BackContentsNext

BAPTISTERY

Early Baptisteries.

A building or a portion of a church used for administering baptism. The history and institution of baptisteries is naturally connected with the development of the baptismal form. Immersion, which was customary in the ancient Church, required a basin of the requisite depth, and the custom of solemn seasons for baptism made necessary a considerable space for the reception of the numerous neophytes. The atrium and impluvium of the antique dwelling, in which divine service was held for nearly two centuries (see ARCHITECTURE, ECCLESIASTICAL, I, § 2), appeared first of all as fit for it and were used in the beginning for the performance of the rite (cf. Schultze, p. 51). The neophyte, after having received baptism, was led from the atrium to the congregation assembled in the adjoining space. But when the atrium became merely the vestibule of the basilica, being an open court besides, buildings were erected as early as the fourth century exclusively for the administration of baptism (Gk. baptisteria, photisteria, Lat. fontes, fortes baptisterii). As a rule these buildings were near the choir (as in St. Sophia in Constantinople, and the baptisterium of the Lateran basilica,), or toward the west (orthodox baptisterium at Ravenna), or on the west-front (Grado, Parenzo). Sometimes a location in the immediate neighborhood of the church was not considered necessary or could not be obtained from local reasons (Arian baptisterium at Ravenna). An open or covered gallery often connected the two buildings (Torcello, Aquileia, and elsewhere).

Form and Structure.

Baptisteries are almost exclusively buildings with central arrangement of circular or polygonal plan; the rectangular form is race. The walls were supplied with recesses, or a lower passage-way surrounded an elevated centred structure supported by columns and roofed with a dome. The development of the baptismal rite from the fourth century and practical considerations in general necessitated the addition of other rooms, as a vestibule (Gk. proaulios oikos, estuteros oikos, Lat. atrium; Lateran Nocera), a dressing-room, and more especially, a school-room (Gk. katechoumenon). In such rooms

455

episcopal meetings were occasionally held. An apse or complete choir was also sometimes supplied. In the center of the baptistery was the basin (Gk. kolymbethra, Lat. piscina, fons), polygonal or circular, seldom cruciform, and artifically supplied with water (cf. J. von Schlosser, Schriftquellen zur Kunstgeschichte der Karolingerzeit, Vienna, 1892, no. 232). Low, ornamented barriers surrounded it, with openings for going down and coming up. Three steps-symbolically referring to the holy Trinity, in the name of which the baptism was performed-led down and up (gradus descensionis, and ascensionis). Curtains covered the basin and seats stood along the walls. The arts were employed chiefly in the mosaic decorations of the dome, but reliefs in stucco, marble ornamentation, and artistic pavements were also used. As subjects for pictorial representation the baptism of Christ and the hart panting after the water brooks (Ps. xlii, 1), representing the longing after baptism, commended themselves (cf. Schultze, pp. 205 sqq., 228 sqq., 240-241). Inscriptions were "not lacking, telling of the purpose of the building and the blessingof the baptismal grave" (Holtzinger, pp. 219220; Schlosser, u.s., no. 910).

Superseded by Baptismal Fonts.
Most of the extant baptisteries of early Christian time (which were freely dedicated to John the Baptist) are in Italy (cf. O. Mothes, Die Baukunst des Mittelalters in Italien, i, Jena, 1882, 125 sqq.). In the East some samples have recently been discovered and more may be looked for. In general the number was limited, since the right of baptism was connected with the episcopal churches (ecclesiae baptismales), and was only gradually granted to the parochial churches. The discontinuance of the baptism of adults was not in itself a reason for the abolition of baptisteries; only the inner arrangement, as the form of the basin, was influenced thereby. However, for practical reasons, the tendency grew stronger to substitute for the detached building an addition, or rather a separate room in the church itself; during the Middle Ages the detached buildings became exceptional. In these baptismal chapels the font or basin took the place of the piscina. In the old plan of St. Gall belonging to the ninth century, the christening-font is already in the interior of the church (F. Keller, Bauriss des Klosters von St. Gallen, Zurich, 1884, plan and p. 18). Immersion, which was still customary during the Middle Ages, required a large basin (cf. the instructive illustrations from the ninth century in J. Strzygowski, Iconographic der Taute Christi, Munich, 1885, plate viii, 4-7). The material was generally stone, but sometimes bronze or brass. The round or polygonal form may perhaps be looked upon as a survival of the antique piscina. As the latter was adorned by art, so also ornamentations and figurative representations are found on the outside of the baptismal fonts, such as the apostles executing the baptismal command of Christ and the baptism of Jesus. Sometimes the four rivers of Eden personified or lions served as supports; in Liege there were oxen, an imitation of the molten sea in the court of the priests of Solomon's temple. In the Gothic period the broad, massive form of the older time becomes more slender, and the architectural ornamentations occupy a larger space. Connected with the Roman Catholic rite of consecrating the baptismal water is the use of a covering, which in its artistic shaping is in harmony with the whole, and often develops into a high superstructure. In the Middle Ages enactments were passed by the Church concerning the material and other matters (Rituals romanum, de sacramento baptismatis, 30; cf. V. Thalhofer, Handbuch der katholischen Liturgik, i, Freiburg, 1883, 816 sqq.). When immersion ceased to be practised in the Roman Church the baptismal fonts became smaller. The Protestant Church knows of no consecration of the baptismal water. In order to connect as closely as possible the two sacraments which were recognized, the baptismal font was at first placed near the altar,-a custom which in modern times has rightly been increasingly disregarded. As to baptism and baptisteries in the catacombs, nothing can be positively asserted, and all probability is against it. The water reservoirs which are spo radically found there, have no connection with baptism. VICTOR SCHULTZE.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
H. Holtsinger, Handbuch der altchristlichen Architektur. Form, Einrichtung and Ausechmuckung der altchriatlichen Kirchen, Baptisterien ..., Stuttgart, 1889; Bingham, Origines, book viu,chap.vii, if 1-4; E.Martkne, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus, pp. i,135,153, Antwerp, 1736; DCA, i,173-178; F. X. Kraus, Real-Encyklopadie der christichen Alterthumer, art. Taufkirche, vol. ii, Freiburg, 1880-86; H. Otte, Handbuch der kirdlichen Kunstarchaologie des deutschen Mittelalters, ii, 303 sqq., Leipsic, 1883; V. Schultze, Archaologie der altchristlichen Kunst, pp. 75 sqq., 92 eqq., Munich, 1895; T. Besudoire, Genese de la cryptographie apostolique et de l'architechsre rituelle du premier au sixieme siecle. Baptistere, basiliques ..., Paris, 1903.

BAPTISTINES (BATTISTM,, BATTISTINE): A religious order for both sexes, named after its patron saint, John the Baptist. The male branch (Congregatio sacerdotum saecularium 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. ex.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 followed a rigidly ascetic life, marked in particular by strict fasting, and devoted themselves to works of charity. The male Baptistines ceased toward the 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. ZOCKLER .†

BIBLOGRAPHYY: G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudisions storicoecclesiatica, s.v. Battista, Rome, 1831-32; Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen, ii, 307-308, 375.

456

Baptista THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 456 Origin of the Name (¢ 1). Precursors of the Baptiste (¢ 2). I. The English Baptiste. 1. Rave of the General Baptiste.

John Smyth and his Congregation (¢ 1).

They Organise 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).

Helwye Returns to London (¢ 7). His Doctrines (¢ 8). Baptist Publications (¢ 9).

Further Traces of Baptista in England (¢ 10).

2. Rise of the Particular ((Alvinieue) Baptista.

Congregations in London (¢ 1). Confession of 1644 (¢ 2).

3. General Baptista from 1641 Onward.

Organization and Polity (¢ 1). Revival at Barton (¢ 2). The New Connection (¢ 3). In the Nineteenth Century (¢ 4).

4. Particular Baptists from 1644 Onward.

To the Restoration (¢ 1). Cooperation and Union (¢ 2). To1717(¢3). To 1775 (¢ 4).

Andrew Fuller. Missionary Eater prize (¢ 5).

Baptist Union (¢ 6). The use of the term "Baptist " BAPTISTS. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (¢ 7). The Welsh Baptista (18).

Alexander Carson and the Irish Baptista (19).

Scotch Baptiste. The Haldanes (¢ 10).

II. Baptista in the United States. 1. To 1740. Roger William (¢ 1). The Providence Church (¢ 2). The Newport Church (¢ 3). Baptiste 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 Baptista in Virginia (¢ 6). Baptists and Religious Liberty (¢7). 8. 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). as a denomi-

national designation is of comparatively recent

origin, first appearing about the year 1644.

Its German equivalent (Tdufer) was applied by

Zwingli and others to the antipedobaptists of

their time, expressing their opinion that the lat

ter laid undue stress on believers' baptism; and

the terms " Anabaptist " and " Katabaptist "

(Wiedertlufer 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 anti

pedobaptists, who were content to call themselves

" Christians," " Apostolic Christians," " Brethren,"

" Disciples of Christ," " Believing Baptized Chil

dren of God," etc. Early English antipedobaptists

were stigmatized as °° Anabaptists," with the worst

continental implications, by their op

i. Origin of ponents, and were much concerned to

the Name. disown this designation. In the earli

est 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 confes

sion of 1688 Baptist churches are designated " con

gregations of Christians baptized upon profession

of their faith " and " baptized congregations."

Other common designations (1654, etc.) are " Bap

tized Churches," °' Baptized Christians/, and

" Churches of Christ in England, Scotland, and

Wales." " Churches of Christ in London," "Churches

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. (b) Seventh-Day Baptists: (c) Free-Will Baptists. (d) Original Free-Will Baptists. (e) General Baptists. (f) Separate Baptists. (g) United Baptists.

(h) Primitive ( Hardnhell ") Baptists.

(s7 The Old Two-Bead-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists.

(k) 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. Austral* Tasmania, and New Zealand.

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. 8. France and Italy.

of Christ in Ireland," etc., are expressions that occur in documents of 1853-57. As a sort of compromise between " Anabaptists " and "baptised believers," " baptised 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 PAULICIANB), with the common (if not

exclusive) practise of immersion and s. Precut- the most strenuous effort to realise

sore 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 (tee Pates or Bnvxs) 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.

457

4577 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

Many of the Waldenses and the Bohemian Brethren (qq.v.) rejected infant baptism and practised believers' baptism, but they seem not to have diafellowshiped their pedobaptist brethren and laid no stress upon immersion; while in the rejection of judicial oaths, magistracy as allowable for a Christian, capital punishment, and warfare, they put an interpretation on the Scriptures that modern Baptists do not approve. The historical relations of modern Baptists to the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century are close and direct. English Puritanism and Brownism (see BROWNS, ROBEHT), from which English Baptists sprang, were themselves products in part at least of the Anabaptist movement. A still more direct influence was exerted by the Mennonites of the Netherlands upon the English refugees that there became antipedobaptist (1609 onward). Anabaptists were the forerunners of modern Baptists in rejection of infant baptism and insistence on believers' baptism, in insisting on the sole authority of the Scriptures, in their efforts to secure and maintain regenerate church membership, in pleading for liberty of conscience and the separation of Church and State; but nearly all Anabaptists rejected oaths, magistracy, warfare, and capital punishment, all were anti-Augustinian in their anthropology, many were chiliastic, many were antitrinitarian, some were pantheistic and antinomian, many were communistic, and none (so far as is known) insisted on immersion as the exclusively valid act of baptism (see ANABArrisTs).

I. The English Baptists.-1. Rise of the General Baptists: John Smyth (q.v.) became a Puritan as early as 1590 but continued in the Established Church until 1606, when he led in the organization of a separate congregation at Gainsborough, the members of which covenanted together " to walk in all his [God's] ways, made known or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it might cost them, the Lord assisting them." In 1606 or 1607 they fled from persecution and settled in Amsterdam. They did not unite with the older Puritan church in Amsterdam, of which Francis Johnson and Henry Ainsworth (qq.v.) were pastor and teacher, but were on terms of fellowship with this body. In his reply to Richard Bernard's Separatists' Schism, published some months after his arrival, Smyth expressed the pro-

1. John foundest aversion to " Anabaptists," Smyth and whom he classed with Papists, Ariaans, his Congre- and other heretics and anti-Chris-

oration. ties," whose " prayers and religious exercises " could not be acceptable to God. By this time he had reached convictions in favor of pnre congregationalism as against the presbyterial practise of Johnson. He soon took issue with " the Ancient Brethren of the Separar tion " as regards the use of the book [Bible] in read ing, prophesying, and singing in church meetings, declaring it to be " no part of spiritual worship " and hence " unlawful "; he objected to the " tri formed presbytery "(pastors, teachers, and rulers) as " none of God's ordinance but man's device"; and insisted that " in contributing to the church treasury, there ought to be both a separation from

them that are without, and a sanctification of the whole action by prayer and thanksgiving." He is reported by some of his contemporaries to hava objected to the use of translations of the Bible and to have insisted " that teachers should bring the originals, the Hebrew and Greek, and out of them translate by voice." He had evidently become hypersensitive regarding anything that savored of human additions to divine prescriptions.

Prejudice against the Anabaptists seems for some time to have hindered the application of Smyth's principle to infant baptism, but late in 1608 or early in 1609 it was borne in upon him that if the Church of England was apostate (as his Separatist brethren agreed), then its ordinances were invalid, and that infant baptism was wholly without Scripture warrant and so in any case to be rejected. Accordingly he and his followers dissolved their church, disowned their baptism (Smyth repudiating also his ordination), resolved to introduce anew believers' baptism and to effect a completely new church organization with the New Testament as their only guide. Smyth seems to have first administered the ordinance to himself and then to the rest of the company. Then as baptized believers they effected a new organization

with Smyth as pastor. They now felt 2. They impelled to protest against the church Organize aw of Johnson and Ainsworth as " a false Church. church, falsely constituted in the bap tizing of infants, and their own unbap- tized estate." When charged with inconsistency and changeableness, Smyth insisted that a change for the better is always in order, and that not to change so long as complete conformity to Scrip ture has not been attained " is evil simply; and therefore that we should proceed from the profes sion of Puritanism to Brownism, and from Brown ism to true Christian baptism, is not simply evil and reprovable in itself, except it be proved that we have fallen from true religion." In answer to the charge of " Se-baptism " he claims that there is as much warrant for believers baptizing them selves as there is for setting up a true church (which his Separatist opponents professed to have done), inasmuch as a " true church can not be erected without baptism," and that " any man raised up after the apostasy of Antichrist " may " in the re covering of the church by baptism, administer it upon himself in communion with others." He further justifies self-administered baptism on the ground, among others, that " in the Old Testament every man that was unclean washed himself; every priest going to sacrifice washed himself . . . . Every master of a family ministered the Passover to him self and all of his family." He adds: "A man can not baptize others into the church, himself being out of the church. Therefore it is lawful for a man to baptize himself together with others in commu nion, and this warrant is a plerophory for the prac tise of that which is done by us."

As Puritans, Separatists, and Mennonites practised affusion at this time and as no issue was raised in the controversial literature called out by this new movement among English Separatists or in the later negotiations between these English anti-

458

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HER.ZOG 468

pedobaptists and the Mennonites respecting the act of baptism, it seems highly probable that Smyth practised effusion. Deep-seated prejudice against Anabaptists, unfamiliarity with the Dutch language, and the attitude of aloofness assumed by the Mennonites, furnish a sufficient explanation of the failure of these English antipedobaptists to secure baptism at the hands of the Dutch brethren with whom they had so much in common.

Shortly before or shortly after the introduction of believers' baptism, in sympathy with the Arminian movement then current and with the Socinianized Memuonism of the time, Smyth adopted Socinian (Pelagian) views, denying original or hereditary sin and the redemption of infants by Christ. He also adopted the Mennonite view that Christ did not derive " the first matter of his flesh "from Mary, that " an elder of one church is an elder of all the churches in the world," and that " magistrates may not be members of Christ's church and retain their magistracy." Smyth's church, led by Thomas Helwys and John Murton, then excommunicated him and his followers because of their departure from the principles on which the church

had been constituted. These (thirty8. Smyth tie in number) now sought admis-

lion into the fellowshi of the Men by ~ nonite church in Amsterdam of which

Church. Lubbert Gerrits was pastor. In their

application they " confess this their error, and repent of the same, viz.: that they undertook to baptize themselves contrary to the order laid down by Christ," and express the desire " to get back into the true church of Christ as speedily as may be." Helwys and his associates besought the Mennonites to take " wise counsel, and that from God's word," how they should deal " in this cause: betwixt us and those who are justly, for their sins, cast out from us. And the whole cause in question being succession, . . . consider, we beseech you, how it is Antichrist's chief hold, and thatit is Jewish and ceremonial, an ordinance of the Old Testament, but not of the New." They cite the case of John the Baptist to prove that an unbaptized person may inaugurate baptism. They claim that " whosoever shall now be stirred up by the same Spirit to preach the same word, and men thereby being converted, may, according to John's example, wash them with water, and who can forbid? And we pray that we may speak freely herein, how dare any man or men challenge unto themselves a preeminence herein, as though the Spirit of God was only in their hearts, and the word of God now only to be fetched at their mouths, and the ordinance of God only to be had from their hands, except they were apostles? Hath the Lord thus restrained his Spirit, his word, and ordinances, as to make particular men lordly over them, or keepers of them? God forbid. This is contrary to the liberty of the gospel, which is free for all men, at sif times and m all places. . , . And now for the other question, that elders must ordain elders; or if this be a perpetual rule, then from whom is your eldership come? And if one church might once ordain, then why not all churches always?"

