especial liking for being kept down; but I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that woman's place is subordinate to that of man, and that when she claims a right to an equal share. . . she is stepping out of her sphere."22She concluded her letter by appealing to scripture through the often cited biblical passages: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, for I suffer not a woman to speak in the church" (1Timothy 2:11-15), and "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak." (1 Corinthians 14:34-35).
At the 1873 Yearly Meeting women demanded for the first time in their era, the sexual integration of the Quakers' organizational and political element. Significantly, an extensive debate ensued in which a number of Quaker women demanded a complete overhaul of the Society's organization. The criticisms of the women were generally based on biblical scripture asserting the inferiority of women to men, while those who supported women's rights spoke the
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid., p. 338.
22 Ibid., pp. 227-28.