This view is, however, far from being shared by all Baptists. The leading Baptist Quarterly of America, The Christian tttview (Jan. 1855, p. 23), remarks as fol- lows : "We know of no assumption more arrogant, and more destitute of proper historic support, than that which claims to be able to trace the distinct and un- broken existence of a church substantially Baptist from the time of the apostles down to our own." Thus also Cutting (Historic Vindications, Boston, 1859, p. 14) remarks on such attempts : " I have little confidence in the results of any attempt of that kind which have met my notice, and I attach little value to inquiries pursued for the predetermined purpose of such a dem- onstration."
The non-Baptist historians of the Christian Church almost unanimously assert that infant baptism was practised from the beginning of Christianity [see Bap- tism], and generally maintain that no organized body holding Baptist principles can be found before the rise of the Anabaptists (q. v.), about 1520. See Pauli- cians: Lollards; Waldenses. Soon after the An- abaptists, Menno (q. v.) renounced the doctrines of the Roman church, and organized (after 153(i) a Baptist denomination, which spread widely, especially in Ger- many and Holland, and still exists. See Menno- nites.
. 2. Great Britain. — Whether and to what extent Bap- tist principles were held in Great Britain before the sixteenth century is still a matter of historic contro- versy. In 1535 Henry VIII ordered sixteen Dutch- men to be put to death for being Anabaptists, and in 1539, 30 persons were exiled because they rejected in- fant baptism. The general pardon of 1550 excepted the Baptists. Elizabeth commanded all Anabaptists to depart out of the kingdom within 21 days. King James refused all concessions to Baptists, as well as to Nonconformists in general. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Mr. Smyth (1610), a leading min- ister among the Baptists, published a work against persecution, but it called forth a new proclamation against the Baptists and their looks, and in 1611, an- other Baptist, Mr. Wightman, was burned. Cromwell protected the Baptists, but they were again persecuted under Charles II and James II. The Toleration Act of William III, 1689, recognised them as the third dissenting denomination. The first Baptist churches were Arminian ; a Calvinistic Baptist church was es- tablished about 1033. In 1640 there were 7 Baptist congregations in London, and about 40 more in the country. Those who held Arminian views received the name General, those who held Calvinistic views,
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the name Particular Baptists. Many General Bap- ' founded in Bhodc Island, with full and entire freedom tists adopted Arianism and Socinianism ; and in 1770, j of conscience. Ehode Island thus became the rirst the orthodox portion seceded, and formed what is Christian stato which ever granted full religious lib- known as the "New Connection of General Baptists." erty. In the other British colonies the persecution Jn 17!»2 William Carey prevailed on the Nottingham against the Baptists continued a long time. Massa- Aasociation to found the Baptist Missionary Society, an chusetts issued laws against them in 1G14, imprisoned event of the utmost importance in the history of the ■ several Baptists in 1651, and banished others in 16G9. Christian church in general, for from it dates the J In 1GS0 the doors of a Baptist meeting-house were awakening of a new zeal in the European and Amer- \ nailed up. In New York laws were issued against lean churches for the conversion of the pagan world, j them in 1G62, in Virginia in 1GG4. With the begin- in 1842 the Baptist Missionary Society reported at its ' ning of the eighteenth century the persecution greatly
"Jubilee" that it had translated the Scriptures, whol- ly or in part, into forty-four languages or dialects of India, and printed, of the Scriptures alone, in foreign languages nearly half a million.
abated. They were released from tithes in 1727 Massachusetts, in 1729 in New Hampshire and Con- necticut, but not before 1785 in Virginia. The spread of their principles was greatly hindered by these per-
Among the earliest writers of the Baptist denomi- j seditions, especially in the South, where in 177G they nation in England were Edward Barker, Samuel Eieh- i counted about 100 societies. After the Revolution ardson, Christopher Blackwood, Hansard Knollys, I they spread with extraordinary rapidity, especially in Francis Cornwell, and in the latter half of the seven- j the South and South-west, and were inferior in this t i nth century, Jeremiah Ives, John Tombes, John , respect only to the Methodists. In 1817 a triennial Norcott, Henry D'Anvers, Benjamin and Elias Reach, general convention was organized, which, however., Edward Hutchinson, Thomas Grantham, Nehemiah has since been discontinued. In 1845 the discussion Cox, D.D., Thomas de Launne, and Dr. Russell Col- , of the slavery question led to a division of the North- lins. But by far the most celebrated of all Baptist ; em and Southern Baptists. The destruction of slav-
writers is John Bunyan. John Milton also is claimed by the Baptists, though not as a member of their de- nomination, at least as a professor of their distinctive principles; for they say he "composed his two most
cry, in consequence of the failure of the Great Rebellion and the adoption of the constitutional amendment in 18G5, led to efforts to reunite the societies of the North- ern and the Southern States. The Northern associa-