The drastic increase of sanctions in the mid-eighteenth century reflects a religious crisis: at this time, a spirit of renewal took hold of the Society of Friends. Since the 1730s, voices criticizing the spiritual condition of the Society had begun to grow louder on both sides of the Atlantic. This is reflected in the London Yearly Meeting's annual epistles, which from this decade onwards display an increasing uneasiness over the conduct of Friends and the state of ‘Truth’. In 1732 the London Yearly Meeting's epistle lamented that the old way ‘of our holy profession is too much lost among us’. In 1735 the meeting commissioned the first Book of Extracts, consisting of a collection of such passages from its annual epistles as were concerned with Friends’ conduct. This was first published in 1738 and has been updated and republished as the Society of Friends’ Book of Discipline ever since. The London Yearly Meeting's epistles reflect a sense of religious crisis throughout the 1740s and 1750s. As it sent these to quarterly and monthly meetings in the colonies, American Friends became aware of the English Quakers’ concerns, as well. In addition, the London Yearly Meeting sent personalized letters to all American Yearly Meetings, including that of Philadelphia. From the later 1740s onwards, several of these contain appeals to ‘stir up their members so that renewal and reform might take place’.

The most vocal agents for renewal were a set of prominent Friends from Pennsylvania and London. As travelling ministers, they spent years on their respective opposite sides of the Atlantic, visiting over 1000 meetings and connecting with great numbers of Friends throughout the 1740s and 1750s. They reported extravagance, payment of tithes, drunkenness, exogamous marriages and deism. American ministers were shocked at endemic ‘corruption’ among their English brethren. English ministers thought the discipline in Pennsylvania was ‘weak & almost ruined’. Clearly, the Quaker community as a whole was in need of reform. Everywhere they went, these ministers preached discipline, right conduct and the better education of Friends’ children in the ways of Truth. They aimed to return the community to the ‘pure’ state they thought it had enjoyed in its early years.