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The use of the name “Quaker” at the end of the 17th century in France
Royston, Michael G
The use of the name “Quaker” at the end of the 17th century in France / michael
royston. - 2002. - 1 p.. - Letter to Friends in France
LINK : http://www.swiss-quakers.ch/ge/library/e-documents/7955-RoystonQuakerFrance.pdf
Society of Friends - History - France / Couflaïres
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The Use of the name “Quaker” at the end of the 17th century in France.
In his book, “Chronique de la Vie Quaker Française, 1745-1945”, Henry van Etten on p. 29,
footnote 2, suggests that the famous ”Copie d’une Lettre Ecritte le 7: Janvier 1703 par les
fanatiques du Languedoc surnommé Quakers. aux Protestants revoltés ou Camisars des
Cevennes”, “a été certainement faite de nombreuses années après par un Ami languedocien,
car en 1703 les “Inspirés” ne connaissaient pas encore les Quakers d’Angleterre, et par
conséquent le terme lui-même de “Quaker””.
Even if the body of the text was dictated by a Couflaïre, even, and particularly, by Daniel
Raoul, when he was in prison and undergoing torture, the production of the “Letter” and its
use as an anti-Camisard document was not the work of the Couflaïres but of the French
authorities who were persecuting the Camisards and indeed all Protestants.
The question therefore is not whether the Couflaïres knew of, or used, the term “Quaker”, but
whether the French authorities in 1703 knew, and used, the term and what they meant by it.
From his study, “The Quakers Seen by the French Travellers in the Eighteenth
Century”, Memoire de Diplome d’Etudes Supérieures d’Anglais, Faculté de Lettres et
Sciences Humaines, Université de Paris, 1967. (Available from the Meeting Library, Geneva.)
Pierre Gauthier makes it quite clear that the French authorities were very well aware of the
Quakers from 1656 onwards, and that from that year onwards, the term Quaker became
more and more associated in the French mind with fanaticism. In fact after citing many
examples of Quaker “fanaticism” as reported by various French writers at the end of the 17th
century he concludes not only that the terms “Quaker” and “Fanatic” became synonymous,
but that “the name (Quaker) was often used in reference to extreme fanaticism only”. In fact
Bougeau’s play, “Les Quakers Français ou les Nouveaux Trembleurs”, which was
produced early in the XVIIIth century, was all about fanatics and “convulsionaires”, but, apart
from the title, there was no other mention of Quakers or Quakerism in it at all!
Hence the conjunction of the words “Fanatics” and “Quakers” in the title of the Letter of 1703
is clear. It does not refer to Quakers qua Quakers, but as a term of abuse referring to
extreme fanatics in general, and in this case to the Couflaïres and Daniel Raoul, in particular.
In fact this sheds a totally new light on the “Précis des Nottes sur les Amis de Congénies et
de Saint-Gilles L.L.L. appellés par le monde Quakers ou Fanatiques”, which is cited at length
in Van Etten’s book on pp. 290,291, and which might be taken to mean that he (van Etten) is
suggesting either that Quakers were present in Congénies and Saint-Gilles at least since
1698, or that these Notes written long after the event were intended to be misleading.
In fact it means neither. It simply means that “Les Amis de Congénies et Saint-Gilles” were
Couflaïres, i.e. fanatics and in common parlance bore the label “Quakers”, but without being
Members of, or knowing anything about, the Society of Friends or Quakers in any sense we
would recognise today, except for the fact that by inclination they were of course cryptoQuakers and that 85 years after the famous “Letter”, by a totally different route, they entered
officially into the family of the Society of Friends.
So twice, once in England and now once in France, what started as a term of abuse,
became an official name, Quaker.
michael royston, founex, november 2002.