It might have been expected that the Mennonites

of Amsterdam would receive with open arms these English brethren who were seemingly so thoroughly at one with them in doctrine and practise. Several considerations led them to hesitate. The conneotional church order of the Mennonites made it necessary for the Amsterdam church to secure the approval of other churches in fellowship. An unwise

act might easily rend the entire brother4. Attempts hued, as unhappy experiences in the to Join the pest had abundantly demonstrated.

Nitesa The Amsterdam Mennonite congrega-

tics found Smyth's party so thoroughly in acrd with themselves that they were prompted to express to their brethren at Leeuwarden the opinion that " these English, without being baptized again, must be accepted." Yet, if the Leeuwarden brethren thought otherwise, Smyth and his associates were willing to accept and the Amsterdam brethren to administer a new baptism, if it could be proved from Scripture and reason to be necessary. The Leeuwarden brethren could not be induced to commit themselves as to the validity of Smyth's baptism or to assume any responsibility for .what their Amsterdam brethren might do in the premises. One of the Mennonite brethren furnished Smyths party with a meeting-place in the Great Cake House; but they were not received into full fellowship until 1615, three years after Smyth's death.

1n 1811 Smyth and his followers put forth a declaration

of their faith in one hundred articles. The confession eats

forth just views as to the nature of saving knowledge of

God as involving conformity in character to God's attributes.

Arminian views are clearly and moderately set forth with

respect to God's relation to the fall and to human sin.

Adam being fallen did not lose any natural power or

faculty, , and therefore . . . still retained freedom of

will " (17). " Original sin " is declared to be " an idle

term," there being " no sash thing as men intend by the

term, . . . because God threatened death only to Adam,

not to his posterity, and because God created the soul "

(18). It is accordingly maintained that " infants are con

ceived and born in innocency without sin " (20), It is as

serted that "Adam being fallen, God did not hate him, but

loved him still and sought his good" (22). " The new

creature which is begotten of God needeth not the outward

Scriptures, matures; or ordinances of the church, , yet

be can do nothing against the Lawor Seriw

6. Smyth's tares, but rather all his doings shall serve to

Declaration the confirming sad establishing of the Law "

of Faith. (81-83). The outward church visible" in

declared to consist " of penitent persons

only, and of such se believing is Christ bring forth fruits

worthy of amendment of life " (86) " All penitent and

faithful Christians are brethren in the communion of the

outward church, , though compassed with never so many

ignoranoes and infirmities; and we salute them all with a

holy kiss, being heartily grieved that we which follow after

one faith, and one spirit, one Lord, and one God, one body,

and one baptism, should be rent into so many seats and

schisms: and that onl for matters of less moment " (89).

It is taught " that the outward baptism of water is to be

administered only upon s ch penitent and faithful persons

se are fstoreesi ]. and not upon innocent infants, or wicked

persons (70); th t in the outward supper which only

baptized pennons must partake, there is presented and

figured before the eyes of the penitent and faithful that

epiritusl supper which Christ msketh of his flesh and blood:

which is crucified and shed for the remission of sine , , ,

and which is eaten and drunken . . . only by those which

are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, is the communion

of the same spirit " (72); that " there is no succession in

the outward church. but that ell the succession is from

heaven, and that the new creature only bath the thing sig

nified and substance, whereof the outward church and or_

dinanaee - shadows, and therefore he alone bath rower

459

469 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

and knoweth aright how to administer in the outward church, for the benefit of others: yet God is not the author of confusion but of order and therefore we are in the outward church to draw as near the first institution as may be in all things; . . therefore it is not lawful for every brother to administer the word and sacraments " (81). The following declaration on liberty of conscience is especially noteworthy: " That the magistrate is not by virtue of his office to meddle with religion or matters of conscience, to force or compel men to this or that form of religion or doctrine, but to leave Christian religion free to every man's conscience. . . That if the magistrate will follow Christ and be his disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ: he must love his enemies and not kill them, he must pray for them and not punish them, he must feed them and give them drink, not imprison them, banish them, dismember them, and spoil their goods . . ." (8485). Going to law before civil magistrates, marriage with unbelievers, and the taking of oaths are forbidden to Christians. Community of goods in times of need is recommended.

Smyth died in Aug., 1612, after a long period of decline during which he manifested a wonderful degree of charity toward all true believers. He expressed the profoundest regret for his bitterly censorious writings against the Church of England, the Separation, and Helwys, and showed the utmost aversion to everything controversial. In his Retractation o f his Errors and the Confirmation o f the Truth, published a year or two after his death, along with the confession of faith from which extracts have been given, and a brief account of his life and death, he restates the points at issue in the controversies in which he had been engaged, and in a thoroughly judicial and irenic spirit indicates what he is still constrained, without controversy, to maintain, as well as what he feels e. His Last inclined to surrender. Helwys had Utterances. been so intemperate as to charge him with sinning against the Holy Ghost in receding from the position he had reached regarding the independent inauguration of baptism and church organization. The point at issue was not the necessity of succession in the administration of baptism and the organization of churches, but whether °° although there be churches already established, ministers ordained, and sacraments administered orderly, yet men are not bound to join these former churches established, but may, being as yet unbaptized, baptize themselves (as we did) and proceed to build churches of themselves; disorderly (as I take it)." Smyth points out that Helwys's contention would involve a recognition of the right of any two or three private persons (even women), in a community where rightly constituted churches abound, to disregard these churches and baptize and organize themselves. " Concerning succession, briefly thus much: I deny all succession except in the truth; and I hold we are not to violate the order of the primitive church, except necessity urge a dispensation; and therefore it is not lawful for every one that seeth the truth to baptize, for then there might be as many churches as couples in the world, and none have anything to do with other, which breaketh the bond of love and brotherhood in church; but, in these outward matters, I dare not any more contend with any man, but desire that we may follow the truth of repentance, faith, and regeneration, and lay aside dissension for mint, comin, and annis

seed." Helwys understood Smyth to deny with the Mennonites that Christ received his flesh from Mary. He now points out that while once inclined to distinguish between the first and second flesh of the infant in the womb and to hold that the former was not derived while the latter, the product of nourishment, was derived from Mary, he has now reached the conviction that it is better to attribute his flesh to Mary without going beynnd the Scriptures in curious inquiry " whereof Christ's natural flesh was made." He thinks it far more important that " we should search into Christ's spiritual flesh, to be made flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, in the communion and fellowship of the same spirit."

By 1611 Helwys and his associates reached the conviction that flight in persecution and voluntary exile were absolutely unjustifiable. Late in 1611 or early in 1612 they returned to England and set tled in London. Helwys was not content to carry out, with his company, his own con 7. 8elwys victions; he published (1612) A Short Returns to Declaration o f the Mystery o f Iniquity, London. in which " in great confidence and passion " (Robinson) he held up to re proach all the English dissenting refugees in the Netherlands, charging that in seeking to avoid being " sheep in the midst of wolves " the false hearted leaders had fled into strange countries to save their lives and had drawn other people after them, leaving the true believers who could not thus save their lives without leadership and leaving their native land without gospel testimony. In A Declaration o f Faith o f English People R's maining at Amsterdam in Holland (1611), set forth by Helwys and his associates, while Christ's right eousness is said to be imputed to all (general re demption), men are declared to be " by nature the children of wrath, born in iniquity, and in sin con ceived . . . even so now being fallen, and having all disposition unto evil, and no disposition or will unto any good, yet God giving grace, man may receive grace, or may reject grace . . . ." It is further taught, " That God before the foundation of the world hath predestinated that all that be lieve in him shall be saved, and all that believe not shall be damned; all which he knew S. His before. And this is the election and Doctrines. reprobation spoken of in the Scrip tures, concerning salvation and con demnation; and not that God bath predestinated men to be wicked, and so to be damned, but that men being wicked shall be damned." It is taught " ° That man may fall away from the grace of God, and from the truth . . . . That a righteous man may forsake his righteousness, and perish." Civil magistracy is recognized as " a holy ordinance of God " and magistrates " may be members of the church of Christ, retaining their magistracy." From this confession, as well as from Helwys's Proof that (cod's Decree is not the Cause o f any Man's Sin or Condemnation, published the same year, it appears that Helwys held to a moderate type of Arminianism, while Smyth had become almost So cinian in his doctrine. Little is known of the careers of Helwys, Murton,

460

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 480 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 en titled Religious Peace: or A Plea for Li4erty o f 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 9. Baptist remains can not yet appear in any Publics,- right visible congregation." " With tions. . . . Scripture, and not with fire and sword, your majesty's bishops and ministers ought to be armed and weaponed." Hav ing shown that even in the Old Testament time " the Lord would not have his offerings by con straint," 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 mem ber of the little Helwys company or a disconnected a,ntipedobaptist we are not informed. The follow ing year (1615) there was published Objections an ewered by way o f Dialogue, wherein is proved . . . that no man ought to be persecuted for his religion, so he testiie his allegiance by the Oath, appointed by Law, By Christ's unworthy Witnesses, His Majesty's faith ful Subjects: Commonly (but most falsely) called Anabaptists. This somewhat elaborate and thor oughgoing plea for liberty of conscience proceeded from the Helwys company and has been attributed to John Murton, as has also A Most Humble Sup plication 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, 1862, 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. Farther practise of the Mennonites they were

Traces of strongly inclined to . Baptists in perpetuate the

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 163031, 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 Eng. lish antipedobaptiste 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, Biddeuden, Eyethorne, Hill (xiffe, Booking, Canter-

461

481 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

bury, and Amersham are still current in England. Attempts' to confirm these traditions by antiquarian research have so far failed. Some of the Baptist churches that claim early foundation may have grown out of Anabaptist, Lollard, or Separatist congregations of the earlier time. Little further is known of English antipedobaptist life until about 1640-42, when in common with the Calvinistic antipedobaptists, they became convinced that immersion alone is baptism.

2. Rise of the Particular (Calvinistic) Baptiste: In 1616 Henry Jacob, a learned Puritan minister, who for some years had been pastor of an English congregation at Middelburg, Zealand, and who had published a number of works against the English establishment, after much conference with his Separatist brethren in the Netherlands and in England and much fasting and prayer with his associates, reached the conviction that duty required him to return to England and to " venture himself for the kingdom of Christ's sake." Such of his members as chose to return with him he organized anew at Southwark, London, all covenanting together " to walk in all Goil's ways as he had revealed or should make known to them." The congregation proceeded to choose and ordain Jacob pastor and " many saints were joined to them." After about eight years of heroic service and suffering, Jacob emigrated to America. After an interval, John Lathrop became pastor and with many of the members spent much of the time in prison. Finding it impossible to labor in England Lathrop also sailed for America (1634). In 1633, differences of opinion having arisen as to recognition of the parish churches, a number of the brethren were peaceably dismissed to form an independent congregation, " Mr. Eaton with some others receiving a further baptism." John Spils-

bury's name does not appear among 1. Congre. the seceders of 1633, but some time

gations in between this date and the second London. secession of 1638 he had become the pastor of an antipedobaptist congre gation; whether this was distinct from Eaton's congregation does not clearly appear. The record reads " These also being of the same judgment with Sam Eaton and desiring to depart and not be censured, our interest in them was remitted with prayer made in their behalf, June 8, 1638, they having just forsaken us and joined with Mr. Spils bury." Shortly before or shortly after this seces sion William Kiffin, then a young man of twenty two, afterward till 1701 one of the most influential leaders of the Particular Baptists, united with Eaton. The learned and zealous Henry Jessey had become pastor of the Jacob-Lathrop church in 1637 In 1640 the conviction that " dipping the body into the water " is the only valid baptism forced itself upon a number of the members and the matter was much agitated in antipedobantist circles. As a result of conferences on this matter Richard Blount, who understood Dutch, was sent to Holland where the Collegiants of Rhynsburg (see CoLLEGuNm) were practising immersion, and received baptism at the hands of J. Batte, a teacher among them. This party had arisen about 1619, I: 29

but its immersion may have been derive& from the Polish (Socinian) antipedobaptists. On his return Blount immersed Blacklock, and they two baptized large numbers (1641). The immersionist antipedobaptists had by this time formed themselves into two companies. Spilsbury insisted that " baptizedness is not essential to the administrator " of baptism and, with a number of adherents, discountenanced Blount's method of restoring baptism. As the agitation had been going on for some months before Blount's journey to Holland, it is not unlikely that Spilsbury and his adherents, including Kiffin, had some time before introduced immersion independently. Spilsbury's argument against the necessity of succession in baptism prevailed. In 1643 friendly discussion of the question of infant baptism was renewed in the congregation of which Jessey was pasuor. Hanserd Knollys, a university graduate and Puritan preacher who had spent some time in New England and had found himself out of harmony with the theocracy, was at this time a member of Jessey's church. According to the ancient records " H. K., our brother, not being satisfied for baptizing his child, after it had been endeavored by the elder and by one or two more, himself referred to the church then that they might satisfy him or he rectify them, if amiss therein, which was well accepted. Hence meetings were appointed for conference about it . . . and each was performed with prayer and much love." An interesting outline of the arguments pro and con by Jessey and Knollys, in which other brethren (Kiffin among them) joined. is given in the record. A considerable number were convinced with Knollys against the baptism of infants, and the church after taking the advice of the elders and brethren of other churches (including Praisegod Barebone, Dr. Parker, Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye, Simpson, and Burrows). several of whom had recently returned from exile in the Netherlands and were to become prominent members of the Westminster Assembly, it was decided that inasmuch as the antipedobaptist brethren had absented themselves, not from obstinacy, but from tender conscience and holiness, and in order to avoid disturbing the proceedings of the church, that the church would not " excommunicate, no, nor admonish, which is only to obstinate. to count them still of our church and pray (for) and love them," and to " desire conversing together so far as their principles permit them." By this time Kiffin had become pastor of a church and some of those who left Jessey's church on this occasion joined with him, while others organized themselves into a new church with Knollys as pastor (1644).

By October 1644, the Calvinistic antipedobaptists of London who had adopted immersion as the exclusively valid form of baptism " had become seven churches." At this time, in order to defend themselves against charges of Arminianism, opposition to civil government, etc., usually associated with the name " Anabaptist " and slanderously urged against themselves, representatives of these churches united in a confession of faith in fifty-two articles, wherein along with Calvinistic teachings. on theology, Christology, and anthropology, are

462

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 482

set forth Baptist views of baptism and the Supper (the " dipping or plunging of the body " of the

believer " under water," the Supper 2. oonfes- to be partaken of after baptism), lion of magistracy, oaths, etc., and a vigor-

18"' our statement of the doctrine of liberty of conscience., " But if any man shall impose upon us anything that we see not to be commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should in his strength rather embrace all reproaches and tortures of men, to be stripped of all outward comforts, and, if it were possible, to die a thousand deaths, rather than do anything against the least tittle of the truth of God, or against the light of our own consciences." This confession was signed by fifteen brethren representing the seven churches. The name of Kiffm stands first, those of Spilsbury, Skippard, Gunne, Webb, Hobson, and Phelps, are first in the other groups. In the second edition (1646) a French church represented by Le Barbier and Le Durst is added, and the names of Hanserd Knollys, Benjamin Cox, and Thomas Holms appear for the first time.

The following record, written apparently by Jessey, dates from 1644: " After that H. Jessey was convinced also, the next morning early after that which had been a day of solemn seeking the Lord in fasting and prayer (That if infant baptism were unlawful and if we should be further baptized, etc., the Lord would not hide it from us, but cause us to know it). First H. Jessey was convinced against pedobaptism and then that himself should be baptized (notwithstanding many conferences with his honored and beloved brethren Mr. Nye, Mr. Th. Goodwin, Mr. Burroughs, Mr. Greenhill, Mr. Cradock, Mr. Carter, etc., etc. . . .), and was baptized by Mr. Knollys, and then by degrees he baptized many of the church, when convinced they desired it." Several who had left the church to become Baptists now returned. Jessey long continued to minister to a mixed congregation, Baptista and pedobaptists mutually tolerating each other. In the general religious ferment which set in with the opening of the Long Parliament (Nov. 3, 1640) and the greater freedom which was then allowed, many who had doubted the propriety of infant baptism felt free to avow and propagate their principles.

