This is the central testimony of the Religious Society of Friends. Friends the world over are recognized for their peace witness, and they along with the Mennonites and Church of the Brethren, constitute the three Historic Peace Churches.
In the beginning of the Society of Friends the Peace Testimony was not fully developed, but emerged over a period of nearly ten years. Although those who became identified with the Quaker movement often fought in Cromwell's army in the English Civil War, by the time Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 Friends were becoming clear about their commitment to peace. This was reflected in the first corporate statement, which was addressed to the king in 1661. It was a time of persecution of Dissenter groups, including the Friends, and because they were sometimes confused with the Fifth Monarchy Men, who advocated violence, they were often jailed. It was in response to these circumstances that they issued a public statement, which read in part:
We do testify to the world that the Spirit of Christ which leads us into truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdoms of this world.
Because Friends place such emphasis on the dignity and worth of the individual, perhaps best expressed in George Fox's famous phrase,"that of God in everyone", it is commonly assumed today that this forms the cornerstone of the Friends Peace Testimony. Although that claim in itself may be true, it is too simplistic a statement, and it was not where Friends began in the seventeenth century. Again we refer to the work Cecil Hinshaw has done to show that the Friends testimonies were rooted in their search for Christian perfection. He points out that the modern emphasis on the sacredness of the individual was not a major emphasis of early Friends. Commenting on this, he says:
Although Quakers later came to a more absolute position, in the first ten years or so of Quakerism there was not a clear testimony on the matter of taking human life because of the sacredness of such life as the creation of God. Yet, they quite generally refused to fight. The apparent inconsistency is explained when we see it was the violence , the hate, the selfishness inevitably involved in fighting that bothered them. Fox was perhaps even more concerned with what violence did to the one who used it than he was with the results of the violence on the person against whom it was directed. This is apparent in his classic and often-quoted words: "I told them I knew from whence all wars arose, even from the lusts, according to James' doctrine; and that I lived the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars".
A Living Faith, by Wilmer A. Cooper, p.106