THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and their associates after their repatriation. In 1614 a zealous, clear-headed antipedobaptist, Leonard Busher by name, addressed to King James and the High Court of Parliament a treatise entitled Religious Peace : or A Plea for Liberty of Conscience, the first work on the subject published in English. Among the more striking sentences are the following: " It is not only unmerciful, but unnatural and abominable; yea, monstrous for one Christian to vex and destroy another for difference and questions of religion." " I do affirm, that through the unlawful weed-hook of persecution, which your predecessors have used, and by your majesty and parliament is still continued, there is such a quantity of wheat plucked up, and such a multitude of tares left behind, that the wheat which remains can not yet appear in any
^ubHca!* right visible congregation-" "With tions " Scripture, and not with fire and
sword, your majesty's bishops and ministers ought to be armed and weaponed." Having shown that even in the Old Testament time " the Lord would not have his offerings by constraint," he proceeds: " So now in the time of the gospel, he will not have the people constrained, but as many as receive the word gladly, they are to be added to the church by baptism. And therefore Christ commanded his disciples to teach all nations and baptize them; that is, to preach the word of salvation to every creature of all sorts of nations, that are worthy and willing to receive it. And such as willingly and gladly receive it, he hath commanded to be baptized in the water, that is, dipped for dead in the water." The last sentence would seem clearly to identify Busher with the Baptists as regards his conception of the subjects and mode of baptism; but whether he was a member of the little Helwys company or a disconnected antipedobaptist we are not informed. The following year (1615) there was published Objections answered by way of Dialogue, wherein is proved that no man ought to be persecuted for his religion, so he test i fie his allegiance by the Oath, appointed by Law, By Christ's unworthy Witnesses, His Majesty's faithful Subjects : Commonly (but most falsely) called Anabaptists This somewhat elaborate and thoroughgoing plea for liberty of conscience proceeded from the Helwys company and has been attributed to John Murton, as has also A Most Humble Supplication of many of the King's Majesty's Most Loyal Subjects who are persecuted (only for differing in religion), contrary to divine and human testimonies (1620). According to an early tradition recorded by Roger Williams, the latter treatise was written with milk brought daily in a bottle with a fresh sheet of paper each day rolled up for a stopper and the written sheet returned as stopper of the empty bottle to be deciphered by a friend
Helwys seems to have died a few years after returning to England. Murton was thenceforth leader of the party. By 1624 or 1626, as is learned from correspondence of members of Murton's connection with the Mennonites of Amsterdam preserved in the archives of the latter (B. Evans, Early English Baptists, ii, London, 1802, pp. 21-22), there were, besides the congregation at Newgate, Lon-
don, small congregations at Lincoln, Tiverton, Salisbury, and Coventry, aggregating about 150 members. Differences had by this time arisen among the brethren and a minority, led by Elias Tookey, had been excommunicated. Both sides sought the moral support and the fellowship of the Amsterdam Mennonite church. As usual, the Mennonite brethren were extremely cautious, and required to be accurately informed on many points before committing themselves to either party. Tookey failed to satisfy the Mennonites on a number of points: he and his party thought it right to celebrate the Supper in the absence of an ordained minister; were not willing to refuse oaths or military service; while none of them denied the deity of Christ, there was difference of opinion as to what was involved in his deity. They wished the Mennonites to write to Murton and his friends on their behalf " in order to augment peace and welfare.'' In 1626 two commissioners from the five churches of Murton's connection visited the Mennonites of Amsterdam with a view to fellowship. These also were disposed to defend oaths as almost necessary at the time in England and to insist that Christ had his flesh from Mary. Against the 10. Further practise of the Mennonites they were races o strongly inclined to perpetuate the
Ens-land weekly celebration of the Supper. They acknowledge that the ministering of the sacraments is inseparably united with the ministering of the word, but insist that without ordination servants of the church may " preach, convert, baptize, and perform other public actions with the consent of the church, when the bishops are not present." They crave the indulgence of their Dutch brethren in a difference of opinion regarding the right of a Christian to exercise magistracy. They insist upon the right of Christians to bear arms for national and local defense. The Mennonites treated both parties kindly but refused to enter into organic union with either. Two letters addressed to the Mennonites in 1630- 31, the one by the church at Lincoln, the other by that at Tiverton, in answer to letters of reproof occasioned by their overreadiness to exercise severe discipline even to the wasting and scattering of their constituencies, turn the tables upon their somewhat patronizing counselors, justify their efforts to purge themselves of evil by abundant citation of Scripture, rebuke the Mennonites for their laxity, which if they had known before they applied for union (1626) they would first have sought to reform, and blame them for refusing union on grounds that can not be shown to be Scriptural. One of the matters of complaint was that the English antipedobaptists disciplined members for attending the services of the Established Church. There is no indication of difference of opinion respecting the act of baptism.
John Murton seems to have died about 1630, when his widow returned to Amsterdam and united with the Mennonite church.
Somewhat vague traditions of the existence of Baptist churches about this time (in some cases considerably earlier) at Stony Stratford, Ashford, Biddenden, Eyethorne, Hill Cliffe, Booking, Canter-