BAPTISTINES (BATTISTINI, BATTISTINE): A
religious order for both sexes, named after its patron saint, John the Baptist. The male branch (Congregatio sacerdotum scecularium missionariorum de S. Johanne Baptista) was founded at Genoa by the pious priest Dominico Francesco Olivieri (d. 1766) and received papal approval from Benedict XIV in 1755. Its special purpose was to perform missionary work, which was carried on in Bulgaria, Rumelia, and China. The female order was instituted by Giovanna Maria Battista Solimani (d. 1758), who established a community at Moneglia (33 m. e.s.e. of Genoa) as early as 1730. Olivieri became their spiritual director. In 1736 they removed to Genoa and in 1744 were confirmed by Benedict XIV under the official name of Hermitesses of St. John the Baptist. Each member took the name Battista, whence arose the popular designation of Battistine. They follo-ed a rigidly ascetic life, marked in particular by strict fasting, and devoted themselves to works of charity. The male Baptistines ceased toward th° end of the eighteenth century, but the female branch continued in Genoa, Rome (where a convent was founded in 1755), and elsewhere in Italy till the middle of the nineteenth century. O. ZbcKLERf.
Bibliography: G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storicoecclesiastica, s.v. Battistce, Rome, 1831-32; Heimbucher. Orden und Kongregationen, ii, 307-308, 375.
Baptists
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Origin of the Name (§ 1). Precursors of the Baptists (§ 2) . . The English Baptists.
1. Rise of the General Baptists. John Smyth and his Congregation
(§ 1).
They Organize a New Church (§ 2).
Smyth Excommunicated by his Church (§3).
Attempts to Join the Mennonites (§4).
Smyth's Declaration of Faith (§ 5).
His Last Utterances (§ 6).
Helwys Returns to London (§ 7).
His Doctrines (§ 8).
Baptist Publications (§ 9).
Further Traces of Baptists in England (§ 10).
2. Rise of the Particular (Calvinistic)
Baptists. Congregations in London (§ 1). Confession of 1044 (§ 2).
3. General Baptists from 1641 On-
ward. Organization and Polity (§ 1). Revival at Barton (§ 2). The New Connection (§ 3). In the Nineteenth Century (§ 4).
4. Particular Baptists from 1644 On-
ward.
To the Restoration (§ 1).
Cooperation and Union (§ 2).
To 1717 (§ 3).
To 1775 (§ 4).
Andrew Fuller. Missionary Enterprise (§ 5).
Baptist Union (§ 6).
BAPTISTS.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (§ 7). The Welsh Baptists (§8). Alexander Carson and the Irish
Baptists (§ 9). Scotch Baptists. The Haldanes (§ 10). II. Baptists in the United States.
1. To 1740.
Roger Williams (§1).
The Providence Church (§ 2).
The Newport Church (§ 3).
Baptists in Massachusetts (§ 4).
In South Carolina (§ 5).
In Virginia, North Carolina, and
Connecticut (§ 6). In New York (§ 7). In the Quaker Colonies (§ 8).
2. From 1740 to 1812.
The Great Awakening (§1).
The Philadelphia Association (§ 2).
Rhode Island College (Brown University) (§ 3).
Southern Associations (§ 4).
Evangelistic Work of Stearns and Marshall (§ 5).
Separate Baptists in Virginia (§ 6).
Baptists and Religious Liberty (§7).
3. From 1812 to the Present Time. Lack of an Educated Ministry (§ 1). Missionary and Educational Work
(§2). Opposition and Difficulties (§3). Theological Seminaries (§ 4). Universities, Colleges, and Schools
(§5). The Home Mission Society (§ 6). The Publication Society (§ 7).
The Southern Baptists (§ 8).
The Baptist Congress and Young People's Union (§ 9).
Colored Baptists (§ 10).
German Baptists (§ 11).
Scandinavian Baptists (§ 12). 4. Minor Baptist Parties in the United States.
(a) Six-Principles Baptists.
(6) Seventh-Day Baptists.
(c) Free-Will Baptists.
id) Original Free-Will Baptists.
(e) General Baptists.
(f) Separate Baptists.
(g) United Baptists.
(h) Primitive ('' Hardshell ") Baptists.
(t) The Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists.
(it) The Baptist Church of Christ. III. Baptists in the British Possessions.
1. The Dominion of Canada. The Maritime Provinces (§1). Ontario and Quebec (§2).
The Northwest and British Columbia (§ 3).
2. Australia, Tasmania, and New Zea-
land.
3. The British West Indies, Central
America, and Africa.
4. India, Ceylon, Burma, and Assam. IV Baptists in Mission Lands.
V. Baptists on the Continent of Europe.
1. Germany and German Missions.
2. Scandinavia.
3. France and Italy.
The use of the term national designation is origin, first appearing Its German equivalent Zwingli and others to
"Baptist" as a denomiof comparatively recent about the year 1644. (Tdufer) was applied by the antipedobaptists of their time, expressing their opinion that the latter laid undue stress on believers' baptism; and the (terms " Anabaptist " and " Katabaptist " (Wiedertdufer and Widertdufer) were used implying repetition and perversion or destruction of the infant baptism that for many centuries had been practised (see Anabaptists). These designations were of course repudiated as opprobrious by antipedobaptists, who were content to call themselves " Christians," " Apostolic Christians," " Brethren," " Disciples of Christ," " Believing Baptized Children of God," etc. Early English antipedobaptists were stigmatized as " Anabaptists," with the worst continental implications, by their opi. Origin of ponents, and were much concerned to the Name, disown this designation. In the earliest Particular (Calvinistic) Baptist confession of faith (1644) the churches concerned designate themselves as " those churches which are commonly (though falsely) called Anabaptists," and in the appendix to the confession (1646) they call themselves " Baptized Believers." In the confession of 1688 Baptist churches are designated " congregations of Christians baptized upon profession of their faith " and " baptized congregations." Other common designations (1654, etc.) are " Baptized Churches," " Baptized Christians," and " Churches of Christ in England, Scotland, and Wales." " Churches of Christ in London," " Churches
of Christ in Ireland," etc., are expressions that occur in documents of 1653-57. As a sort of compromise between " Anabaptists " and " baptized believers," " baptized people," etc., the term " Baptists " was gradually adopted (1670 or earlier). In 1672 it is used in a royal license.
Baptists have always professed to base their doctrine and practise exclusively upon New Testament precept and example. If they have failed to realize their aim, it has been due to imperfect understanding of the New Testament Scriptures or to the imperfection inherent in human nature. Baptists find their spiritual ancestry in all individuals and parties that during the early Christian centuries, the Middle Ages, and the Reformation time, in the spirit of obedience and loyalty to Christ, sought to stay the tide of incoming pagan and Judaizing error, or in times of general apostasy endeavored to restore Christianity to its primitive purity and simplicity. They find rejection of infant baptism and insistence on believers' baptism among the ancient, medieval, and modern Paulicians (Thondraki; see Paulicians), with the common (if not exclusive) practise of immersion and 2. Precur- the most strenuous effort to realize sors of the regenerate membership, which so far
Baptists, identifies them with Baptists; but with their adoptionist Christology and sectarian exclusiveness modern Baptists have little sympathy. In the Petrobrusians of the twelfth century (see Peter op Bruys) Baptists find their principles almost completely embodied, but there is no indication that the former insisted upon immersion as the exclusively valid act of baptism.