The troubled times after the death of Cromwell tried Friends in many ways. The Committee of Public Safety sought to induce them to join the army, many of them having been brave and efficient soldiers before their convincement, but they unanimously refused. Attempts were made to identify them with the Fifth Monarchy men, and other disturbers of the public peace, for they were disliked by almost every one; but the prudence and energy of Fox and others avoided these snares, and gained the confidence of the powers that were.
When Charles II. ascended the throne he proved even more friendly than Cromwell had been. Dr. Stoughton says, "Charles had a sort of liking to the Quakers for their harmlessness and their oddity. He was not afraid of their taking up arms against the throne, and to quiz them in their queer dresses and with their quaint speech, was to him a piece of good fun." It suited the merry Monarch to have pretty Quakeresses like Sarah Fell coming with their petitions, enduring his bantering demurely, and going away delighted with the clemency he so often showed. In 1666 he granted the release of George Fox from the sentence of premunire. He had once before set him at liberty, only to fall again into the clutches of the law. In March, 1664, Fox had been brought before Justice Twisden, and after a sham trial that was an outrage on both law and humanity, the extreme sentence of the law in such cases, the sentence of premunire, was passed, and he languished in Lancaster gaol and Scarborough Castle for nearly three years. But at last the royal ear was gained, and Fox, ill with hard treatment in the foul cells at Scarborough, was restored to his liberty, his property, and his civil rights. In prison he had been busy writing in exposition of the views of Friends. After his release, for some time he was principally engaged in modelling the discipline and church government of the Society.
Before passing on to consider the organisation of the Quaker community into a compact and well regulated church, we must notice their conduct in the question of marriage. "Marriage," said Fox, "is God's ordinance," believing literally the common saying that marriages are made in heaven. But the solemn compact ought to be publicly ratified, and what more fitting than that public worship should attend that celebration. If Fox denied that ministers could marry, if he insisted that the ceremony should consist simply of a mutual pledge publicly given, he was very careful that all should be done in good order. The marriage customs which obtain amongst Quakers to-day represent his views. The young people must show that they are clear of other marriage engagements, and have the consent of their parents or guardians to their union. Sufficient public notice must be given of the coming event, so as to prevent all scandal and disorder. Then the marriage is celebrated during a week-day service. In the early days of the Society the publication of the intended marriage was no easy matter. "Many a joke must have passed through the merry crowd, when, from the market-cross of a country town, the expecting bridegroom proclaimed his forthcoming nuptials--but no arrangements of a loose or evasive character, would have saved the marriages of Friends from the double brand of public opinion and of national law." In 1661 the legality of Quaker marriages was tested in Nottingham before Justice Archer, and the point was forever set at rest.