Accusations of Blasphemy in English Anti-Quaker Polemic, C. 1660–1701 *

Abstract

This paper investigates the conviction amongst zealous English Protestants, living between 1660 and 1701, that Quakerism constituted a form of blasphemy. Through an analysis of the accusation of blasphemy in anti-Quaker polemic it develops a cultural history of blasphemy as representation, illuminating a spiritual critique of Quakerism as enthusiastic antitrinitarianism and a sense of blas-phemy commensurate with Thomistic theology. In so doing, this paper provides an insight into the contemporary theological anxiety that Quakerism was fundamentally wicked and anti-Christian.