Abstract
On the 28th of July, 1670, a Quaker merchant named John Pennyman halted on the floor of the London Royal Exchange, opened an overflowing bag of books and ordered one of his two porters to fetch a candle. In his own words, So going to the middle of the Exchange, (I bid the Porter pour out the Books) and having put fire to the papers in my hand, with two or three of those News-Books, the man that was sweeping the Exchange was ordered to put it out. . . As a sign from the Lord, Pennyman's act lacked the drama of going naked in the streets2 or dressing in sackcloth and ashes to publicly proclaim the day of the Lord.3 But as a disturbance in the year of the Second Conventicle Act, when the government was endeavoring to suppress seditious gatherings and Quakers were struggling to survive intact, Pennyman's demonstration was sufficiently dramatic to attract attention.
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