«Io effonderò il mio spirito sopra ogni persona; i vostri figli e le vostre figlie profeteranno». Lo spirito profetico delle prime donne quacchere

[“I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” The prophetic spirit of the first Quaker Women]. The period of the Civil Wars and Interregnum witnessed an extraordinary moment of religious freedom in England. In those years many women played an active role in the preaching of radical groups, and in first place among Baptists, Quakers and Fifth Monarchists; many were engaged in proselytizing. Some Quakers went beyond the English Channel to spread the doctrine of the Light within. Women’s different prophetic experiences in the different religious groups closely intertwined with the British tumultuous political events of those years. Even a cursory examination of the many available sources, books, pamphlets, autobiographical texts, letters and court documents, demonstrate the extraordinary richness and interest of the prophecy of early modern British women.