$· General Baptists from 1841 Onward: It is probable that most or all of the antipedobaptist churches of the Helwys-Murton connection survived the Laudian persecutions and others may have arisen after 1632. Thomas Lamb was arrested at Colchester for disseminating heresy some time before 1640. After his release he resumed his ministry in London and is said to have become familiar with nearly every prison in London and its vicinity. At the beginning of this period he was pastor of a congregation in Bell-alley, which became a fruitful mother of churches. In 1643 he was reenforced by Henry Denne, who had been educated at Cambridge and was instrumental, with Lamb and several other zealous evangelists, in the conversion of multitudes in Huntingtonshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Kent, and elsewhere. Lamb's church became a missionary society which

sent forth evangelists into various parts of England and into Wales. Between 1641 and 1649 about ten associations are supposed to have been estab lished, with quarterly, half-yearly, or annual meetings, .for edificatory, disciplinary, and mis sionary purposes. Possibly from early connection with the Mennonites, the General Baptists empha sized correctional church government rather than church independency. Several years before 1671 a General Assembly of the churches of the entire connection had been formed, which 1. Organ- usually met in London. The General izatioa sad Baptist churches exercised a rigorous Polity. discipline over their membership in matters of doctrine and life. Per sistence in Calvinistic teaching (as in denial of the universality of the atonement) was a ground of excommunication. Divisive controversies on church singing and on the imposition of hands occupied a large share of attention. Quakers sad Renters invaded the congregations and in some taxes were responsible for decimating their member ship. Divided congregations, churches at variance with neighboring churches, and even aggrieved individuals could appeal to the associations. The General Assembly became virtually a court of appeal from churches and associations. An ag grieved member of a church might appeal to two or more neighboring churches, which were under obligation to hear and judge the case. From such a judgment, appeal might be made to the asso ciation and from this to the General Assembly. Thus every local difficulty was likely to pervade the entire connection. Thus equipped with a system of graduated courts of appeal, the connec tion came to feel the need of general executive officers, and found the New Testament prototype of what they wanted in the apostolate. These officials were called " ° messengers " or " bishops." According to the Orthodox Creed (1678), " The bishops have the government of those churches that had suffrage in their election, ordinarily, as also to preach the word to the world." Thomas Grantham (in Christianiamus Prdmitivua, London, 1678), a chief defender of Baptist episcopacy, thus defined the office: " 1. To plant churches where there are none; 2. To set in order such churches as want officers to order their affairs; and 3. To assist faithful pastors or churches against usurpers and those that trouble the peace of par ticular churches by false doctrines." Grantham expressed the wish that representatives of all the baptized churches in the world might meet occa sionally in a great consiatory to consider matters of difference among them. The Lincolnshire Association in 1775 gave still more ample powers to the " messenger," who is said to have °` full liberty and authority, according to the Gospel, to freely inquire into the state of the churches respecting both the pastor and people, to see that the pastors do their duty in their places, and the people theirs; he is to exhort, admonish, and reprove both the one and the other, as occasion calls for. In virtue of his office, he is to watch over the several flocks committed to his care and charge, . . . to labor to keep out innovations in

463

463 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptiste

doctrine, worship, and discipline, and to stand up in defense of the Gospel."

The General Baptists were greatly prospered during the Civil War, in which they heartily participated, and during the Cromwellian period. Along with other dissenters they suffered severely under Charles II. After the Revolution (1688-89), owing in part to the disciplinary system already described and still more to the pervasive influence of Socinianism, disintegration set in. The process was accelerated by their resistance to the evangelical revival led by the Wesleys and Whitefield. By 1770 they had dwindled to small proportions and most of those that remained had become unitarian.

In 1743 a religious revival occurred in the vicinity of Barton. After a time the converts became impressed with the importance of immer2. Revival sion and brought a large tub into the at Barton. meeting-house for the dipping of infants. Without any knowledge of Baptists they became convinced (1755) that believers only should be baptized and they proceeded to introduce baptism anew, Donithrope baptizing Kendrick, who in turn baptized his baptizer, and the two baptized between sixty and seventy others. Those who did not feel the need of a further baptism were allowed to remain in communion. Their numbers multiplied until by 1770 six Baptist churches with near a thousand members and ten ordained pastors had resulted from the movement.

In 1762 Dan Taylor (q.v.), a young man of twenty-four, who had recently been converted in the Wesleyan meetings and had been engaging successfully in evangelistic work in Yorkshire, became convinced independently of the unscripturalness of infant baptism, left the Wesleyans, and associated himself with four others who had had a similar experience at Heptonatall. Having reached Baptist convictions and having learned of some General Baptista in Lincolnshire, one hundred and twenty miles distant, Taylor journeyed in the midst of winter and was baptized by Jeffries, pastor of the Gamston church. Taylor proved himself a master workman and by 1770 he had founded or rescued from decay fifteen churches, which united in forming a " New Connection of General Baptist churches, with a design to revive experimental S. The religion or primitive Christianity in

neotionNew Co.. faith and practise-" The brief articles of faith combine evangelical Arminianism with insistence on believers' baptism (immersion) as indispensable. Socinian views of the person of Christ and hyper-Calvinistic antinomianism are explicitly condemned. The New Connection rigorously excluded from membership General Baptista of the older type who would not sign their confession and whose ministers failed to come up to their standard of personal religious experience. By the close of the eighteenth century the New Connection had an academy for the training of ministers, had engaged in Sunday-school work, and had started a magazine. Their membership had grown to about four thousand. It is probable that the General Baptist churches of

the older type had about the same number of members at the same time.

During the nineteenth century the denomination grew in numbers, educational and literary enterprise, and in missionary activity. In 1816 they formed a missionary society and entered upon foreign work. Their most influential leader at this time was J. G. Pike. For many years the General Baptists had joined with the Particular Baptists in the Baptist Union and there had been a free interchange of pulpits and members. In

4. In the 1891 a union of General and Particular Baptista tista was effected. Until recent teenth times the General Baptists had almost uniformly practised restricted com munion and rigorously excluded Calvinistic Bap tists from the Supper. During the nineteenth cen tury their views on this matter became assimilated to those of the great majority of the Particular Baptista.

4. Particular Baptists from 1644 Onward: From the date of the signing of the confession of 1644-46, Baptists of the Calvinistic type went forward by leaps and bounds. Through the evangelistic efforts

·of John Myles and Vavasour Powell Baptists early gained a firm footing in Wales. In 1651 four churches met at Carmarthen to consider the questions of singing of psalms and the laying-on of hands, and a year earlier three of the churches had gathered for consultation on missionary business. The meeting of 1650 had voted that each church should raise ten pounds for the dissemination of the gospel. From this time onward the Welsh Baptists made much of associations and these were the prototypes of the Philadelphia Association in America (see below, II, 1, § 8). The London churches were active in evangelizing the provinces, leading ministers spending much time in this kind of

1. To the work. Baptists of both types were Restora- soon numerous in the Parliamenta tics. i9 army, many of whose officers were of this persuasion (Fleetwood, Cromwell's son-in-law and Lord Deputy of Ireland, Major General Har rison, Col. Hutchinson, Major Paul Hobson, and others). Baptist officers were in several cases effective preachers and most of them gave every encouragement to Baptist preaching and the estab lishment of Baptist churches in the neighborhood of the camps. The efforts of the Westminster As sembly and of the Presbyterian Parliament to check the spread of Baptist principles proved ineffective, and Baptists and Independents became so power ful in the army that they were able to dissolve the Assembly and to cast out the Presbyterian mem bers of Parliament. Baptists encouraged Crom well to assume the headship of the state; but they soon grew weary of his military government. It seems well established that their determined op position prevented Cromwell from accepting the royal title when it was pressed upon him by others. Harrison, who had been active in the trial and exe cution of Charles I, became Cromwell's bitter op ponent. He embraced socialistic and millenarian ideas. John Milton advocated Baptist principles and was a stanch antipedobaptist, but there is no evidence that he was ever a member of a Baptist

464

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 484

church. Among Cromwell's " Tryers," appointed to pass upon the qualifications of candidates for the pulpits of endowed churches were Henry Jessey, Daniel Dyke, and John Tombes, a highly educated collegian who wrote and disputed against infant baptism. These and about twenty-two other Baptist ministers thought it right to accept appointments as pastors of endowed churches, a majority of the parishioners in each case petitioning for their services. Hanserd Knollys and many other Baptist ministers protested against the Court of Tryers as too much like the High Commission Court of Laud's time. Besides being one of the most influential and devoted pastors of his time, William Mffin was a successful man of affairs and by the liberal use of his wealth promoted the Baptist cause.

It has been noticed that the first Particular Baptist congregations were formed by peaceable withdrawal from a pedobaptist church and that Jessey remained pastor of a mixed church. Open communion was from the first practised by most of the churches. Controversy between Kiffin and Bunyan, in which the latter denied that differences of opinion and practise respecting an external rite should be allowed to hinder the manifestation of Christian love and brotherhood in the Supper, left the question an open one.

In 1653 several churches in Ireland that had been formed through the labors of London ministers addressed a letter to their brethren in London suggesting the desirability of " brotherly correspondence " with them and through them "with all the rest of the churches of Christ in England, Scotland, and Wales." They requested that two or more suitable brethren " visit, comfort, and confirm all the flock of our Lord Jesus that are, or have given up their names to be, under his rule and government, in England, Scotland, and Wales." The London brethren accepted the suggestion and messengers were sent out to visit the churches. Jessey " was sent by divers churches to visit about thirty-six congregations in Essex, Sussex, Norfolk,

Middlesex." In the same year a cir8. 0oop- cular letter was addressed by many

oration churches in London, Wales, etc., to and

other churches, suggesting the sending of messengers to a meeting with a view to harmonizing doctrine and practise among the churches and arranging for the approval and sending out of teachers. The Western Association was formed the same year, the Midland Association in 1655. The Western Association in 1655 appointed and ordained Thomas Collier, its most influential leader, " General Superintendent and Messenger to all the Associated Churches." In 1656 this association adopted a confession of faith (the " Somerset ") in which the duty of the churches individually and collectively to " preach the gospel to the world " is asserted, and special recognition is made of obligation to labor for the conversion of the Jews. It may be worthy of note that Henry Jessey, who was an enthusiastic Hebraist, was deeply interested in the Jews of his time and raised a considerable amount of money for the relief of the persecuted and distressed.

Particular Baptists as well as General, though

probably not to so large an extent, suffered much from the intrusion of Familista, Seekers, Rantera, and Fifth Monarchy Men.

Baptists promoted the restoration of Charles II and accepted in good faith his assurances of tolera tion. The uprising of the Fifth Monarchy Men (q.v.), led by Henry Venner (1661), was the occasion of an outbreak of persecution. Twenty-six Bap tist ministers who had held benefices under the Cromwellian rEgime were deposed through the execution of the Act of Uniformity (1662), the least regrettable of the results of the Restoration. These ministers, it will be remembered, had been educated in the Established Church and no doubt justified themselves in abetting a union of Church and State by the practical consideration that the funds were available for the support of a ministry and that it was bettter for them to do the service to which they were invited rather than to leave the people destitute or with inferior pastors. The Bill of Indulgence (1675) opened the way for efforts to strengthen the ministry of dissenting churches. In the name year the Particular Baptist ministers of London requested the churches in England and Wales to send representatives to meet in Lon don the following May, with a view to taking measures for " providing an orderly standing ministry in the church, who might 3. To 1717. give themselves to reading and study, and so become able ministers of the New Testament." The meeting seems not to have occurred till 1677, when a confession of faith, that of the Westminster Assembly with necessary modi fications, was adopted and formally promulgated. In 1689 (just after the Revolution and the pro mulgation of the Act of Toleration) representatives of about a hundred churches assembled for the expression of fellowship and the reaffirming of the confession of 1677. The meeting was moat har monious, scarcely a note of dissent being heard. A dearth of properly qualified pastors is lamented. During the Civil War and Commonwealth times many highly educated ministers from the Estab lished Church had joined the Baptist ranks. This source of supply had failed. Failure " to make gos pel-provision for their maintenance " is thought to be one of the reasons why so few competent men devote themselves wholly to the work. For remedy ing this defect it was decided to raise " a public stock or fund of money," " ° first by a free-will offering to the Lord; and secondly, by a subscription, every one declaring what he is willing to give weekly, monthly, or quarterly to it." " A general fast in all the congregations " was arranged fur, a list of " evils to be bewailed and mourned over" is given, and special prayer is to be offered for the conversion of " the poor Jews." The assembly was careful to disclaim °° superiority and superin tendency over the churches " and determined that in future assemblies no differences between churches and persons should be debated. Nine London brethren were entrusted with the collection and the administration of the fund for the assistance of

weak churches, the sending forth of missionaries, and the assistance of gifted and sound men " in attaining to the 'knowledge and understanding of

465

465 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

the languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew." The question of open or restricted communion was left to the churches, each to act in the matter " as they have received from the Lord." The assembly of 1691 was made up of representatives of a hundred churches belonging to twelve associations. In 1692 it was decided to divide the assembly, one portion to meet in London and the other in Bristol, at different seasons of the year, these assemblies not to be accountable to each other and each to send messengers to the other. At this time a grievous controversy was raging on the question " whether the praises of God should be sung in public assemblies," Kiffin, Reach, Cox, Steed, and other leading brethren being involved. It was decided to refer the matter to seven brethren appointed by the assembly, who administered a scathing rebuke to the offenders, which was taken in good part. The Bristol meeting prospered, but the London meeting declined. The Broadmead church, Bristol, was one of the earliest and strongest of the Particular Baptist Churches outside of London and the importance of Bristol as a Baptist center was greatly enhanced by the endowment left by Edward Terrill (d. 1686) with the Broadmead church for ministerial education, which became available in 1717. Out of this foundation grew the theological college that from its inception has been one of the chief factors in the progress of the denomination.

In 1717 the London ministers inaugurated another missionary fund. The great leaders of the past century had all passed away, and there had been a marked decline in the Baptist cause. The older assembly with its fund seems to have become extinct. Benjamin Stinton, pastor of one of the wealthier churches, and the Hollis brothers, wealthy business men, who while contributing liberally for the support of Baptist work regularly attended Presbyterian services, urged that General Baptists be invited to cooperate in the raising and administration of the fund and to participate in its use. This cooperation was refused, but there was in London at this time a strong sentiment in favor of Baptist union. The fund was to be administered by representatives of the contributing churches, to be appointed in numbers propor-

4. To 1775. tioned to their contributions, and individual contributors not members of contributing churches participated in the management. John Hollis was for years treasurer of the fund and left it a large legacy. It may be observed that to the Hollis family Harvard University was indebted for endowment and equipment. In opposition to this unionistic movement, a " Society of Ministers of the Particular Baptist Persuasion " was formed 1723-24, which for many years exerted a powerful and wide-spread influence. By way of reaction against the Sooinian teachings that were pervading the Established Church and all the dissenting bodies, Particular Baptist theologians like John Gill and John Brine promulgated a high type of Calvinistic teaching that in the minds of the uncultured easily degenerated into fatalism and antinomianism. Many Particular Baptist ministers went to the extreme of considering it an L- 30

impertinence to preach to the unregenerate or to pray for them, and many churches excluded from fellowship any who dissented from their fatalistic views. By 1753 there bad been such a decline that John Ryland, who made a careful inquiry, could find only 4,930 Particular Baptists in England and Wales. They opposed the evangelical revival with almost fanatical zeal. In the London and Bristol centers there remained a number of more moderate pastors and churches. In general it may be said that pastors educated at Bristol rarely carried their doctrine and practise to the fatalistic and antinomian extreme.

The conversion of Andrew Fuller (q.v.) to evangelical views, chiefly through the readingof a pamphlet by Jonathan Edwards on the importance of a general union of Christians in prayer for a revival of religion, and through the influence of the evangelical revival in England, marks an epoch in the history of the Particular Baptists. For a few years before 1792 ministers of the Northamptonshire Association, under Fuller's leadership, held monthly prayer-meetings for the extension of the gospel. In May, 1792, William Carey (q.v.) having become deeply impressed with the destitution of the heathen and the duty of Christians to carry out the great commission, preached a sermon 5. Andrew on the topic: " Expect great things

Fuller, from God; attempt great things for Missionary _ Enter- God, which made a profound im- prtse, pression and led to the organization, a few months later (Oct. 2), at Ketter ing (Fuller's church) of the Baptist Missionary Society. From this time onward Fuller devoted much of his time and effort to the diffusion of the missionary spirit throughout his denomination and among dissenters and churchmen. He visited from time to time all parts of Britain in the interest of Carey's mission. His popular but profound publications disseminated moderate Calvinistic views suffused with missionary en thusiasm. Not since the Cromwellian age were Baptist principles brought to the attention of the religious public in so acceptable a manner. Closely associated with Fuller was John Ryland (q.v.), who in 1783 became pastor of the Broadmead church, Bristol, and Principal of the Baptist College. For thirty years he exerted a wide-spread influence as pastor and teacher. Among the students that went forth from the college were John Foster and Robert Hall (qq.v.). Fuller's cruef Baptist oppo nents were Abraham Booth, -,;,ho from being a General Baptist became a Particular Baptist of the more rigorous type and wrote largely in defense of believers' baptism, restricted communion, and high Calvinism (" Reign of Grace "), and Alexander Maclean, leader of the Scotch Baptists. The successful inauguration of missionary work in India and Carey's achievements in the acquisition of Oriental languages and in Bible translation gave the denomination a prestige and popular accept ance that it had not before enjoyed. By 1801 the Particular Baptists had increased to 29,000.

The work of the denomination in Foreign Missions was greatly prospered, and commanded enthusiastic support. India, Ceylon, China, Pales-

466

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 4ee

tine, Africa, the Bahamas, Trinidad, San Domingo, Turk's Island, and Italy are the present beneficiaries. At an earlier date Jamaica was evangelized by this body. The present annual income of the Foreign Missionary Society is about £ 100,000. It supports about three hundred missionaries and evangelists and has about 20,000 members in its mission churches.

