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Pre-Reformation Period Roman Catholics ¡@ Gnostics c. 200 ¡@ Coptic Church 425 ¡@ Eastern Orthodoxy 1054 ¡@ Waldensians 1173 Peter Waldo ¡@ Lollards c. 1379 John Wycliffe ¡@ Hussites 1415
Sixteenth Century Lutheranism 1517 Martin Luther
Anabaptism 1521
Scandinavian Lutherans Christian II
Zwinglianism 1523 Huldreich Zwingli
Anglicanism 1534 Henry VIII/Bishop Cranmer
Mennonites c. 1536 Menna Simons
Calvinism 1536 John Calvin ¡@ German Reformed Church c. 1540s ¡@ Hungarian Reformed Church c. 1550s
French Calvinists (Huguenots) ¡@ Scottish Presbyterians c. 1560 John Knox ¡@ Congregationalism (Puritans) ¡@ Dutch Reformed Church c. 1570s
Seventeenth Century English Baptists c. 1606 John Smyth ¡@ Quakers 1647 George Fox Founding his opinions on isolated texts, he gradually evolved a system at variance with every existing form of Christianity. His central dogma was that of the "inner light", communicated directly to the individual soul by Christ "who enlightenth every man that cometh into the world". To walk in this light and obey the voice of Christ speaking within the soul was to Fox the supreme and sole duty of man. Creeds and churches, councils, rites, and sacraments were discarded as outward things. Even the Scriptures were to be interpreted by the inner light. This was surely carrying the Protestant doctrine of private judgment to its ultimate logical conclusion. Inconvenient passages of Holy Writ, such as those establishing Baptism and the Eucharist, were expounded by Fox in an allegorical sense; whilst other passages were insisted upon with a literalness before unknown. Thus, from the text "Swear not at all", he drew the illicitness of oaths, even when demanded by the magistrate. Titles of honour, salutations, and all similar things conducive to vanity, such as doffing the hat or "scraping with the leg", were to be avoided even in the presence of the king. War, even if defensive, was declared unlawful. Art, music, drama, field-sports, and dancing were rejected as unbecoming the gravity of a Christian. As for attire, he pleaded for that simplicity of dress and absence of ornament which later became the most striking peculiarity of his followers. There was no room in his system for the ordained and salaried clergy of other religions, Fox proclaiming that every man, woman or child, when moved by the Spirit, had an equal right to prophesy and give testimony for the edification of the brethren. Two conclusions, with disagreeable consequence to the early Friends, were drawn from this rejection of a "priesthood"; the first was, that they refused to pay tithes or church rates; the second, that they celebrated marriage among themselves, without calling in the services of the legally appointed minister. Impelled by frequent "revelations", Fox began Amish c. 1690 Jacob Ammon
Eighteenth Century Moravians c. 1722 Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf ¡@ Methodism 1739 John Wesley ¡@ Shakers 1776 Ann Lee ¡@ Protestant Episcopal Church 1785 ¡@ Swedenborgians 1789 Emanuel Swedenborg
Nineteenth Century United Brethren in Christ 1800 Philip Otterbein ¡@ Evangelical Association 1807 Jacob Albright ¡@ Unitarianism USA 1819 William Ellery Channing ¡@ Christian Churches 1827 Barton V. Stone ¡@ Disciples of Christ 1831 Thomas Campbell ¡@ Anglo-Catholicism 1833 ¡@ Seventh Day Adventists 1863 ¡@ Salvation Army 1865 William Booth ¡@ Christian Science 1879 Mary Baker Eddy |
