ote, "I
had an opening of joy as to these parts in the year 1661 at Oxford." And
with America and the Quakers, in spite of a brief youthful experience as
a soldier and a courtier, William Penn's life, as well as his fame, is
indissolubly linked.

Quakerism was one of the many religious sects born in the seventeenth
century under the influence of Puritan thought. The foundation principle
of the Reformation, the right of private judgment, the Quakers carried
out to its logical conclusion; but they were people whose minds had
so long been suppressed and terrorized that, once free, they rushed to
extremes. They shocked and horrified even the most advanced Reformation
sects by rejecting Baptism, the doctrine of the Trinity, and all
sacraments, forms, and ceremonies. They represented, on their best
side, the most vigorous effort of the Reformation to return to the
spirituality and the simplicity of the early Christians. But their
intense spirituality, pathetic often in its extreme manifestations,
was not wholly concerned with another world. Their humane ideas and
philanthropic methods, such as the abolition of slavery, and the reform
of prisons and of charitable institutions, came in time to be accepted
as fundamental practical social principles.

The tendencies of which Quakerism formed only one manifestation appeared
outside of England, in Italy, in France, and especially in Germany. The
fundamental Quaker idea of "quietism," as it was called, or peaceful,
silent contemplation as a spiritual form of worship and as a development
of moral consciousness, was very widespread at the close of the
Reformation and even began to be practiced in the Roman Catholic Church
until it was stopped by the Jesuits. The most extreme of the English
Quakers, however, gave way to such extravagances of conduct as trembling
when they preached (whence their name), preaching openly in the
streets and fields--a horrible thing at that time--interrupting other
congregations, and appearing naked as a sign and warning. They gave
offense by refusing to remove their hats in public and by applying to
all alike the words "thee" and "thou," a form of address hitherto used
only to servants and inferiors. Worst of all, the Quakers refused to
pay tithes or taxes to support the Church of England. As a result, the
loathsome jails of the day were soon filled with these objectors, and
their property melted away in fines. This contumacy and their street
meetings, r