About 1812 a conviction was expressed by a writer in the Baptist Magazine that, while numerically strong, the Baptists of England and Wales exerted little influence because of their lack of union. " Union of the most extensive, firm, and durable nature " was earnestly advocated by him. A number of brethren met in London the same year to plan for a union. Particular Baptista contended much more strenuously than General Baptists for church independency, and the recognition of the fullest independence of the local churches was indispensable. Among the principal promoters of the enterprise were Joseph Ivimey, the historian, Drs. Ryland and Rippon, of London, and James Hinton, of Oxford. The union did not at once take firm hold on the denominational life or become a marked success. But the great religious and political upheaval of the third and fourth

decades of the nineteenth century (Re- d. Baptist form bills, Catholic Emancipation, Union, abolition of Corporation and Test Acts, Hampden Controversy, Tractariaa Controversy, etc.) aroused Baptists anew to the importance of making their influence felt and the Union grew in importance. The determined and successful Romanizing propaganda of the Oxford school and the disruption (1843) of the Scottish Church encouraged English dissenters to believe that disestablishment was possible in England and led to concerted efforts for religious equality. At the formation of the Anti-State-Church Asso ciation (1844) Baptists were the only religious body represented. In the recent agitation against the edu cation act, Dr. John Clifford (q.v.) was the recognized leader and to him and his free church coadjutors was largely due the victory of the Liberal party in 1906.

Through the enthusiastic advocacyof Robert RObinson and Robert Hall, and other favoring influences, open communion became widely prevalent in England early in the nineteenth century. In Wales, however, restricted communion has always prevailed. In 1845 a number of " Strict Baptist " churches formed the Baptist Evangelical Society under the leadership of Dr. John Stock. This society undertook missionary work in Germany and founded a theological college at Manchester. The most eminent English Baptist leaders of the present day carry their liberality so far as to practise open or mixed membership. Alexander Maclaren, the famous Manchester preacher was for many years pastor of a mixed church. The same is true of Dr. Clifford. F. B. Meyer, president of the Baptist Union, 1905-06, was for some years pastor of a pedobaptist congregation in London.

The coming of Charles Haddon Spurgeon to the pulpit of New Park Street Church, London, in 1854, marks an epoch in the history of British Baptists.

Within a few years he became recognized as one of the greatest. of preachers. That he built up a church of six thousand members, preached regularly in the Metropolitan Tabernacle to 7,000 people with a large overflow, that he reached through his published sermons millions of people throughout the world, represent only a small part of his begeficent activity. From his Pastor's College hundreds of young men went forth as pastors into all parts of Britain and throughout the world, and it is estimated that considerably over a hundred thousand have been added to churches pastored by Spurgeon's students. The Stockwell

Orphanage founded by Spurgeon has 7. Charles set an example to Baptists and others

Haddon in peal philanthropy. His Book 9purgson. Fund supplied the needs of multi-

tudes of pastors. His magazine and his popular writings multiplied his influence. The last years of Mr. Spurgeon (1884-92) were somewhat embittered by a controversy in which he became engaged with the Baptist Union because of its toleration of liberal views on the Scriptures, the person of Christ, the atonement, future punishment, etc. His own Puritan convictions made him incapable of seeing anything but the abomination of desolation in less rigorous modes of thought that had become widely prevalent. When the Union refused to exclude from its fellowship those whose teachings, he regarded as unsound he severed his connection with this body and was followed by many of his former students and the churches to which they ministered.

The Baptists of Wales suffered much during the first half of the eighteenth century from hyperCalvinism, but the religious fervor of the race was too great to be completely quenched. More promptly than the English Baptists, they responded to the quickening influences of the evangelical revival, especially to the Calvinistic phase of it represented by Whitefield. During the latter part of the century Sandemanianism and Socinianism made some headway among them. The teachings

of Andrew Fuller finally prevailed, and $' The the spirit of evangelism attained to a

Welsh fervor anion Welsh Baptist preachers

Baptists. rarely surpassed. Christmas Evans (q.v.) was from 1791 onward by far the greatest evangelizing force. Anglesea was the chief scene of his labors, but he is said to have traversed Wales forty times on preaching tours and to have preached one hundred and sixty-three associational sermons. Many other men of power carried forward throughout Wales the work in which Evans was the chief prophet. Pontypool College (1836) grew out of earlier efforts at ministerial education. Haverfordwest College was founded in 1839 and Llabollen College in 1862. Like the English denominational colleges these are small institutions in which two or three teachers instruct twenty or thirty students for the ministry. The Welsh churches, while retaining for home work a liberal share of scholarly ministers have sent to England and America many of their brightest and best. The Philadelphia Association has profited largely by Welsh talent and consecration. The Welsh Baptists at present num-

467

487 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

ber nearly 150,000, nearly 30,000 having been added within the past year and a half as a result of the great revival of 1904-05.

The Baptist churches planted in Ireland in the Cromwellian time by Thomas Patient and other London Baptists either became entirely extinct or survived in a very feeble way. About 1803 Alex ander Carson (q.v.), who had been graduated a few years before from the University of Glasgow and was pastor of a Presbyterian church at Tubbermore with ample state support, reached convictions in favor of congregational der Carson church government and believers' and the _ baptism so strong that he gave up his wit s~p living and the prospect of a Glasgow professorship. With a few like-minded believers he organized a Baptist church which dur ing his forty years of service grew to a membership of 500. His best-known work is his treatise on baptism, but his doctrinal and controversial wri tings are numerous. He is said to have contributed the scholarship to Haldane's commentary on Romans. He was closely associated with the Hal danes. Like the Scottish Baptists, Carson practised weekly communion. He also followed the Scrip tural injunction " salute one another with a holy kiss," himself kissing one of the deacons, and others following his example. After the sermon the brethren were encouraged to exhort. He was fre quently called to Scotland and England for ser mons and addresses. Since Carson's time English Baptista have devoted much effort to the propaga tion of Baptist principles in Ireland with small numerical results.

In Scotland also the Baptist movement that flourished in Cromwell's time failed of maintenance. In the eighteenth century Sir William Sinclair of Keiss, Caithness, who had been baptized while visiting England, gained a number of adherents in his own neighborhood, whom he baptized and organized into a church (about 1750). This is the oldest Baptist church in Scotland. In 1765 Robert Carmichael, a Sandemanian minister of Glasgow, was baptized in London by John Gill. He baptized several members of his former church and organized them into a Baptist church. Archibald McLean, who had been a member of Carmichael's church in Glasgow, joined his former pastor in Edinburgh, was baptized by him, became his colaborer, and succeeded him (1769) with Dr. Robert Walker as coelder. McLean was a vigorous and somewhat voluminous writer, and his 10. Scotch works (published in seven volumes, Baptists. 1805) have exerted a profound influ-

The Hal- ence on Scottish Baptist life and dense. thought. By far the most important factor in the history of Scottish Bap tists was the conversion to evangelical principles, and then to Baptist views, of Robert and James Alexander Haldane (qq.v.). The former was deeply interested in religious and philanthropical matters from 1793 onward, and in fifteen years spent $350 000 in educating and supporting evan gelists, building chapels, circulating religious litera ture, etc. In 1799 James became pastor of an In dependent church in Edinburgh and in 1801 his

brother built for the church a large tabernacle in which he ministered for fifty years. In 1808 both became avowed Baptists, and from this time onward, while conducting their work on somewhat broad lines, were highly influential in the propagation of Baptist principles. Christopher Anderson was converted under the ministry of James Haldane (1799). Through the influence of English Baptist students at the University of Edinburgh he became a Baptist, and was excluded therefor from Haldane's church. He was persuaded by Andrew Fuller to enter the ministry and in 1806 led in the founding of a regular Baptist church in Edinburgh, where he soon preached to overflowing congregations. His ministry of thirty years greatly strengthened the Baptist cause in Scotland. Anderson's church practised restricted communion and did not, like most Scottish Baptist churches, have plurality of elders or weekly communion. Among the most noted preachers of the Scottish Baptist churches, some of whom labored exclusively in Scotland while others did so in England, may be named Drs. Patterson, Landels, Culross, and Alexander Maclaren. Scottish Baptists have never gained great numerical strength, their present membership being less than 21,000. The Baptists of Great Britain number at present about 500,000, which, in view of the constant drain upon the membership by emigration, is a very- creditable showing. This estimate takes account of about 400 unassociated churches. One of their greatest achievements was the raising of the £250,0001wentieth Century Fund for home and foreign work.

II. Baptists in the United States.-l. To 1740

About March, 1638, Roger William (q.v.), having been banished from Massachusetts two years before because of agitation against the charter, advbcacy of extreme Separatist views, insubordination on conscientious grounds to the theocratic authorities, etc., and having settled on Narragansett Bay, felt it his duty, in cooperation with a dozen likeminded men and women who had followed him from Massachusetts, to introduce believers' baptism anew and to organize independently a new church on the apostolic model. Ezekiel Holliman first baptized Williams, who in turn baptized Holliman and the rest of the party. Winthrop attributes Williams's antipedobaptiat views to the influence of the wife of Richard Scott, a sister of Mrs. Arms

Hutchinson, the antinomian agitator 1.8oger (see ANrixoumxism AND ANTINoWilliams. m" CowraovERsms, II, 2). He was

already familiar with the opinions of the Mennonites and probably alsb-with those of the followers of Smyth and Helwys and the contemporary Calvinistic antipedobaptists of London. He had reached the conviction that the ordinances and church order of the apostolic time had been lost by apostasy and, for the time, he was persuaded that a company of true believers had the right to restore them; but he did not long rest in this conviction. To the end of his life he maintained that true churches could only be constituted of regenerate members baptized upon a profession of their faith, and on many occasions expressed the conviction that in doctrine and practise the

468

Baptiste THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 488

Baptists were nearer than others to the apostolic norm; yet after a few months of experience he became so doubtful as to the warrantableness of what he had done, that he felt constrained to withdraw from the fellowship of the church he had founded and to spend the rest of his life as a " Seeker " (q.v.). Nothing short of a miraculously' given commission to restore the ordinances would thenceforth meet his requirement. It wasafter he had assumed this position that he gained immortality of fame as an advocate of liberty of conscience and as, in cooperation with John Clarke (q.v.), the founder of a state in which this doctrine was embodied to an extent never before known.

For some years little is known of the career of the little church. The principle of individualism was so emphasized in the Providence community that complete harmony among the members of the church could hardly have been expected. Within a few years several who had been members of antipedobaptist churches in England (probably of the Arminian type) seem to have reenforced the constituent members and to have introduced elements of discord. Among the Arminian members, afterward to become somewhat.prominent, were William

Wickenden, Gregory Dexter, and e Chad Brown, who, like many of the Providence English General Baptista insisted Church. upon the laying-on of hands after

baptism as a Christian ordinance and an indispensable qualification for churchfellowahip. William himelf regarded the layingon of hands as an ordinance of Christ. Thomas Olney, one of the constituent members, probably succeeded William in leadership, and by 1652 was coelder along with the brethren named. By thisstime diversities of opinion as to the extent of Christ's redemptive work and the laying-on of hands had become so pronounced as to occasion a schism. Olney led the faction that opposed the laying-on of hands as an ordinance and probably insisted on limited redemption, while Brown, Wickenden, and Dexter, on the basis of Heb. vi, 1-2, led the party, probably a majority, that insisted on the laying-on of hands as one of the " Six Principles." The fact that Olney's party did not survive as a church has led to the claim on behalf of the Newport church, organized some years later than the original Providence church, of priority among surviving churches. But the party led by Brown and the others seem equally entitled to be regarded as the original church. Wickenden . extended his labors to New- York State, where he was imprisoned (1656) for baptizing and administering the Lord's Supper. By 1669 his Arminianism had developed into Socinianism greatly to the alarm of William. He died in 1670. Gregory Dexter, who had printed Williams's Key to the Indian Language (1643) in London, removed to Providence about 1644. He was probably a General Baptist before his emigration. He became one of the most prominent men in the colony (President, 1653). Brown was for about twenty-five years a pillar among the Providence Baptists. He is of special interest as the ancestor of the Browns who gave their name to the first Baptist College in America

and have done so much for its endowment and equipment (see below, II, 2, § 3).

The First Baptist Church of Newport owes its origin to John Clarke (q.v.), an educated Englishman who arrived at Boston in Nov., 1637, and cast in his lot with a company of Antinomians (Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright, Coddington, and others), who were leaving Massachusetts for conscience' sake and who through William's good offices secured from the Indians the island of Aquidneck (Rhode Island), where they organized a colony (Mar., 1638) with recognition of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The first agreement was theocratic, but-in 1641 a distinctly democratic constitution with full provision for liberty of conscience was adopted. Clarke was equally prominent with Williams in the later political history of the united colonies that became Rhode Island, and, like Williams, spent much

8. The time in England in the public in- Newport terest. As early as the year 1638

Church. Governor John Winthrop designated Clarke as " a physician and preacher to those of the island." By 1640-41 strife had arisen between Clarke, Lenthall, Harding, and others, and Easton, Coddington, Coggeshall, and others, the latter maintaining the antinomian views of Anne Hutchinson, the former repudiating these views and probably at this time objecting, to the baptism of infants. Winthrop wrote of the presence of " professed Anabaptists " on the island in 1641. There is no direct proof of the organization of Clarke's followers on a Baptist basis until 1644 or a little later. Mark Lukar, who was among those baptized by Blount and Blacklock in London in 1641-42, was for many years one of the most influential members of the Newport church. The date of his arrival has not been ascertained. If he arrived in 1644, as seem probable, he may have been a constituent member and have led in the introduction of believers' baptism. Samuel Hubbard, a friend of Roger Williams and a man of intelligence and force of character, removed from Connecticut in 1648, where he had adopted antipedobaptist views and was baptized into the fellowship of the church. In 1665 Stephen Mumford, an English SeventhDay Baptist; became a member of this church and won to his views Hubbard, Hiscox, and others Failing to carry the majority of the church for Sabbatarianism, they withdrew in 1671 and formed a sep#rate congregation. In 1649 Obadiah Holmes of Seekonk, Mass., near the Rhode Island border, was baptized into the fellowship of the church and with a number of other persons attempted to carry on Baptist work in the Seekonk neighborhood. Civil interference with their meetings led them to remove to Newport. In 1651 Clarke, Holmes, and Crandall visited Lynn, Mass., to minister to some antipedobaptists there. They were imprisoned, heavily fined, and Holmes, for refusing on principle to pay the fine, was cruelly whipped. In 1652 Clarke published in England Ill Neaps om New England, a full account of this act of persecution with a somewhat elaborate argument for liberty of conscience. The division of sentiment among the Providence Baptists on the laying-on

469

489 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

of hands extended to the Newport church, which had been strictly Calvinistic. William Vaughan, a member of the church, went to Providence in 1652 and submitted to the rite. Wickenden and Dexter accompanied him to Newport and a number were convinced in favor of the "Six Principles." In 1656 a division occurred. From this time onward until the Great Awakening Baptist progress in New England was almost confined to the General (Six Principles) type. Several churches were formed in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and southern Massachusetts, and associational meetings were held among them early in the eighteenth century.

In Massachusetts a rigorous law was enacted (1644) against " Anabaptists," whose presence was supposed to imperil civil and religious order, banishment being the penalty for openly condemning or opposing the baptism of infants or secretly propagating Anabaptist principles. The law was put into execution in a number of cases before the persecutions at Seekonk and Lynn mentioned above. In 1646 Winslow stated that in one of the churches of the Plymouth settlement (presumably that of Chauncy at Scituate) the pastor " waiveth the administration of baptism to infants." Remonstrance on the part of the synod seems to have led to the resumption of infant baptism, though this future president of the college at Cambridge continued to insist upon immersion. About 1652 or 1653 Henry Dunster, the highly efficient first president of the college at Cambridge (1640 onward), became so profoundly impressed against infant baptism that he did not feel at liberty longer to keep his views in abeyance, and after many confer-

ences with the overseers and ample 4. Baptists warning he was obliged at great sac-

in Xassa- rifice of sentiment and material good chusetts. to relinquish his position. The pa tience of the authorities and their willingness for him to continue in the office pro vided he would cease to agitate against infant baptism speak well for their tolerant spirit. The influence of Dunster is clearly manifest in the move ment for the founding of the First Baptist church of Boston under the leadership of Thomas Gould (1655). In 1663 John Myles, a Welsh Baptist minister who had acted as one of Cromwell's Tryers for Wales, driven from his post by the Act of Uni formity (1662), came with his congregation to Massachusetts and secured a tract of land in Reho both, near the Rhode Island border. Partly be cause of their remoteness from churches of the standing order and partly perhaps because they were less aggressive than most Baptists in their condemnation of the union of Church and State, they suffered little molestation until 1667 and even then they were permitted to continue their worship on condition of holding their meetings at a greater distance from the Rehoboth congregational meet ing-house. Myles proved himself a man of power and built up at Swansea in Rehoboth a vigorous church of the Calvinistic type. He also gave valu able assistance to the Boston brethren after they had secured a measure of tolleration. OrgaIllZa tiOn was not effected by the Boston antipedobap tists until 1665, when Thomas Gould and three

others were baptized and joined with Richard Goodall and four others who had been baptized in England. In spite of persecution this faithful body grew to considerable size. Even after the Act of Toleration (1689) had come into forceinEngland, intolerance held sway in Boston. In 1680 John Russel, an officer of the church, published in London, with an " Address to the Christian Reader " by Kiffin, Dyke, Collins, Knollys, Harris, and Cox, A Brief Narrative of some considerable passages concerning the first gathering and further progress of a Church o f Christ, in Gospel Order, in Boston in New England, commonly (though falsely) called by the name o f Anabaptists, for clearing their innocency from the scandalous things laid to their charge (reprinted in Wood's History o f the First Baptist Church in Boston). English Congregationalists, and English Baptists, protested in vain against the intolerance of the Massachusetts authorities in dealing with the Boston Baptists, partly because of the justification that it would seem to furnish to the home government for the persecution of non-conformists. A Six Principle church was formed at Swansea in 1693, and in 1732 a Baptist church was formed in Rehoboth by John Comer, the able pastor of the original Newport church, who had left his charge because of his adoption of the doctrine and practise of laying-on of hands, but had remained a Calvinist. Indian Baptist churches were formed by 1694 on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island through the labors of Peter Foulger, of the First Baptist church of Newport, and others. In 1735 through the influence of Comer a church was organized at Sutton, Mass., from which, by friendly division, the Leicester church was formed in 1738. The Brimfield, Mass., church was gathered and organized through Ebenezer Moulton in 1736.

