Check.Church

Religious Society of Friends

Friends (Quakers) · 1647–1652 · England; Pennsylvania; worldwide

George Fox and the Friends held that Christ speaks directly to each believer by the inward light, without ordained clergy or outward sacraments; fiercely persecuted, they became a permanent stream of English and American Dissent.

Religious Society of Friends was formed between 1647 and 1652, as a process rather than a single event. Religious Society of Friends continues today. Religious Society of Friends's institutional line runs back through Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.

Between the post-apostolic church and Religious Society of Friends stand 3 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed
Between 1647 and 1652, as a process rather than a single event
Family
Friends (Quakers)
Region
England; Pennsylvania; worldwide
Key figures
George Fox, Margaret Fell, William Penn
Cause tags
Doctrine
Also known as
Quakers; Friends

What it separated from

  • Separated from Church of England. Emerged from the Puritan/Seeker milieu of the Civil War years rather than by expulsion from any one body.

On the tree

Religious Society of Friends and its institutional line back to the post-apostolic churchAD 33The church at Pentecost: On divine groundThe church at Pentecost: on divine groundtoday100424431451105415341647The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchDepartureChurch of the East (Church of the East)Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchDepartureThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchDepartureOriental Orthodoxy (Oriental Orthodox)Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxEastern Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodox)Eastern OrthodoxyEastern OrthodoxRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismNot gatheredChurch of England (Anglican)Church of EnglandAnglicanReligious Society of Friends (Friends (Quakers))Religious Society ofFriendsFriends (Quakers)

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2. Dashed gray boxes mark the institutional line after the apostles, shown as departure; no line of descent is drawn from Pentecost. A verdict appears on a box once its section is published.

Sources

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-31.