than any other, carried to its logical conclusi great principle that it is the right of every man God's truth in the Scriptures, and mould his accordance with that truth as he sees it. Wh great heroes of the Reformation found it exped put limitations on that principle, the men called baptists clung to it still, and, harried from land t beset with reproachful names, forced to shoul the crimes of misguided fanatics attached to the of their movement, carried their faith into corners of Europe. The salient feature of tha was the principle that a church, according to Scr is a voluntary association of believers, with organization and support the state has nothing and over whose belief and worship no civil pow jurisdiction. The name Anabaptist, applied as of reproach, arose out of their contention t Scripture, baptism was the sign of admission i community of believers, and that consequently baptism was without validity. All the great of the Anabaptists were apostles of religious to and many held that no Christian should be a mag engage in warfare, take an oath, or go to law. number developed pronounced millenarian vie fused to acknowledge the existing magistra advocated the establishment of Christ's king force. It was the attempt of this faction to ca its views in the city of Münster that brought m credit on the Anabaptists than any other event history, and the excesses there indulged in were forth very generally ascribed to all opponents o baptism. The term Anabaptism, in the sixtee seventeenth centuries, represented to the avera

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but those upheld by Knipperdoling and John of L in their short-lived Westphalian kingdom. Y credit of these latter had collapsed with their of power, while the disciples of the former carried faith down the centuries.1

The Anabaptists of Holland were the spiritual fathers of the English Baptists. Although sca persons in England, from Reformation days on the distinctive tenets of the Continental Anaba there is no record of any permanent congregati fore the early years of the seventeenth century. first group of English Baptists were dissenters the English Separatist church in Amsterdam. had fallen under the influence of the Mennonites and from their adoption of the belief in univer demption came to be known as General Ba Members of this group, settling in London, form first permanent Baptist church in England in Their ideas spread, and by 1626 there were a three General Baptist churches in London, and in Lincoln, Sarum, Coventry, and Tiverton.3

The second group of Baptists, who held Calv views and were consequently known as Particula

1 The subject is fully treated in Keller, Geschichte der Wied See also Lindsay, Reformation, II, 430 ff., and the last edition zog's Realencyclopädie.

2 For the sufferings of these early Baptists, see Crosby, Engi tists, I, 33 ff.; Tracts on Liberty of Conscience (Hanserd Knoll Introduction; Heath, "The Anabaptists and their English Desce in Contemporary Review, LIX (1891), 392 ff.

3 Crosby, English Baptists, I, 68 ff.; Barclay, Inner Life of t ious Societies of the Commonwealth, 95 ff.; Whitley, ed., Minut General Assembly of the General Baptist Churches, 1654-1728, 1

tists, had their origin in a secession from the Independent church founded in Southwark by Henry Jacob, formerly pastor of an English congregation in Zeeland. The seceders opposed the recognition of the English parish churches as true churches, because they were not formed in accordance with the voluntary principle, and some of them had come to disbelieve in the baptism of infants. The new church was organized under the leadership of John Spilsbury in 1633. Five years later William Kiffin and other seceders from Jacob's church joined their congregation, which afterward split into two equal parts, one under the leadership of Praise-God Barbone, the other under that of Henry Jessey. Hanserd Knollys, a Cambridge man who had spent some time in New England, was for a time a member of Jessey's church, but in 1644 he organized a congregation of his own. In this way the movement spread, until eleven years later there were seven of these Particular Baptist churches in London, and forty-seven in other parts of England.*

On account of their doctrinal differences, there was practically no communication between the Particular and the General Baptists. Their organization and customs were, however, very similar, although the General Baptists seem to have retained more of the distinctive customs of the Continental Anabaptists. The congregations of each group were individually independent in government, but gave one another advice and encouragement by means of messengers, and held general meetings at stated intervals to discuss

4 The existing records of the early London churches are to be found

bers, and in the case of a large number of ch female members also, were allowed "liberty of sying ", that is, of saying during the services wh they believed themselves inspired of God t Officers were elected by the votes of the entire gation. Any member might be chosen as deac only those who were thought to possess specia were elected to eldership, as it was the elde exercised pastoral duties. The belief that no education was necessary as a preparation for th of the ministry led to actual denunciation of education by some preachers, and gave rise to th ion that the Baptists were opposed to learning the universities. Moreover, the fact that the m preached on Sundays frequently worked the the week as saddlers, glovers, felt-makers, and t brought upon them the scorn of the Church of E clergy and the Presbyterians. Their unpopula

5 The Free Will Baptists and the Seventh Day Baptists later separate organizations, but their numbers were inconsidera apostle of church unity wrote in 1653: "The baptized Chu subdivided into three parts, one Church is for free will, a secon versal Redemption, a third count themselves more Orthodox in as the Church of England. Neither of these three baptized Chu communicate one with another." Erbery, The Sword Doubled son).

• For Baptist views on education, see below, pp. 36-37. For th of women in the churches, see Register Book of the Lothbur (Rawlinson MSS., D 828), fol. 28; Barclay, op. cit., 156; Gangraena, 1646, 29. The preaching of women gave rise to and no little ridicule. See Masson, Milton, III, 149, 189. 7 Edwards, Gangraena, 33 ff. An attack on the Baptists pul 1645 has the following: Q. 'Who are your preachers and they?' A. 'There are divers: viz., Mr. Patience, an honest Gl Griffin, a reverend Taylor, Mr. Knowles, a learned Scholler, Mr a renowned cobler, Mr. Barber, a Button maker, and divers The Anabaptists Catechisme (Thomason).

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this score, as well as on account of their separ was shared by the Independents, but their insister adult baptism, and the survival of extravagant about the Continental Anabaptists, laid them op especial bitterness of attack, and there is no index of the spread of Baptist doctrines than the ber and violence of the publications which not on posed Baptist tenets, but, reviving the stori Münster, represented Baptists as enemies of s and of the state.

The churches responded to the reproaches cast them by the publication of confessions of their The earliest of these had been put forth by the G Baptists in the year that they left Amsterdam. clared the church of Christ to be the company faithful, set apart by baptism, and organized in independent congregations. It stated that magi was an ordinance of God, "that it is a fearful th speak evil of them that are in dignity, and to d government", that church members might be n trates, and that oaths in a just cause might be lav taken. In 1644 the seven Particular Baptist chu in London issued a confession. In its doctrinal p it showed Calvinistic views as opposed to the Arm ism of the General Baptist confession, but like th ter it asserted that the company of baptized bel was Christ's kingdom on earth, that magistracy w

"I am afraid that Anabaptisme is very rife in England, tho perhaps in one entire body, but scattered... here one tenet. there another: yet not so scattered but they meet in one head, whic hatred of all rule." A Short History of the Anabaptists of H Low Germany, 1642 (Thomason). Cf. A Warning for England the famous History of the frantick Anabaptists, 1642; Harleian lany, VII, 382; Featley, The Dippers Dipt, 1645; Edwards, Gan Baillie, Anabaptism, 1646.

Confessions of Faith (Hanserd Knollys Soc.), 3 ff.