In 1682 some members of the Boston church who had settled at Kittery, Me., sought and obtained the cooperation of the church in the organization of a new church at that place. The leaders were Humphrey Churchwood and William Screven. The latter was approved as a minister by the parent church and became pastor of the new body. Persecution soon broke up the Kittery church. In 1683 or 1684 Screven made his way to South Carolina, accompanied or followed by several of the members, and settled on the Ashley river, a short distance from the place where Charleston was about to be founded. About 1683 a colony of Britons, among whom were several Baptists, had settled on Port Royal island. At about the same time a large company from Somerset 6. In South shire, England. including several Bap-

Carolina. tists of intelligence and social rank (Lady Blake and Lady Axtell), settled in the Charleston neighborhood and became mem bers of the church at Somerton with Screven as pastor. In 1693 the church was removed to Charleston, which was assuming commercial im portance. Screven died in 1713 leaving the church with a membership of nearly a hundred. Through his zeal, preaching stations had been established at a number of points and something practical had been done for the evangelization of the negro slaves. In 1733 a schism occurred that resulted in the

470

Baptista THE NEW SCHAFF-AERZOG 470

organization of a General Baptist church, and in 1736 membefs residing in the Ashley river community withdrew to form a church of their own. This greatly weakened the Charleston church and by the close of the present period it had become almost extinct. In 1737 a company of Welsh Baptists from Welsh Tract, Pa. (now Delaware), settled on the Peedee river, S. C., and formed the Welsh Neck church.

In 1714, in response to an appeal from some Baptists in Isle of Wight County, Va., Robert

Nordin was sent out by the General e. In Vir- Baptists of London. He succeeded ginia, in organizing a church at Burleigh North Caro. and another in Surrey county. In

Conneot1727 a Baptist church was formed out. in northern North Carolina under the leadership of Paul Palmer, who had been a member of the Welsh Tract church and who was presumably Calvinistic. In Connecticut, through the labors of Valentine Wightman, Stephen Gorton, and others, General (Six Principles) Bap tist churches were constituted at Groton (1705), New London (1726), Wallingford (1735), and Farmington (now Southington) a little later. These were closely associated with the General Baptist churches of Providence, Newport, South Kingston, and Dartmouth, R. I.

In 1643 Lady Moody, who had become a zealous antipedobaptist, left Massachusetts and settled at Gravesend, N. Y. On her way she spent some time in New Haven, where she wan to her views the wife of Theophilus Eaton, first governor of the colony and daughter of an Englishbishop. Formany years religious services were held by Lady Moody without regular church organization. Francis Doughty, driven from Massachusetts on account of antipedobaptist views, labored for a while at Flushing and left for Virginia in 1656 without effecting a church organization. In 1656 William Wickenden, of Providence, preached, baptized, and

celebrated the Lord's Supper at 7. in New Flushing, but was driven away after

York. imprisonment and an attempt to

collect from him a heavy fine. From 1711 onward Valentine Wightman, of Connecticut (General Baptist), frequently visited New York on the invitation of Nicholas Eyres, a prosperous brewer, who with others was baptized by Wightman in 1714. Eyres became pastor of the congregation. He was ordained and the church recognized by brethren from Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1724. This church became involved in debt and controversy (Arminianism vs. Calvinism) and was extinct before the close of this period. At Oyster Bay, L. I., there were Baptists from 1700 onward. A Baptist church (probably General) was constituted a little later.

The Quaker colonies furnished an attractive field for Baptist effort. The first Baptist church founded in this section was that at Cold Spring (1684) through the labors of Thomas Dungan, an Irish minister who had been a member of the First Church, Newport. This church became extinct by 1702. The Lower Dublin, or Pennepek, church followed in 1688. Several families of Welsh Bap-

tists, with one Irish and one English Baptist, had settled in the neighborhood two years earlier. Elias Keach, the prodigal son of the famous Benjamin Keach, of London, was converted while practising imposture upon the brethren and became a preacher of power. Under his leadership the Pennepek church was organized in 1688, and in a few years through his evangelistic efforts baptized believers were to be found at the Falls, Cold Spring,

Burlington, Cohansey, Salem, Penn's 8. In the Neck, Chester, Philadelphia, and other Quaker places, who continued to be members Colonies. of the Pennepek church enjoying

occasional preaching services and gathering quarterly at different places for evangelistic services and communion. Keach returned to England in 1692. Here also controversy arose respecting the laying-on of hands and occasioned Keach's withdrawal in 1689 from the pastorate of the church. The laying-on of hands became the common practise of the churches of the Philadelphia Association, but was never a term of communion. Churches were formed in the following places: Piscataqua, N. J. (1689), Middletown, N. J. (1688), Cohansey, N. J. (1691), Philadelphia (1698), Welsh Tract, Del. (1703), Great Valley, Pa. (1711). The Welsh element prevailed, but many of the members of the churches were English and not a few had had New England experience. Many Mennonites settled in this region and reenforced the antipedobaptist life; so also the Dunkers. Baptists in Philadelphia were considerably strengthened (1692-1700) by the conversion to their views of a number of Keithian Quakers. Some of these were constituent members of the church and in 1707 the Keithians invited the Baptists to share the use of their meeting-house. Seventh-Day Baptists early appeared in this region and churches were organized by them at Piscataqua (1705), Newtown (1700), and Shiloh (1737). In 1707 churches which from the beginning had held general meetings together joined in organizing the Philadelphia Association, than which no agency has been so potent in the unification and extension of the denominational life. The adoption, with modifications, by the Association of the English Particular Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 tended to fix the doctrinal type of what was long the most aggressive aggregation of Baptists in America. Before the Great Awakening the Baptists of the Philadelphia Association were carrying on successful missionary work.

2. From 1740 to 1821: A Socinianized Arminianism long before the begirming of this period had wrecked a number o? the older Calvinistic Baptist churches. As in England, so in America, evangelical religion was at a low ebb during the first third of the eighteenth century. The Great Awakening (see REVIVALS Oh RELIGION) found the Baptists wholly unprepared to cooperate. The Arminian Baptists were repelled by the Calvinistic teachings of the great evangelists, while Baptists of all parties had suffered so much at the hands of pedobaptists that they would have been disinclined to join heartily in any general Christian movement. Yet no denomination profited more largely by

471

471 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

the revival of religion. A considerable number of " New Light " churches which had been formed by way of separation from churches of the standing order that opposed the revival, or in new communities from the products of the new evangelism, came to feel that the practise of infant baptism was inconsistent with their demand for regenerate

1. The membership. In many cases " New Great Light " churches were divided in opin- Awaken- ion respecting infant baptism and mu tual toleration of each others' opinions was agreed upon. Convictions proved too strong to allow mixed churches long to persist and separation proved inevitable. Among the most valuable accessions to the Baptist ranks from this source was Isaac Backus (d. 1806), who was for many years the champion of the denomi nation in the cause of religious equality and wrote a meritorious history of the New England Baptists. Hezekiah Smith (d. 1805) after his graduation at Princeton (1762) wrought as an evangelist in South Carolina and more largely in New England. While pastor of the Haverhill (Mass.) church he devoted a large share of his time to evangelistic effort and to the collection of funds for the support of Rhode Island College. The First Church of Boston, under the influence of Jeremy Condy (pastor 1739-65), had become Arminian (Socinian) in sentiment and strongly opposed the revival. Under the well educated and eloquent Samuel Stillman (pastor after 1765) the. church regained its evangelical zeal and its high standing among the churches. In 1769 the membership of the church was more than doubled. Under the influence of the Great Awakening a number of brethren led by Ephraim Bound formed a second Baptist church (1743). Valentine Wightman, one of the very few Baptista of the older sort who had entered heartily into the revival movement, assisted in the ordination of Bound. The Swansea and Rehoboth churches held resolutely aloof from the revival movement and would have no fellowship with the New Light brethren until 1771 when several hundred were added to their membership through evangelistic effort. Some of the converts formed a new church at Rehoboth which practised open communion. At about the same time the "New Light" Congre gational church of Rehoboth suffered schism, Elhanan Winchester, a baptized evangelist, be coming pastor of the antipedobaptist party which organized on an open communion basis. Win chester refused to administer the Supper to any but baptized believers and was excommunicated. He afterward became a Universalist leader. A third open communion church was formed in this region in 1777.

The churches of the Philadelphia Association had reached a position of assured strength that enabled them to assert their principles 8. The Phil- with the utmost decision while main-

adelphia tag the most friendly relations Associa- tion. with their brethren of other denomi nations. The growth of the churches of Pennsylvania and New Jersey during this period was only normal. The Philadelphia Association, being long the only body of the sort among the

Calvinistic Baptists, had by 1762 extended its influence so as to embrace churches in New England, New York, Virginia, and Maryland. At this time the association comprised only twenty-nine churches with a membership of 1,318. The territory of the association was covered by the evangelizing activity of the Tennents and the Presbyterian discipline was so effective that few of the converts became Baptists. In 1756 measures were taken by the association for the establishment of a grammar-school under the care of Isaac Eaton, at Hopewell, N..h.

About 1762, members of the association under the leadership of Morgan Edwards began to agitate and plan for the establishment of a Baptist College. The graduation of James Manning and Hezekiah Smith at this time

8. Rhode from Princeton and the availability Island Col- of the former for educational work

legs m.ahave brought the matter to an (Brown issue. Rhode Island was selected as Univer sityl. the most promising location for a col lege because of its men of eminence, its central position, its lack of a college, and its devotion to civil and religious liberty. In 1663 Manning was sent to Rhode Island to con fer with leading brethren there. In 1764 a charter was secured, which, while giving control to the Baptists, provided for the participation in the government of the institution of Quakers, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians. The charter provides: " Into this liberal and catholic institu tion shall never be admitted any religious tests. But, on the contrary, all the members hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience; and the places of professors, tutors, and all other officers, the president alone excepted, shall be free and open for all denomina tions of Protestants . . . and that sectarian dif ferences shag not make any part of the public and classical instruction." The trustees and fellows included the most prominent men of the various denominations. Morgan Edwards visited England on behalf of the college and Hezekiah Smith made a canvass of the South. It was arranged that pending the raising of funds Manning should min ister to a few Baptist families at Warren and con duct there a grammar-school (1764). In 1765 Manning was appointed president and in 1769 seven young men received the bachelor's degree-the first academic degrees ever conferred by a Baptist institution. In 1804 Rhode Island College became Brown University and under this name has steadily grown in equipment and influence. Among its presidents have been Francis Wayland, Barnas Sears, Alexis Caswell, E. G. Robinson, E. B. An drews, and W. H. P. Faunoe.

As a result of the influence of the Baptists of the Philadelphia Association, the Warren Association was formed in 1767. The moving spirits were James Manning and Hezekiah Smith. Only four churches participated in its organization, Isaac Backus and many of the "New Light" brethren as well as all of the older churches holding aloof from fear lest the body should " assume any jurisdiction over the churches." The influence of the Warren Association was soon felt

472

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 472

and became mighty in favor of education, evangelization, and religious liberty.

In 1749 Oliver Hart from the Philadelphia Association went to Charleston, S. C., where he was influential in reviving the Baptist cause and in forming the Charleston Association after the model of the Philadelphia. From 1742 onward members of the Philadelphia Association (Gano, Vanhom, Miller, Thomas) visited the scattered and unorganized Baptists of Virginia and North Carolina, won 4. Southern some Arminiana to Calvinism, intro-

Aesocia- duced better church discipline, and tions. secured the organization (1765) of the

Kehukee Association, composed of churches in Virginia and North Carolina. Through the labors of David Thomas, also a gift of the Philadelphia Association, several churches were constituted in the Northern Neck of Virginia and in 1766 formed the Ketokton Association with the approval and cooperation of the Philadelphia. This association adopted the Philadelphia Confession, with its requirement of the laying-on of hands.

Of momentous importance for the diffusion of Baptist principles throughout the South was the enthusiastic evangelism of Shubael Steams and Daniel Marshall, " New Light" Baptists from New England (1754 onward). Steams had become a Baptist in New England (1751) and had felt an irresistible impulse to devote his life to missionary work in the South. Marshall was led to Baptist views after his arrival in Virginia from contact with Baptists of the Philadelphia Association type. Within the next thirty years multitudes were converted and accepted Baptist views through their ministry, and churches were organized in Virginia., North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The Sandy Creek (N. C.) church was 5. Evangel- organized by Steams in 1755 and in a istio Work few ears it had over 600 members. of Mar 8 In 1758 the Sandy Creek Association

shall. was formed, which for years embraced

all the churches of the Separate type in the South. In seventeen years the connection had grown to forty-two churches with 125 ministers. The evangelism of Steams and Marshall was characterized by an enthusiasm that verged upon fanaticism. Many new converts, without previous educational equipment or subsequent training, entered zealously upon the work of evangelization and the people heard with gladness their uncouth but earnest testimony to the power of the Gospel.

Because of their fiery enthusiasm and their unwillingness to take out licenses and conform to the Colonial conditions of toleration the Separate Baptists of Virginia suffered much persecution in genuine martyr fashion and thereby won for themselves great, popular acceptance and made the epiccopal estabshment highly odious. Virginia Baptists of the older type conformed to the laws and '~,

suffered little persecution, and looked 8. Separate with disfavor upon the Separate Bap Baptists in tints as unduly enthusiastic and as

· allowing untrained and untried men

(and even women) freely to evangelize. Steams was disposed to lay more stress on the interdependence than the independence of the numer-

ous and widely scattered churches of the Sandy Creek Association. Under his influence overtures from the Regular Baptists for the union of Regulars and Separates were rejected (1767) by a small majority. By 1770 many churches and ministers of the association had become dissatisfied with the rigorous ruling of Stearns and insisted upon the division of the body into three associations. The result was the formation of the General Association of Separate Baptists, for Virginia, and the RapidAnn Association, for South Carolina. From 1770 onward the Separate Baptista increased in Virginia from 1,335 in 1771 to 3,195 in 1773. In 1774 it was determined by the General Association to restore the office of apostle, and Samuel Harris, the most successful of the Virginia evangelists, was appointed apostle for the southern district, and a little later John Waller and Elijah Craig became apostles for the northern district. In 1775 the question of general and particular redemption was debated in the General Association, and by a small majority particular redemption prevailed. The three apostles withdrew by way of protest and disruption seemed inevitable. But better counsels prevailed and mutual toleration was agreed upon. Arminian tendencies gradually disappeared and in 1783 the Philadelphia Confession was adopted with provision against its too strict construction.

Virginia Baptists were among the earliest and stanchest supporters of the Revolution and led in the struggle for religious equality. The General Association in 1776 appointed a committee on grievances, which zealously devoted itself to the abolition of dissenters' disabilities until the establishment itself was abolished, the glebe lands confiscated, and absolute separation of Church and State secured. Not content with being chiefly instrumental in securing religious equality in Virginia, Virginia Baptists watched closely the 7. Baptists forming of the Federal Constitution ~d ~- and were instrumental in procuring the

ious idb- srtlon of art. i, which prohibits arty. Congress from taking any cogni zance of religion. From 1883 on ward Regular Baptista of Virginia joined hands with the Separates in the struggle for religious equality and the separation of Church and State and in 1787 the two parties united, agreeing to bury in oblivion the names Regular and Separate, and adopting the name " United Baptist Churches of Christ in Virginia." In New England the strug gle for religious liberty on the part of the Baptists was no less heroic, but it was far less successful. In Virginia the Episcopal clergy were corrupt and oppressive and were bitterly opposed to the Revo lution, and Baptists had the cooperation of leading statesmen, of the patriotic masses, and (in most meas ures) of the Presbyterians; while in New England the clergy and members of the standing order were leaders in the cause of Colonial independence and Baptists became unpopular by agitating their griev ances and threatening to appeal to England for their redress at the very time when resistance to British authority was being determined upon. This difference of attitude of the Established Church in the two sections accounts for the fact that the

473

4'73 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

Baptists of Virginia not only led in the struggle for religious liberty but multiplied in numbers during the Revolution and after, while Massachusetts and Connecticut Baptists failed to secure religious liberty and made little progress during the Revolution. In 1812 there were in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee 108,843 Baptist communicants, while those of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut numbered 32,372, and those of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, 26,852. In Virginia alone there were 35,655 Baptist church members.

