From  his  twelfth  year  employed  by  a  shoemaker  and
shepherd,  his  youth  was  passed  in  inward  struggles,  and
in  his  nineteenth  year  he  began  to  denounce  the  clergy  of
the  Church  for  selling  the  word.  Abandoning  his  earthly
calling,  clothed  in  leather,  amid  hardships,  perils,  and
persecutions,  as  "  a  man  of  sorrows  "  he  moved  about  the
country  preaching  his  own  doctrines — "  Christ  in  us,"  "  the
Unction  from  above,"  and  "  the  Inner  Light."  In  six  years
he  had  gathered  companions  around  him,  in  spite  of  all
attempts  to  suppress  the  movement.  Three  years  later  he
found  a  home  in  the  Manor  of  Swarthmoor ;  and  here  was
founded  the  community,  nicknamed  Quakers,  calling  itself
the  Society  of  Friends.  He  employed  his  frequent  im-
prisonments for  writing,  and  so  continued  to  influence  the
movement.  In  its  interests,  too,  he  visited  North  America,
the  West  Indies,  and  Germany.  His  mysticism  retained  a
Christian  character,  but  was  not  altogether  free  of  fanaticism.
To  regard  him,  however,  as  only  affording  an  interesting
object  of  study  in  religious  pathology  would  be  to  mis-
understand him.     With  all  his  eccentricity,  he   must  be

1  Quoted  by  Brown,  p.  177.
THE   ANGLICAN   AND   THE   PURITAN  161

regarded  as  "  a  man  of  the  spirit "  raised  up  for  a  work
needing  to  be  done.
III.
