Huguenots

Even among Huguenots there were believers who experienced charismatic phenomenon, which took place especially in Southern-France in the Sevennes Mountains where a large number of Huguenots had taken refugee as King Ludwig XIV abolished the edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed religious freedom for the Huguenots for almost one hundred years since 1685. They were known also by the name Camisards, in English religious literature they were known as The French Prophets. The Huguenots experience speaking in tongues, supernatural visions, prophetic messages and other supernatural phenomena.

Extraordinary phenomena happened when even small children prophesied using perfect and fluent French although it was not their mother tongue, adult believers experienced similar phenomenon. A certain woman, who was regarded almost idiotic, preached under the power of the Holy Spirit with such good French that her listeners said: “This ass of Balaam has mouth of gold.”[1]

Quakers

This group emerged in England at about 1650. They called themselves The Friends, but their adversaries, ridiculing them, called them the Quakers (tremblers). The founder of the movement was George Fox (1624 – 1691). The Quakers objected to war and refused to carry arms, they also refused to swearing an oath. Whereas the state church relied on outward ritual and ceremony to rule the people, Fox emphasized response to the indwelling Christ of Scripture. He preached against a professional, salaried ministry and he proclaimed the equality of all people. For these reasons Quakers were persecuted severely, at one point about fifteen thousand of them were held in English prisons.

Charismatic phenomena were common amongst the early Quakers. Fox wrote about several supernatural healings and other miracles in his diary, for instance, his friend John Bank’s right hand was healed miraculously. He felt severe pain from his shoulder to hand so that he was not able to use his arm at all. He had sought help from medical doctors but in vain. When all hope had gone, he had a dream where he had asked Fox to lay his hand on his shoulder and pray for healing. He told Fox his dream and Fox laid his hand on his shoulder and said simply: “The Lord strengthens you both inward and outward.” In the evening as he was having supper with Fox he noticed that he could use his arm and hand properly.[2]

One day Fox stayed over night in a certain Quaker home, there in a cradle was a boy of seven years old who had never walked. Fox suggested that the boy be washed, dressed and brought to him. The Lord told him to lay hands on the boy and speak to him. Fox left soon thereafter but three years later Fox visited at the same house again and received a very enthusiastic reception. He was told that after his departure the parents returned home and found the boy playing in the street.[3]

Fox also had the gift of discerning the spirits. Through this gift he was able to see the inner state of a person.  At the Quaker meetings speaking in tongues was also common.[4]

George Fox met much suffering because of his preaching and use of Charismatic gifts. He was imprisoned eight times, the longest imprisonment lasted two years and eight months during 1664 – 1666. The reason for his imprisonment was his refusal to give an oath of allegiance. Fox’s worst imprisonment was at Launceton, in Cornwall in 1656.  The prison was called Doomsdale, it was a disgusting and stinking place and tt was said that only a few people survived to comeout of Doomsdale.  The prisoners were covered in mud and their excrement was not removed from their cells for years at a time and there was no possibility to wash. Even though prisoners wanted to clean their cells, they were forbidden.[5]

In his book, “The Quakers, Their Story and Message” A. Neave Brayshaw refers to an American professors, Henry J. Cadbury’s, research which says that more than 150 miracles took place through George Fox.  Brayshaw gives an example of how Fox recovered from the cruelty of mob in Ulverston when he was 28 years old. He was beaten unconscious and when he woke he found himself lying in a pool of mud and people standing around him. Fox felt the Lord’s power rush through him and an eternal recreation quickened him so that he was able to stand up in the power of God. A certain stonecutter, a brutal man, hit Fox on his outstretched arm with a terrible blow, but Fox looked at it with God’s love and he felt God’s love towards his adversaries. Soon The Lord’s power rushed through him again and in that moment his hand and arm were healed and his strength returned to him before the eyes of all the people standing around him.[6]

[2] Hyatt 2002, 91, a quote Henry J. Cadbury ed., George Fox’s Book of Miracles. London: Cambridge Press, 1948, 137.

[3] Hyatt 2002, 92, a quote Henry J. Cadbury ed., George Fox’s Book of Miracles. London: Cambridge Press, 1948, 125.

[4] Hyatt 2002, 92, a quote George Fox, The Great Mystery of the Great Unfolded; An AntiChrist’s Kingdom, vol. 3 of The Works of George Fox, 8 vols. New York: AMS Press, 1975, 13.

[5] Trueblood, Elton 1956. The People Called Quakers. Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press, 23 – 24.

[6] Brayshaw, Neave A. 1982. The Quakers, Their Story & Message, York, England: William Sessions Book Trust, 37.