8. From 1812 to the Present Time: While Baptists had by the beginning of this period attained to a numerical strength of nearly 200,000, they were deficient in culture and had made almost no provision for an educated ministry. Brown University was still the only institution for higher education, and this provided no theological course. In Boston, Providence, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, and in a number of other churches in the Philadelphia, Warren, and Charleston Associations there was considerable culture. The Charleston Association had established (1791) an Education Fund, and by 1813 had aided nineteen young ministers in securing an education, some under private tutorship, some at Brown University, and some in other institutions. In 1812 the Baptist Education Society of the Middle States was constituted and Dr. William Staughton, of Philadelphia, began to instruct students for the

ministry on its behalf. The vast 1. Lack of majority of American Baptists at this at Educa- - ted 2figarded ministerial education ted as an impertinent human effort to

exercise the divine prerogative of calling and equipping ministers, and looked with disfavor upon the paying and receiving of ministerial salaries as introducing a commercial element where the Holy Spirit should work unimpeded. A large proportion of Baptist preachers owned their farms and were self-supporting. Many of them without scholastic advantages acquired considerable education and were men of power. The tendency was to neglect the towns, where the selfsupporting method was impracticable and where enthusiastic but illiterate ministers were less acceptable. Some able ministers who could have afforded to minister in towns and cities resolutely refused to leave their country homes and work. Churches like those of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia found the utmost difficulty in supplying their pulpits when vacancies occurred. The only periodical publication in circulation at the time was the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, the first number of which was published in 1803 and the twelfth in 1808. Under the editorship of Dr. Thomas Baldwin, of Boston, it exerted a strong but not very wide-spread influence in favor of missions, education, and better methods of denominational work. The Lake Baptist Missionary Society (afterward called the Hamilton Missionary Society) was formed in Central New York (1807) for domestic evangelization. From the beginning of the century (or earlier) Baptists of Boston, New

York, Philadelphia, and Charleston joined with

other denominations in contributing toward the

support of the missionary work of Carey and his

associates in India. In 1812 Philadelphia Baptists

began to hold monthly union meetings and larger

quarterly meetings " for the spread of the gospel."

The conversion to Baptist views of Adoniram

Judson and Luther Rice (qq.v.), as they were about

to open up missionary work in India under the

auspices of the American Board of Commissioners

for Foreign Missions, marks an era in the history

of American Baptists. Judson announced his con

version to American Baptists through Thomas

Baldwin, of Boston, and L. Bolles, of Salem, and

threw himself and his missionary enterprise upon

the liberality and enlightened zeal of the denomina

tion. The more intelligent Baptist communities

rejoiced that so glorious a responsi

2. Xission. bility had been providentially thrust

ary and upon the denomination and began at

tional once to organize local missionary so

Work. cieties for the diffusion of the mis

sionary spirit and the raising of

funds. " The Baptist Society for Propagating

the Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts " was

formed at Boston in 1813 with Baldwin as presi

dent and Daniel Sharp as secretary. Rice returned

to America (summer of 1813) for the purpose of

arousing American Baptists to a sense of their

obligation and opportunity. Through his efforts

local missionary societies were formed from Maine

to Georgia and considerable money was raised.

In May, 1814, thirty-three leading brethren from

eleven States met in Philadelphia and organized the

" General Missionary Convention of the Baptist

Denomination in the U. S. A. for Foreign Mis

sions," to meet triennially. Richard Furman, of

Charleston, was chosen president and Thomas

Baldwin secretary. The Convention appointed a

Board of Commissioners as an executive with

Baldwin as president and Philadelphia (from 1826

onward, Boston) as headquarters. William Staugh

ton of Philadelphia was the first corresponding

secretary. By 1817 Rice and other leaders had

become convinced that provision for the educa

tion of ministers was absolutely essential to the

progress of denominational work at home and

abroad, and the Triennial Convention of 1817 ap

proved of the raising of funds for this purpose.

In 1818 a theological institution was opened

in Philadelphia, with William Staughton and Irah

Chase as instructors. As early as 1815 Rice had

reached profound conviction regarding the neces

sity of missionary work in the newly settled

regions of the West, and in 1817 the Triennial

Convention decided to enter upon this work. Two

zealous and well educated ministers, J. M. Peck

and J. E. Welsh, were appointed home mission

aries. The work of the former proved apostolic

and was of momentous importance. From 1817

onward Rice labored with consuming zeal for the

establishment in Washington of a National Baptist

University. Columbian College was opened in 1822

and has done a noble work. The theological work

inaugurated in Philadelphia was transferred to

Washington in 1821. As a means of promoting

474

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 474

the missionary and educational work Rice began (1816) the publication of The Lacer Day Lumi nary and (1822) The Columbian Star.

By 1826 the college had become inextricably involved in debt. The situation became so des perate that the mission funds were drawn- upon to meet pressing claims. From the beginning the great mass of the Baptists had shown themselves indifferent or hostile to the missionary and educa tional enterprises. It was easy for ignorant and illiberal pastors to persuade their still more ignorant and illiberal parishioners that the introduction of commercialism into religion was of the devil s.-id that they were doing -God service in resisting all efforts at exploitation on the part of the money gatherers. In many cases associations excluded churches, and churches members, for a. Opposi- contributing to the funds of the enter tion and prises fostered by the Triennial Con Difculties. vention. State Conventions were formed as bonds of union for those who were alive to the importance of united effort. Massachusetts Baptists had effected a State organi zation in 1802. South Carolina followed in the year 1821. In a few years nearly every State had organized a convention made up exclusively of cooperating churches, associations, and individ uals. In the States of Ohio, Tennessee, and Ken tucky, the missionary movement was well-nigh overwhelmed by the antieffort party. In Ohio, Baptists contributed for Foreign Missions in 1820, $547. From 1821 to 1828 nothing was given, while $10 constituted the contribution in 1829 and $5 that of the following year. In Tennessee, mission ary societies were dissolved and associations re scinded all resolutions favorable to the schemes of the Triennial Convention. Not till after 1840 could "~e cause of missions get a hearing. The most influential leader of the movement was Daniel Parker, an illiterate enthusiast, who held to an extreme type of supralapsarianism and wrought up his followers to a fanatical hatred of all organized effort. It was in the regions occupied by this perverse type of Baptists that Alexander Campbell (q.v.) worked so successfully, combining, as he did, with his bitter denunciation of human institutions, vigorous antagonism to hyper-Calvinistic theology. In 1825, owing in part to the financial difficulties of Columbian College, and the willingness of New England Baptists to provide for its support, the theological work was transferred to Newton Theo logical Institution at Newton Center, Mass., with Irah Chase as president. In 1819 the Baptists of New York laid the foundations for Colgate Uni versity at Hamilton, N. Y., with its literary and theological departments. In 1826, for reasons above suggested, the Triennial Con- 4. Theo. vention left Columbian College to its logical own resources, retaining only the right Seminaries. to nominate fifty brethren from whom its Board should be chosen. The Baptists in the various States have been too much occupied in founding and building up local colleges to give adequate support to Columbian, and recently its Board have thought it best to declare it unde nominatioaal and to change its name to George

Washington University. Ample provision has been made by the denomination for ministerial education by the establishment, in addition to the institutions already mentioned, of Rochester Theological Seminary (1850), at Rochester, N. Y., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1859, Louisville, Ky.), Divinity School of the University of Chicago (Baptist Union Theological Seminary, Morgan Park, Ill., 1867), Crozer Theological Seminary (1868, Upland, Penn.), Pacific Coast Baptist Theological Seminary (1890, Berkeley, Cal.), Baylor Theological Seminary (1901, connected with Baylor University, Waco, Tex.), Kansas City Theological Seminary (1901), and the Theological Department of Union University (1867, Richmond, Va.). These institutions have property and endowments aggregating about $7,000,000, over 100 instructors, and over 1,200 students.

The denomination maintains about 100 universities and colleges of various grades with property

and endowments aggregating about 6. 'Univer. $45,000,000, nearly 2,000 instructors,

sities, col- and 30,000 students. The most im- leges, and portant of these are the University 8ohoo1®. of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. (founded

1891, with assets of $20,000,000); Brown University, Providence, R. I. (1764, $5,500; 000); Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y. (1819, $2,500,000); Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Penn. (1846, $1,700,000); Baylor University, Waco, Tex. (1845, $600,000); Colby College, Waterville, Me. (1818, $700,000); Denison University, Granville, O. (1831, $1,050,000); Stetson University, Deland, Fla. (1887, $600,000); Mercer University, Macon, Ga. (1838, $550,000); Richmond College, Richmond, Va. (1832, $1,065,000); Rochester University, Rochester, N. Y. (1850, $1,370,000); Wake Forest College, Wake Forest, N. C. (1834, $500,000); William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo. (1849, $550,000); Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich. (1833, $431,000); Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. (1861, $1,660,000). A score of other institutions with less ample resources are doing good work along chosen lines. There are more than 100 academic institutions under the auspices of the denomination, with nearly 20,000 students and nearly $5,000,000 worth of property.

By 1832 the domestic missionary work of the Triennial Convention had reached such proportions that the need of a separate Board and a separate appeal for funds was apparent. At this time the American Baptist Home Mission Society was organized. The Society has always made New

York City its headquarters. Its mis s. The sionary work on the frontiers, among

Home the Indians ne Mission BW and foreign Society. PoPulations, in Canada, Me%1c0, Cuba,

and Porto Rico, employs at present over 1,500 missionaries and teachers. There are twenty-five schools and colleges for colored people supported by it wholly or in part. It has nearly $1,500,000 of permanent funds for various purposes, and mission and school properties valued at $1,300,000. Since its organization nearlv 200,000 persons have been baptized by its missionaries and nearly 6,000 churches organized.

475

475 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

The demand for an agency for the publication

and circulation of denominational and other

religious literature led to the organization of the

Baptist General Tract Society in 1824. Its head

quarters were at Washington and it was under the

general direction of Luther Rice. The complica

tions that arose in connection with Columbian Col

lege and the superior publishing and distributing

facilities offered by Philadelphia led to a change

of location in 1826. In 1840 a revised constitution

with the name American Baptist Publication

Society was adopted. The society has

7. The formed an important factor in the

Publica- tion growth of the denomination and it has Lion so- kept abreast of its needs. The annual

oiety. ~eipts of the publishing department at present amount to nearly $900,000 and in its missionary and bible departments to about $200,000. Its net assets amount to about $1,600,000. The refusal of the American Bible Society to appropriate funds for the publication of a Burmese version in which the words for "baptize" and " baptism " were translated by words equivalent to "immerse" and "immersion" (see BIBLE SOCIE TiEs, III, § 2) led to the organization of the American and Foreign Bible Society (1836). The refusal of this society to secure the publication of an English version in which " immersion " should supplant " baptism "led to the formation of the American Bible Union (1850), which employed Thomas J. Conant, H. B. Hackett, and others to prepare a new version of the Bible with critical apparatus and notes. The New Testament and portions of the Old were completed. Hostility between the American and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Union was crippling to both and in 1883 both were compelled by a great denominational gathering to relinquish the field, the Missionary Union assuming responsibility for the publication and circulation of the Scriptures in foreign languages in its fields and the Publication Society undertaking to complete and circulate the Bible Union and the Anglo-American Revised versions, as well as the King James version.

Before 1840 the slavery question was agitated in Baptist circles. Many Southern Baptists, including leading ministers, were slaveholders, and nearly all were very sensitive to Northern abolitionist utterances. In 1843 the neutrality of the Foreign Mission Board was reaffirmed. With a view to making continued cooperation practicable, Richard Fuller, an eminent Southern Baptist, offered a resolution in the Triennial Convention for 1844 for the elimination from the consideration of the body of all matters foreign to the object designated in the constitution and declaring cooperation in the proper work of the body not to involve or imply concert or sympathy as regards other matters. This resolution was withdrawn in favor of one whereby the body disclaimed all sanction of slavery or of antislavery and left each individual free in a Christian manner and spirit to express and promote his own views on these subjects. Notwithstanding the adoption of this resolution the Foreign Mission Board was thought 4o have procured the resignation of an Indian missionarywho

was a slaveholder. Southern Baptists were convinced that thenceforth alaveholders would be discriminated against and that future

e. The sons of the Convention would be ren6outhern dered tumultuous by attacks on slavery Baptists. and rejoinders. A literary controversy between Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, and Richard Fuller awakened much interest and demonstrated the impossibility of harmony between Northern and Southern Baptists. Conciliatory measures were attempted on both aides; but the conviction had become overmastering among Southern leaders that the Baptists of the South. could work more successfully with separate Convention and Boards. This policy was carried into effect in May, 1845, by 370 messengers from the various Southern States. Home and Foreign Mission Boards were at once constituted, and both these departments of work have been vigorously prosecuted. The Foreign Mission Board (Richmond) has for years conducted successful missionary work in Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Africa, China, and Japan, and has attained to an annual income of about $300,000. The total membership of native churches under the Board is reported (1905) as 11,423. The Home Mission Board (Atlanta) expends nearly $200,000 a year within the bounds of the Convention, in Cuba, and in the insular possessions of the United States. The Sundayschool Board (Nashville), besides furnishing Sunday-school papers and other requisites, publishes a number of books, and fosters Sunday-school work through a professorship in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and through district secretaries who labor throughout its constituency. Its annual receipts are about $125,000. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is cherished by the Convention, which nominates brethren from whom the members of its Board are chosen and receives its annual report.

After the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Foreign Mission Board of the Triennial Convention became the American Baptist Missionary Union, which has since had annual meetings in connection with the American Baptist Publication Society, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, etc. Women's auxiliary societies cooperate with the Northern and Southern Boards.

The Baptist Congress is not strictly a denominational organization; but is supported by subscribing members and holds an annual meet-

9. The ing for the free discussion of current Baptist questions of doctrine, polity, and life. Congress Its annual reports furnish the public and with the most advanced thought. The Young People's Baptist Young People's Union of Union. America (1891 onward) seeks to pro mote Christian activity, intelligence, and denominational spirit among the Baptist young people of the United States and Canada.

Baptist owners of slaves were by no means indifferent to their spiritual welfare. It is estimated that there were 400,000 negro Baptists in the United States at the close of the Civil War. Most of these were members of the churches of their masters; but in the towns and cities many negro churches had

476

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 476

been constituted. The first of these on record is that in Savannah, Ga. (1788) of which Andrew Bryan was for many years pastor. The largest

negro Baptist church before emanci- 10. Col- pation was that in Richmond, Va., of

ored Bap- which for twenty-five ears Robert tists. Ryland, president of Richmond College, was pastor. In many churches controlled by the whites a majority were negroes. After emancipation they everywhere effected separate church organization. Associations were almost immediately formed, State Conventions soon followed, and in 1880 a National Convention was organized with its Home Mission, Foreign Mission, Education, Publishing, and Baptist Young People's Union Boards. Besides the University, Theological Seminary, and Colleges founded and fostered by the American Baptist Home Mission Society, they have established, own, and control scores of institutions of higher and lower grades. Over 15,000 students are in attendance at these schools. While hundreds of their ministers have enjoyed educational advantages and are in a position to elevate those under their ministry, thousands are illiterate and incapable of wise leadership. Since emancipation they have increased in number fivefold, the present membership, according to the statistician of the National Baptist Convention (1905) being 2,189,000.

The first to gather German Baptist churches in America was Conrad Fleischmann, a Swiss, who in 1841 organized three churches in Pennsylvania.

By 1851 there were eight small churches 11. German with 405 members. The present mem-

Baptists. berahip is about 25,000. They have

seven annual Conferences and a triennial General Conference. Their publishing house is located in Cleveland and their training-school for ministers is organically connected with the Rochester Theological Seminary. Educational and missionary work among the Germans of the United States and Canada has been from the first generously assisted by American Baptists.

The first Scandinavian Baptist church in America was formed in Illinois in 1848. At present there are about 5,000 Dano-Norwegian Baptists with eighty-six churches, whose representatives meet annually in seven Conferences. Their ministers 12. Soandi- axe educated in the Dano-Norwegian

naviaa Department of the Divinity School of Baptism. the University of Chicago. Swedish

Baptista (first church organized 1853) are far more numerous, having at present over 300 churches and nearly 25,000 members. The education of their ministers is provided for in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Scandinavian Baptista are most numerous in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.

4. Minor Baptist Parties in the United States:

(a) The Six-Principles Baptista are a survival of the General Baptista that prevailed in Rhode Island and Connecticut in the early time. They still contend for the laying-on of hands as an indispensable ordinance. They have at present less than a score of churches with less than a thousand members.

(b) The first Seventh-Day Baptist church was organized at Newport, R. I., in 1671. As the name

indicates, they make the celebration of the Jewish Sabbath as the day of rest and worship rather than the Lord's Day an essential, and devote much of their attention to showing the error of adopting another day and the evil consequences that flow from this perversion. They have institutions of learning at Milton, Wis., and Alfred Center, N. Y., and circulate considerable literature through their publishing house at the latter place. They have ninety-seven churches with a membership of less than 9,000,acattered over twenty-four States. For the so-called Seventh-Day Baptists, German, see COMMUNISM, II, 5.

(c) The Free-Will Baptists originated in New Hampshire in 1780 under the leadership of Benjamin Randall who left the Congregationalist body to become an anti-Calvinistic and open communion Baptist. The Arminian teaching was no doubt due to Methodist influence. Free-Will Baptists took an active part in the antislavery agitation (1835 onward) and thus closed the South against their influence. They were reenforeed in 1841 by 2,500 )free-Communion Baptists of New York State; but the Adventist movement a little later deprived them of a large number. From 1845 to 1857 their numbers declined from 60,000 to 49,000, but by 1870 they regained this loss. They have lost about 1,500 members since 18110; the present membership (1905) is 86,322. They have 1,543 churches distributed over thirty-three States. They early adopted quarterly and annual conferences, the former made up of delegates of churches, the latter of delegates from the former. The system is overtopped by the General Conference composed of delegates from the local annual conferences. The quarterly meeting may discipline churches, the annual meeting quarterly meetings, and the General Conference annual meetings. Ministers are first licensed by the quarterly meeting and after probation are ordained by the council appointed by the same body. Women are eligible for ordination to the ministry. Negotiations looking to the union of the Free-Will Baptista with the Regular Baptista of the North are pending with good prospects of success.

