The 26th of the 5th Month, 1666.
In the beginning of this year the members of this society, held a general Yearly-meeting at London, which since that time, hath been used to be held there annually, in the week called Whitsun-week,[39] because at that time of the year it is commonly best travelling, &c. Several are deputed from all places to this meeting, and what concerns the church in general, is there treated on.
[39] It hath since been fixed to be held on the Second-day immediately following the third First-day in the 5th month.
Persecution for religion seemed now to be at a stand, which displeased some of the most rigid sort of churchmen, which we not only have already, but may again in due place demonstrate.
About this time, as I take it, a certain bishop said occasionally, that the Quakers by their unlimited freedom, increased much, and therefore it was very needful to take care of them, seeing they often had much greater assemblies than the national church; ‘For,’ said he, ‘at such a time I preached myself, and there were but a few hearers, when at the same time the Quakers’ meeting just by was crowded full;’ and thereupon he desired them to consider whether it was not high time to stop these sectaries? After he had set forth his matter at large, another lord then present among others, said, that indeed it seemed that the lord bishop had spoken what was very reasonable, that the sectaries had often more hearers than the national church-preachers, and that it was not strange to him that it displeased him, since he took so much upon himself: ‘For,’ said he, ‘his lordship observed, that he preached himself; and the professed Quakers, who had such great assemblies, preached Christ Jesus, and therefore no wonder that they had the more hearers.’ This was such a witty turn upon the bishop, as no doubt made him so sensible as not to think fit to enter upon the debate in a doubtful dispute, for it is observable, this lord’s turn upon the bishop was chiefly to stop him from promoting persecution.
This spring G. Fox travelling to York, went through several other places in the North of England; and although he came near to his old enemy, colonel Kirby, who had a fit of the gout, and had threatened him, yet he passed on unmolested. So he went to Liverpool, whence he, with some of his friends, passed over for Ireland: among others, were Thomas Briggs and John Stubbs; and being arrived at Dublin, he was kindly received by his friends; and journeying into the country, he met with no small opposition from the Papists, of whom there are many there. Being come to a certain place, he challenged the jesuits, priests, and monks, to try whether their god, which they make of a wafer, be an immortal god, but they could not be brought to it; wherefore he said, they were worse than Baal’s priests, for Baal’s priests tried their god. Then he went to Cork, where they had knowledge of his coming, and intended to take him prisoner; for the Quakers in Ireland were many years sharply persecuted, as their brethren were in England, of which to mention all circumstances it would make a very large treatise. At this time there were many prisoners at Cork, among whom was Samuel Thornton, with whom I was well acquainted, who being met with his friends in a chamber one First-day, the officer Quinnal came and shut the door of the room, and locked them in, to the number of eighty persons, and carried the key to the mayor, Matthew Dean, who gave order that there should neither victuals nor drink be carried to them, and they could only get what was pulled up with ropes through the grate, or thrown in through a hole: under this chamber the soldiers were ordered to keep guard, that none might get away, and they made so great a smoke, that many of the prisoners were sick, among whom were some weakly old people, and some women with child, and nurses, who were almost stifled; and complaint thereof being made to the mayor, he answered in a scoffing manner, ‘They are all brethren and sisters, let them lie upon one another; and if they are stifled it is their own fault.’ Thus they were kept twenty-four hours, and afterwards some of them made prisoners.
Solomon Eccles, whom I also knew very well, was this year in prison at Gallaway in Ireland, where he was put, by a strange accident. He was an extraordinary zealous man, and what he judged evil he warmly opposed, even to the hazard of his life. This zeal led him to perform a strange action in a chapel of the Papists without the town; for he went naked above his waist, with a chafing-dish of coals and burning brimstone on his head, and entered the chapel when all the people were on their knees to pray to their idol, and spoke as followeth: ‘Wo to these idolatrous worshippers! God hath sent me this day to warn you, and to show you what will be your portion except you repent.’ Which when he had done, he went away to the town, where he was presently made a prisoner. What the benefit of this strange action might be, I leave.
