Controversy between Puritans and Quakers to 1660

Abstract

The Quaker-Puritan controversy began as soon as George Fox started preaching, in 1647, but the major part of the polemical writings date from 1653. All of the early Quaker leaders were engaged In the disputes, and all but the radical left wing of Puritan thought is represented. Host of the anti-Quaker writers can he classified as Congregationalists, Baptists, or Presbyterians. The basic Issues under dispute centered on theological and ecclesiological differences, but these were complicated by political and social conflicts. The Quaker refusal to pay tithes, to take oaths, or to give magistrates and others the customary tokens of respect, caused the Qua leers to be frequently regarded as enemies to the State.