(d) It has been noted that the General Baptists from Virginia first introduced Baptist teaching into North Carolina. Some of the churches formed under this influence refused to amalgamate with the Separate and Regular Baptista. After a time they adopted the name Original Free-Will Baptista to distinguish themselves from the more numerous body mentioned above. They differ from the FreeWill Baptists in practising foot-washing, anointing the sick with oil, restricting the ministerial office to men, and having ruling elders for the settlement of controversies. Annual conferences may silence unworthy preachers, disown elders, and settle church difficulties. They have three Conferences, 167 churches, and less than 12,000 members, all in North Carolina and South Carolina.

(e) A number of General Baptist churches of the older English type failed to amalgamate with the more popular Baptist parties of the nineteenth century. The first association of this party was formed in Kentucky in 1824. This association

477

477 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA savtists

adopted open communion in 1830. A General Association was formed in 1870 to embrace all the churches of the connection. Unlike most of the smaller Baptist bodies, this had increased from 8,000 members in 1870 to 21,362 in 1890. More recent statistics are not available. Their confession of faith indicates closer agreement with Regular Baptista in doctrine and in practise than does that of the Free-Will Baptista. They have about 400 churches in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Nebraska.

(f) A few churches in Indiana have retained the name Separate Baptists. They are in general agreement with Free-Will Baptista. They seem to be confined to Indiana, where they have an association with 24 churches and about 1,600 members.

(g) In the union of Regular and Separate Baptists in Kentucky in 1801 a doctrinal basis not strictly Calvinistic was adopted. About 200 churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, and Arkansas, with a membership of over 13,000, still call themselves United Baptista and hold aloof from the great Baptist body. They are moderately Calvinistic, practise restricted communion, and insist upon foot-washing as an ordinance to be practised by all baptized believers. They have several associations.

(h) Mention has already been made of the bitter opposition that arose in many Baptist communities to the missionary and educational enterprises that centered in the Triennial Convention (1814 onward). The Chemung Association (N. Y. and Penn.) seems to have been the first (1835) to disfellowship other associations that had departed from the simplicity of the doctrine and practise of the gospel by " uniting themselves with the world and what are falsely called benevolent societies founded upon a monied basis." This example was speedily followed by many other associations, especially in the South and Southwest. Besides holding to extreme necessitarian (supralapsarian) doctrine in accordance with which human agency in the conversion of men is absolutely ineffective and the attempt to employ it impertinent,. they practise foot-washing as an ordinance and utterly repudiate missionary, Bible, tract, Sunday-school, and temperance societies, State conventions, theological schools, and similar organizations. The United States census of 1890 brought to light 121; 347 Baptist communicants of this type, with churches in twenty-eight States and the District of Columbia. They are most numerous in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia, but are found all the way from Maine to Texas and from Nebraska to Florida. They call themselves Primitive Baptista; they are commonly called " Hardahells " and Anti-Mission Baptista by their opponents.

(i) The followers of Daniel Parker, the most virulent opponent of the organized work of the denomination (b. in Georgia, ordained in Tennessee in 1806, active in Illinois 1817-36, and in Texas after 1836), are known as the Old Two-Seed-in-theSpirit Predestinarian Baptista. They still persist in twenty-four States and had in 1890 nearly 500 churches with nearly 13,000 members. They

derive their name from the peculiar doctrine of Parker set forth in certain pamphlets (1826-29) on the doctrine of Two Seeds. This was a fantastic dualistic account of the introduction and perpetuation of evil in mankind, reminding of Gnostic speculations. God created Adam and Eve and infused into them particles of himself so that they were wholly good. The devil corrupted them by infusing particles of himself. It was predetermined by God that Eve should bring forth a certain number of good offspring, the seed of God, and that her daughters should do likewise. The evil essence infused by the serpent led to an additional brood of offspring, the seed of Satan or the serpent. For the former the Atonement was absolute, they will all be saved. The Atonement did not apply to the seed of the serpent, who are hopelessly lost. The doctrine of Parker was absolutely fatalistic and was in the worst sense antinomian. His followers go beyond the other Primitive Baptista in their uncompromising hostility to " human institutions."

(k) The Baptist Church of Christ came into separate existence by way of reaction against the antinomian hyper-Calvinism of the churches led by Daniel Parker. They teach general redemption along with perseverance of the saints. Like most of the minor Baptist parties they practise footwashing as an ordinance. This, more than anything else, prevents their union with the great Baptist body; but, like the Primitive Baptista, they seem to object to organized denominational missionary and educational work. The chief strength of the body is in Tennessee, but congregations are found in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas. In 1890 the party had 152 churches w-th a total membership of 8,254.

The Dunkers (q.v.) have much in common with Primitive Baptists, and, with the Church of God founded in Pennsylvania in 1830 by John Winebrenner (see CHURCH Oh GOD, 1), are more worthy to be classed with Baptista than some of the above parties. The River Brethren (q.v.) and the Mennonite body known as the BrCider-Gemeinde (see MENNONITES) have much in common with Baptista. The Disciples of Christ (q.v.), originally an offshoot from the Baptista, agree with the latter in insistiqg upon immersion as the only valid baptism and in their recognition of the sole authority of the Scriptures in matters of faith and practise. They differ from Baptista in a number of important matters, but there is more in common between progressive Disciples and the great Baptist body than there is. between the latter and several of the minor parties that bear the Baptist name. The body who call themselves" Christians," frequently known as the Christian Connection (see CHRISTItM) also regard immersion of believers as the only true baptism. They practise open communion and admit to membership 'those who do not agree with them respecting immersion. In England they would pass for satisfactory Baptista.

III. Baptists in the British Possessions.-1. The Dominion of Canada: The Maritime Provinces were the first to receive Baptist influence. In 1752 a Dutch Baptist named Andres is said to have

478

Baptists THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

settled in Lunenburg and to have disseminated

his principles there. In 1763 Ebenezer Moulton

of Massachusetts organized a church at Horton,

N. S., of Baptista and Congregationalists, which

soon became wholly Baptist. Just before, during,

and after the Revolutionary War, a considerable

number of New England Baptist loyalists found

their way to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and

Prince Edward Island. In 1880 an association

was formed which adopted the English

1. The Particular Baptist Confession of 1689.

Btaritime In 1846 the Baptist Convention of

Provinces. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and

Prince Edward Island was formed

with a constituency of 14,177. Acadia Univer

sity (chartered 1840, successor to Horton Academy,

1828) at Wolfville, N. S., was adopted by the

Convention and has educated a large number of

leaders not only for the Maritime Provinces, but

for Western Canada and the United States. It now

has endowment and equipment worth about $500;

000. The Convention has its domestic and foreign

mission boards and has engaged zealously and

successfully in every line of denominational work.

About 17,000 Free-Will Baptista have united with

the Regulars on the basis of a brief doctrinal state

ment that avoids strict Calvinistic phraseology

and insistence on restricted communion. The

Maritime Baptista number at present about 67,000.

Baptist loyalists in small numbers during the

later years of the eighteenth century found their

way into what is now Ontario and Quebec, and by

the beginning of the nineteenth century about

six small churches had been organized in three

widely separated localities. These were fostered

by missionary effort from the United States and

reenforced by further immigration of their fellow

countrymen. Later a considerable number of

English Baptista of open communion antecedents

came in and were the occasion of discord. In 1816

a company of Scotch Highlanders, who had become

Baptista in connection with the Haldane movement,

settled in the Ottawa region. Most of these became

advocates of restricted communion; but several of

the most eminent (notably John Gilmour) favored

open communion. A society was formed in Eng

land (1836) for fostering Baptist work in Canada.

The Upper Canada Missionary Society refused to

cooperate fully with the educational and mission

ary work that centered in Montreal and was con

ducted under English open communion auspices.

2. Ontario The Canada Baptist College estab

and Que- shed in Montreal in 1838 died of in

bec. anition in 1849, although it had at its

head such scholars as Benjamin Davis

and J. M. Cramp. Dissension prevented the suc

cess of further efforts to provide the denomination

with educational facilities until 1860, when the

Canadian Literary and Theological Institute was

opened at Woodstock with R. A. Fyfe as Principal.

lyfe proved a leader of the first rank and exerted

a strong unifying influence upon the denomination.

By this time the denomination in Ontario and

Quebec had a membership of about 13,000.

After cooperating with the American Baptist

Missionary Union in foreign mission work for a

478

number of years, the Baptists of Ontario and Quebec organized an independent Foreign Mission Society, whose work ha steadily grown until at present $40,000 are expended annually on its missions in India and Bolivia. In 1881 Toronto Baptist College was founded as a theological seminary by Senator William McMaster. This institution developed into McMaster University as a result of the bequest of nearly $1,000,000 by the founder. In 1888 the organization of the denomination was completed in a new constitution and charter, which commits to the Convention made up exclusively of delegates of churches the election of Home Mission, Foreign Mission, Publication, and Education Boards. Baptista in Ontario and Quebec now number about 47,000.

Baptist work in the Canadian Northwest began about 1873. It has grown to large proportions and has enjoyed the support of Baptista in the older Provinces, in Great Britain, and in the United

States. A Convention was organized 8. The in 1881, and Brandon College, at Northwest Brandon, Man., was established in sad British

Colombia1899. The colle alread has equip-

ment . and endowment worth abo$150,000; The Baptist cause in British Columbia has not yet attained to very large dimensions. During the earlier years Baptist churches in this region worked in connection with the American Baptist Home Mission Society. In 1897 they formed a Convention of their own and since that time they have depended for help chiefly upon the Baptista of the older Provinces. Baptists in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories now number about 7,000; in British Columbia, 2,000.

2. Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand: In these colonies Baptista were among the earliest British settlers, and Baptist churches were organized from 1834 onward. The several British types of Baptist life have been represented and some controversy has had place regarding communion, Calvinism and Arminianism, etc.; but the ordinary English open communion type has prevailed. There are still about a dozen churches of the old Particular Baptist antimissionary type. Moat of the churches of the various provinces are groupe4 in seven Unions, which correspond with each other and support in common a religious journal. The Baptist College of Victoria in affiliation with the University of Melbourne was conducted from 1890 to 1900 and then abandoned. Some Foreign Mission work is being accomplished in India in connection with the English Baptist Society. There are at present in Australasia sixty-eight churches and about 21,000 members.' Progress for the past few years has been very slow.

8. The British West Indies, Central America, and ABios: English Baptists commenced missionary work among the negroes of Jamaica in the year 1814. The way had been prepared somewhat by Moses Baker, an American negro Baptist. In fifteen years there were 10,000 Baptists on the island. A negro insurrection in 1831 led to the destruction of much of their church property and to the persecution of the leaders; but sympathy was awakened in Britain and the losses were made

479

4'T9 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Baptists

good. The work was extended to the Bahamas, Trinidad, Honduras, San Domingo, etc. The Jamaica Baptista have at present nearly 200 churches and nearly 34,000 members; in Haiti there are 12 churches with nearly 2,000 members; in Cuba (through American Baptist effort) there are 31 churches with nearly 4,000 members; in the Bahamas nearly 4,000 members; and in Central America 10 churches with nearly 700 members. In Africa, through American, English, and German missionary effort there are 81 Baptist churches with 11,388 members, mostly in British territory, the Kongo, and the Kamerun.

4. India, Ceylon, Burma, and Assam: In these British possessions, through English, American, and Canadian missionary effort 1,244 churches have been organized with a membership of over 126,000. A very large proportion of the converts have been won by missionaries from the United States and Canada.

IV. Baptists in Mission Lands: In China there are about 13,000 Baptist church members almost equally divided among the English, Northern, and Southern Baptist missions. In Japan there are about 2,500 Baptist church members of whom over 2,000 belong to the American Baptist Missionary Union and the rest to the missions of the Southern Baptist Convention. In Mexico missions of the Southern Baptist Convention have nearly 1,400 church members to their credit, while those of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, with twenty-six laborers, have a far smaller number. In Brazil the missions of the Southern Baptist Convention have established sixty-nine churches with a membership of over 4,000, and in Bolivia Canadian Baptist missionaries have organized three churches with 115 members.

V. Baptists on the Continent of Europe.-I. Germany and German Missions: The first Baptist church of the modern type organized in Germany was formed in Hamburg in 1834 under the leadership of J. G. Oncken (q.v.), who several years before had reached Baptist views from independent study of the New Testament. In his youth Oncken had spent some years in England and had been sent (1823) by an English evangelical society as a missionary to Germany. Oncken and six others availed themselves of the presence of Barnas Sears, of the United States, afterward famous as an educational leader, to receive baptism at his hands. Oncken proved a leader of heroic type and with the aid of American Baptista carried on for many years wide-spread and fruitful missionary labors and raised up like-minded ministers who are still carrying forward the work throughout Germanspeaking Europe and beyond. In 1880 a theological seminary was established near Hamburg that has given educational equipment to hundreds of earnest and self-sacrificing young men. The present membership in Germany is about 34,000. They sustain a mission in the Kamerun with over 2 000 converts. The German Baptist Union for the spread of the gospel in foreign parts include. churches in Austria (648 members), Hungary (10,500 members), Switzerland (796 members), the Netherlands (1,396 members), Rumania (277 mem-

bers), and Bulgaria (74 members). The Russian Baptist churches, which have resulted chiefly from the activity of German Baptists of the Oncken type, have now a membership of about 25,000 and a Union of their own; but they still cooperate with the German Union in the raising and use of missionary funds. Through the missionary labors of German Baptists a few Lithuanians were brought into the Baptist fold (1857 onward). A more successful work was done among the Letts, and about 7,000 of the Russian Baptista are Lettish. From the same source Baptist influence was brought to bear upon the Esthonians, of whom over 1,000 are now Baptist church members. The Finns received Baptist teaching from the Swedish Baptista (1868 onward) and now have over 2,000 Baptist church members.

2. Scandinavia: From Germany Baptist influence also extended into Scandinavian lands. Julius Koebner, one of Oncken's early converts and colaborers, was a Dane and on a visit to his native land won to his faith a company of Christians that had become dissatisfied with Lutheranism. The first church was organized in Copenhagen in 1839. Persecution impeded the progress of the Baptist cause and religious freedom was not gained until 1850. A considerable number of ministers trained in the Scandinavian Department of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago have assisted in carrying forward the work in Denmark as well as in Sweden and Norway. In 1895 the Danish Baptista established a small theological school of their own. They have not made rapid progress and their present membership is only about 4,000. German Baptist influence entered Norway not later than 1840. The first church was organized two years later. At present Norwegian Baptista have over 30 churches with a membership of about 3,000. A Danish Baptist named Foerster labored in Sweden in 1848 and baptized five persons near Gothenburg. The Baptist cause has greatly prospered here, so that at present there are 40,000 members and nearly 600 churches. Since 1866 they have had a theological seminary at Stockholm. They are thoroughly organized for missionary and educational work and have reached a degree of influence and recognition enjoyed by Baptists nowhere else on the Continent of Europe.

3. France and Italy: In France, Belgium, and French Switzerland there are about 40 churches with a membership of 2,272, due in large measure to English Baptist nuasionary enterprise. In Italy there are 55 churches and about 1,500 members, the result, in almost equal measure, of the missionary endeavors of the English Baptist Missionary Society and of the Southern Baptist Convention. The latter body sustains a theological college.