Amongst the martyrs of the reformed, we find some instances of persons zealous to a strange degree, as of William Gardiner at Lisbon, and Bertrand le Blas at Tournay, whose actions were not less remarkable; for this last, his snatching the host from the priest in their church as they were at mass, was certainly a bold attempt, and not praiseworthy, if it was only an act of human contrivance; but I shall leave the judgment thereof unto God, as I account it safest, and the rather, because under the sharpest punishment they could inflict, they seemed not to shrink, but rather to be strengthened. However so sharp a trial did not fall to Eccles’s portion, and I think it safer not to judge hastily of this uncommon performance. He was, to my knowledge, a bold and undaunted man, and before this action in the chapel, as above, he did something of a like nature at London at the fair-time, amongst the plays, where he suffered much by the coachmen whipping him grievously on his naked back; but that could not lay his fervent zeal, which was kindled not only against the immodest and ungodly carriage of the pretended fools, but also against those other vanities there used. To what height his zeal carried him, the following instance will show: he who had been a member of the church of England, and then went to the Presbyterians, and afterwards among the Independents, and after that was a Baptist, had been an eminent musician, so that by his art he could get near 150l. a-year; but at last being a Quaker, he could not follow for conscience-sake, what he now called his Babylonish trade of music: wherefore he learned to make clothes to get his living by, and sold his musical books and instruments; but, as he declared, he had no peace in his conscience; for observing them to be instruments of vanity, he judged they ought to be destroyed, and therefore bought them again, although they were worth above 20l. and carried them, viz. virginals, fiddles, &c. to Tower-hill, where laying them together, he set fire to them; but when some who were by, endeavoured to hinder him, and to get one of the virginals away, he stamped upon it with his foot, and would not rest until he had destroyed it; and after that he said, he found peace in his conscience, having made an offering of that which he once entirely loved, and in the use of which he was educated; for not only his father and grandfather, but his grandfather’s father had been musicians, and he himself had the name of an eminent music-master.
Another account we have of his strange zeal: when he saw how the Quakers were belied by William Burnet, Jeremy Ives, and Matthew Kiffin, teachers amongst the Baptists, as if they believed not in Christ nor the resurrection, he challenged all the teachers, and priests, and jesuits, openly in a book which he printed, to come to a proof with him, who were the true worshippers; first, to fast seven days and seven nights, and neither to eat nor drink; and then the next seven days not to sleep day nor night; but we may well think that none were to be found to enter the lists with him, nor to put themselves on such a test; and although some reckoned him out of his wits, yet he was not, for I remember the time very well, and had many an opportunity both to see and to hear him speak.
I now return to G. Fox at Cork in Ireland, where they intended to take him, nevertheless they let him go unmolested, although he rode through the market, by the mayor’s door, who not only saw him, but said, ‘There goes G. Fox,’ and yet he let him pass quietly. After he had travelled through many places in Ireland, he came again to Dublin, from whence he returned to England, and coming into Gloucestershire, he heard at Nailsworth of a report which had been spread abroad in the country, that he was turned Presbyterian, and they had prepared a pulpit for him in the open yard, where he was to preach. G. Fox hearing this, thought it very strange, whereupon he went to the place spoken of, where he indeed found a pulpit; but the case was this: a certain Presbyterian preacher, named John Fox, who went preaching about the country, was to preach there, and it seems some had changed his name from John to George, whereupon it was reported that he was turned from being a Quaker, to be a Presbyterian: this begat so great a curiosity in the people, that many went thither to hear this Quaker turned Presbyterian; so this John Fox came to have a great auditory of several hundreds, who would not have went a foot to have heard him, had they known it. Now some hundreds of them hearing afterwards that the real G. Fox was not far off at a meeting, they went thither and were sober and attentive; where they were by him directed to the grace of God in themselves, which would teach them and bring them salvation. And when the meeting was over, some of the people said, they liked George Fox the Quaker’s preaching, better than G. F. the Presbyterian. Not long after this John Fox was complained of in the house of commons, for having a tumultuous meeting, in which treasonable words were spoken. This John Fox had formerly been priest of Marshfield in Gloucestershire, and being put out of that place, was afterwards permitted by a common-prayer priest to preach sometimes in his steeple-house; at length this Presbyterian priest presuming too far upon the parish priest’s former grant, began to be more bold than welcome, and would have preached there whether the priest would or not; which caused a great bustle and contest between the two priests, and their hearers on either side, in which the common-prayer book was cut to pieces, and it is said some treasonable words were then spoken, by some of the followers of this John Fox; which case was quickly put into the newspapers, and some malicious Presbyterians caused it to be so worded as if it had proceeded from G. F. the Quaker, but some members of the house of commons certified it under their hands, that it was John Fox, formerly priest of Marshfield, who was complained of to be the ringleader of that unlawful assembly.