Two highly significant events, indicating the desire of Baptista everywhere to draw closer together and to cooperate in the world-wide dissemination of their principles, were the formation of the General Baptist Convention (St. Louis, may, 1905) to embrace the entire continent of North America and its islands and to hold triennial meetings, and the Baptist World Congress (London, July, 1905), in

480

Baptista THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 480 Barclay which Baptista from all parts of the world gathered and organized a Baptist World Alliance, to meet every five years in different parts of the world. The union of the Free Baptista in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and the Regulars (1905) and the steps taken toward union between the Free Baptists of New England and the Regulars in the same year show that the tendency is in the direc tion of union rather than of further division. Counting all nominally Baptist bodies through out the world, the present number of Baptista is about 6,000,000. If to these other bodies of anti pedobaptist immersioniats be added, the number is increased to about 7,500,000. A. H. NEWDiAN. BIBLIOGRAPHY (Only volumes derived from independent sources are here mentioned): I. English Baptist History: T. Crosby, Hint, of the English Baptists, 4 vole., London, 1738-40; J. Ivimey, A Hiat. of as English Baptists, ib. 1811 30; A. Taylor, History of the English General Baptists, 2 vole., ib. 1818; B. Evans, The Early English Baptists, 2 vole., ib. 1882; R. Barclay, The Inner Life of the Relig ious Societies of the Commonwealth, i b. 1879 (not on Bap tiate exclusively, but gives their genesis in England in an authoritative way; an excellent volume); D. Masson, Life of John Milton, and History of his Times, 8 vole., ib. 1859-80 (a work of great learning and authority. Milton was an antipedobaptiat, but, so far as is known not s member of a Baptist Church); J. Clifford, The English Baptists, ib. 1881 (the work of different contributors, but edited by the chief English Baptist leader); J. C. Carlile, The Story of the English Baptists, ib. 1905. II. English and American Baptist History: T. Armi tage: A History of the Baptists New York 1887 (con tains a full history); H. C. Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists, Philadelphia, 1892 (authoritative); idem, The Baptists. New York, 1902. III. American Baptist History: I. Backus, A History of New England. With Particular Reference tothe Denomi nation of Christians tailed Baptiste, 3 vole., Boston, 1777 96, new ed., with notes by David Weston, 2 vole., New ton, Mass., 1871; H. B. Barrage, A History o/ the Bap tists do New England, Philadelphia, 1894; H. C. Vedder, A Hia(orb of the Baptists in the Middle States ib. 1898; B. F. Riley, A History of the Baptists in the Southern State East of the Mississippi, ib. 1898; J. A. Smith, A History of the Baptists in the Western Stake East of the Mississippi, ib 18-; L Moss, A History of !he Baptists in the TranaMiasiaeippi States, ib. 19-; A. H. Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in as United States, New York, 1898; idem A Century of Baptist Achievement, ib. 1901 (the work of different persona); C H. Mattoon, Baptist Annals of Oregon, 18.¢.#-1800, McMinnville, Oregon, 1905. IV. Biographies of Baptists (all clergymen except two): M. B. Anderson, by A. C. Kendrick, Philadelphia, 1895; Isaac Backus, by A. Hooey, Boston, 1859; George Dares Boardman, by A. King, ib 1834; Edmund Botsford, by C. D. Mallory, Charleston, 1832· James Petlipru Boyce , by J. A. Broadua New York, 1893; J. A. Broadus, by A. T. Robertson, Philadelphia, 1901; R. C. Burleson, by H. Haynes, Waco, 1891 Alexander Campbell% by R. Rioh ardaon, 2 vole., Philadelphia, 1888-70; William Colgate (layman), by W. W. Everte, ib. 1881; Nathaniel Colver, by J. A. Smith, Boston, 1875; Spencer Houghton Cone, by Livermore, New York 1858· John Price Crozar (lay man), by J. W. Smith, Philadelphia 1888; E. W. Dadson, by J. H. Farmer, Toronto, 1903; J. Dcnovan, by O. C. B. Wallace, rb. 1901; Henry Dunster, by J. Chaplin, Bos ton, 1872; The Dunster Family, by B. Duneter, ib. 1878; Richard Fuller, by J. H. Cuthbert, New York, 1879; R. A. Fg/e, by J. E. Wells Toronto, 1882; H. B. Hackett, by G. H. Whittemore, Rochester, 1878, Adonsram Judson, by F. Wayland, 2 vole., Boston, 1853, and by E. Judson, New York 1883; Jacob Knapp (autobiography), ib. 1868; D. A. McGregor, by A. Ii. Newman, Toronto, 1891; P. H. MA by P. H. Mail. Jr., Louisville. 1895: Jesse Mercer, by C. D. Mallory, New York, 1844; John Mason Peck, by R. Babcock, Philadelphia, 1884; Luther Rice, by J. B.

Taylor, Baltimore, 1840; Adiel Sherwood, by $. Boykin, Philadelphia, 1884; William Staughton, by $. W. Lynd, Boston, 1834; Baron Stow, by J. C. Stockbridge, ib. 1894; James Barnett Taylor, by G. B. Taylor, Philadelphia, 1872; Francis Wayland, by F. and H. L. Wayland, 2 vole., New York 1888; Roger Williams, by J. D. Knowles, Boston, 1834; also by W. Gammell, ib. 1844; and H. M. Dexter, ib. 1879; and O. $, Strauss, New York, 1894; Elhanan Winchester, by E. M. Stone, Boston, 1836; Daniel With by I. B. Jeter, New Orleans, 1875; Caret', Marahman and Ward, by J. C. Marehman, London, 1859; Virginia Baptist Ministers, by J. B. Taylor, New York, 1880.

BARADAI, JACOB (JACOBUS BAxADAus>. See JACOBITES.

BARAITA. See TALMUD.

BARBARA, SAINT: A saint whose career belongs to the domain of legend; her name is not found in the Martyrologium Hiero7lymianum or in Bede. According to the traditional story, she was a maiden of great beauty, who, having been early converted to Christianity, was given up by her own father to the authorities, and beheaded by the prtesea of the province, Martinianua, steadfastly refusing to deny Christ. Her father is said to have been killed by lightning at the scene of the execution, which is stated to have been Nicomedia (in Bithynia), Tuacia (i.e., Etruria), and Heliopolis in Egypt; the time was either under Maximinus (235-238) or sixty or seventy years later under Maximianua or Galerius. In Roman Catholic countries she is popularly considered to give protection against fire and tempest, and she is also the patron saint of the artillery. She is invoked by the dying in consequence of the story of Henry Kock at Gorkum, in Holland, in 1448, who, being nearly burnt to death, called on her and was preserved alive long enough to receive the last sacraments. Her feast falls on Dec. 4.

Brsrroaseray: CAleetin Hietoirs de Ste. Barbs, Paris, 1853; Villemot, Hiatoirs de Ste. Barbs, vierpe et martyrs, patronne de 1'artilleria do tern et do mar et des mineure, Besanjon, 1865.

', BARBAULD, ANNA LETITIA: Poetess; b. at Kibworth (10 m. s.e. of Leicester), Leicestershire, June 20, 1743; d. at Stoke Newington (a suburb of London) Mar. 9, 1825. She was the daughter of the Rev. John Aikin, s Presbyterian minister and school-teacher, and was carefully educated by her father; married the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld (d. 1808), a Unitarian minister, in May, 1774; with her husband she conducted a very successful school at Palgrave, Suffolk, till 1785; thereafter lived at Hampstead and Stoke Newington. At the solicitation of her brother (Dr. John Aikin) she published her first volume of Poems in 1773 and four editions were sold within a year. In the same year appeared Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose by J [ohn] and A. L. Aikin; in 1775 Hymns in Prose for Children and Early Lessons for Children (written for her pupils), and Devotional Pieces Compiled from the Psalms of David. Her later writings are of a general and critical character and include political pamphlets, an edition of Collins (1797), of Akenside (1808), the British Novelists (50 vole., 1810), with essay and biographical and critical notices, etc. Perhaps her beat-known hymns are " Come, says Jesus's

481

481 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

sacred voice," " How blest the righteous when he dies," and "Awake, my soul, lift up thine eyes."

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Works of A. L. Barbauld, with a Memoir, by her niece, Lucy Aiken, 2 vols., London, 1825; Mrs. A. L. Le Breton, Memoir o f A. L. Barbauld, with Letters and Notices, ib. 1874; Mrs. G. A. Ellis, Memoir of A. L. Barbauid, Letters and Selections from Poems and Prose Writings, Boston, 1874; S. W. Duffield, English Hymns, pp. 76, 225, 459, New York, 1888; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 113-114.

BARBER, HENRY HERVEY: Unitarian; b. at Warwick, Mass., Dec. 30, 1835. He was educated at Deerfield (Mass.) Academy and Meadville Theological School (1861). He held successive pastorates at Harvard, Mass. (1861-66), Somerville, Mass. (1866-84), and Meadville, Pa. (1884-90), while from 1884 to 1904 he was professor of philosophy and theology at Meadville Theological School. Since 1904 he has been professor emeritus. He is a member of the American Historical Association and of the American Economic Association, and from 1875 to 1884 was editor of the Unitarian Review.

BARBER, WILLIAM THEODORE AQUILA:

Wesleyan; b. at. Jaffna (190 m. n. of Colombo), Ceylon, Jan. 4, 1858. He was educated at London University (B.A., 1882) and Caiua College, Cambridge (M.A., 1883). He was assistant professor in the Wesleyan Theological Missionary College, Richmond, from 1882 to 1884, when he became headmaster of Wuchang Missionary High School, Central China. Eight years later he returned to England, and until 1896 was a preacher in the Leeds (Brunswick) Circuit. In 1896 he was appointed general secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, but two years later was chosen headmaster of the Leys School, Cambridge, where he had already been assistant master in 1877,80. He was secretary of the General Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1890, and since 1902 has been a member of the Legal Hundred of the Wesleyan Conference. In theology he is a broad Evangelical. He has written The Land of the Rising Sun (London, 1894); David Hill, Missionary and Saint (1898); Raymond Lull, the Illuminated Doctor (1903); and David Hill, an Apostle to the Chinese (1906).

BARBEYRAC, bdr"bb"rac', JEAN: French writer on law; b. at Bdziers (44 m. s.w. of Montpellier), Languedoc, Mar. 15, 1674; d. at Groningen Mar. 3, 1744. He fled with his parents into Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685; studied at Lausanne, Geneva, and Frankfort-on-the-Oder; became teacher in the College of the Reformed Congregation at Berlin, 1697; and, in 1710, was appointed professor of law and history in the Academy of Lausanne, and in 1716 in the University of Groningen. He translated Puffendorf's De lure naturae et gentium into French (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1706), and added a valuable preface and notes; he also translated other works of Puffendorf and Grotiua, wrote a Traitd du jeu (2 vols., 1709), maintaining that games of chance are not immoral, and a Trait6 de la morale des pkres de 11glise (1728). He was a moderate Calvinist, and refused to sign the Helvetic Formula Con_ census, which disapproved of the doctrines of Amyraut and the other Saumur theologians.

L-31 Baptists Barolay

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gerdes, Oratio funebrie in obitum J. Barbeyrac, Groningen, 1744 (by his colleague); G. Laissao. Notice biopraphique eur Barbtyrac, Montpellier, 1838.

BARCKHAUSEN-VOLKMANN CONTROVERSY:

A discussion of the question of predestination and grace which was carried on with much ardor in Germany early in the eighteenth century. In the Reformed Church of Brandenburg particularly many things tended to start troublesome questions on these points. The Confessio Sigismundi of 1614 had followed the Augsburg Confession with " revision and improvements," whereby it became not merely universalistic, but synergistic, and, in its exposition of predestination, approximated to the " Reformed Evangelical Churches." As a matter of fact it taught both the absolute election of every believer and universal grace. The need of making concessions to the Lutherans led to some modifications, as in the Colloquium Lipsiense of 1631, the Declaratio Thoruniensis of 1645 (see LEipfi1C, COLLOQUY OF; THORN, CONFERENCE OF), and an edict of the Great Elector in 1664 (in C. O. Mylius, Corpus constitutionum Marchicarum, i, Berlin, 1737, 382 aqq.). The Brandenburg Church was thus separated from orthodox Calvinism, while still adhering to the Reformed type, and this the more as a large number of French congregations bound to Calvin's Confessio Gallicana were settled in the country.

The Barckhausen-Volkmann controversy began with the publication (Cologne, 1712) of the Theses theologicte of Paul Volkmann, rector of the Joa chimethal gymnasium at Berlin; it was a complete presentation of the Reformed dogmatics, maintain ing universal grace and conditional election. Kon rad Heinrich Barckhausen, a native of Detmold and colleague of Volkmann in Berlin (in 1715 rector of the Friedrich Werder gymnasium), came for ward as protagonist against Volkmann'a views. Under the pseudonym Pacificua Verinus he pub lished in 1712 an Amica collatio doctrinte de gratis and followed it the next year with a coarse German writing Mauritii Neodorpii Caltrinus orthodoxus, d. i. sin kurzes Gesqrtlch . . . worm beseheiden ttn tersucht wird ob and wie weit die Lehre der universa. listen mit der IRhre der ersten reformirten lehrer . . iibereinkommen. A Berlin preacher, Stereki by name, took up the discussion on Volkmann'a side and Philippe Naud6 (q.v.) replied. The con troversy was growing hotter when the Prussian king, Frederick William I, in 1719 issued an edict commanding both sides to keep silence (Mylius, ut sup., 534-535). (E. F. KARL MDLLER.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. G. Waleh, EinWtung in die peligionaatreitipkeaten . . aueeer der eoanpeliwA-1uaeriechen Kirche, i, 457, iii, 746 eqq, 5 vole., Jena, 1733-36; Hering, Beitr4ge cur Geechwhte der enangdiach-Te(rrairten

Kirche in den Preueai4ch-brandenbargisehen Landern i 57 Hqq., Berlin, 1784; A. Schweizer, Die proteatantisehen Cm6yldopmen, ii, 816 sqq., Zurich, 1854 sqq.

BARCLAY, ALEXANDER: English scholar of the Renaissance period; b. Probably in Scotland about 1475- d. at Croydon (9 m. a. of London), Surrey, 1552. He is believed to have studied at one, or perhaps both, of the English universities; traveled on the continent; was made chaplain in

482

Barclay THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 482 Barefooted Xonke and Nuns the collegiate church at Ottery St. Mary, Devon shire; afterward became a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Ely; in 1546 became vicar of Great Baddow, Essex, and of Wokey, Somersetshire; in 1552 also rector of All Saints in Lombard Street, London. His chiec works were the Ship of Fools (London, 1509), a translation, with some additions, of Sebastian Brandt's Narrenschiff; and the Eclogues (n.d., probably 1514). BIBLIOGRAPHY: A full account of Barclay and valuable list of references is given in DNB, iii, 156-161; con sult also for list of his writings and his life the edition of the Ship of Fools, by T. H. Jamieson, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1874. BARCLAY, JOHN: Minister of the Church of Scotland and founder of the Barclayites or Berce ans; b. at Muthill (35 m. n.w. of Edinburgh), Perth shire, 1734; d. at Edinburgh July 29, 1798. He was graduated M.A. at St. Andrews; was assistant minister at Errol, Perthshire, 1759-63, being dis missed in the latter year for teaching obnoxious doctrine; assistant at Fettercairn, Kincardineshire, 1763-72, where he was popular and admired, but continued to promulgate views inacceptable to the ministers. In 1773 the General Assembly sus tained his presbytery (Fordoun), which had in hibited him from preaching. His followers then formed independent congregations at Edinburgh and Fettercairn, and Barclay became minister of the former. He also preached and founded a so ciety in London. His adherents took the name Berceans (from Acts xvii, 11), professing to build their system of faith and practise upon the Scrip tures alone, without regard to any human author ity whatever. They denied natural religion, main taining that knowledge of God is from revelation alone; considered faith in Christ and assurance of salvation as inseparable and the same; held that the sin against the Holy Ghost is unbelief; and in terpreted a great part of the Old Testament proph ecies and the whole of the Psalms as typical of Christ and not applicable to the experiences of private Christians. In other respects their views j were those of ordinary Calvinism. They originally had several churches in Scotland and a few in America. Eadie (Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia, Lon don, 1862) characterizes them as " a small and di minishing party of religionists." BIBLIOGRAPHY: A collected edition of Barclay's Works, with brief memoir and statement of the views of his fol lowers, was published in Glasgow, 1852; of. DNB, iii, 164-166, and literature mentioned there. BARCLAY, JOSEPH: Third Anglican-German Bishop of Jerusalem; b. near Strabane (15 m. s. by w. of Londonderry), County Tyrone, Ireland, Aug. 21, 1831; d. at Jerusalem Oct. 23, 1881. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1854; M.A., 1857); was ordained curate at Bagnalstown, County Carlow, Ireland, 1854; becoming inter ested in the work of the London Society for Pro moting Christianity among the Jews, he offered himself as a missionary in 1858, and was sent to Constantinople; was incumbent of Christ Church, Jerusalem 1861-70; curate of Howe, Lincolnshire, 1871, of St. Margaret's, Westminster, 1871-73; was consecrated bishop of Jerusalem July 25, 1879,

and took up his residence in the city the following January. He preached in Spanish, French, and German, was a good Hebrew scholar, and acquainted with Turkish and Arabic. He published The Tal mud, a translation of select treatises of the Mishnah, with introduction and notes (London, 1878), a work which has been generally criticized by Jewish scholars as prejudiced.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A critical biography was published anony-

mously at London, 1883, giving extracts from his journals and letters; cf. also DNB, iii, 167.

BARCLAY, ROBERT: Scotch Quaker; b. at Gordonstown (28 m. n.w. of Aberdeen) Dec. 23, 1648; d. at Ury (14 m. s.w. of Aberdeen) Oct. 3, 1690. He was descended from an ancient Scottish family and his father was Col. David Barclay of war celebrity in Germany and Sweden. After a careful home training he was sent to his uncle, Robert Barclay, rector of the Scotch College in Paris, for further education, and so came under Roman Catholic influences and inclined toward that communion. But in 1664 he was called home and in 1667 followed his father into the Society of Friends. He was zealous with voice and pen in the advocacy of their faith and in consequence was in prison for five months during 1676-77, and was again under arrest in 1679. If he had not had aristocratic and influential friends it might have gone much worse with him. He traveled through Great Britain and also in Holland and Germany. He was the most remarkable theologian the Quakers have produced. Besides a Catechism and Confes sion of Faith (1673; repeatedly reissued; translated into Latin, French, Danish, and Dutch), he pre pared controversial works. The treatise upon which his great fame rests is An Apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers. He had previously published fifteen theological theses for a debate and they were so favorably received that he translated them into Latin and accompanied them with an exposition in the same language, pref aced them with a remarkably faithful epistle to Charles II, dated Nov. 25, 1675, and issued the volume at Amsterdam in 1676. He says that he did this " for the information of strangers." In 1678 he published, probably in Aberdeen, his own translation of the Apology, and it has become a classic. An edition, the fourteenth, was published at Glasgow in 1886, and other editions have ap peared in Philadelphia; there are translations of it in German, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Danish. In 1692 William Penn brought out an edition of it, with other works, under the title Truth Triumphant through the spiritual warfare, Christian labours and writings o f that able and faithful servant o f Jesus Christ, Robert Barclay.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. B. Barclay, Genealogical Account of the Barclays of Urie, Aberdeen, 1740, ed. H. Mill, London, 1812; W. Armistead, Memoir of R. Barclay, Manchester, 1850. For full list of books by and on Robert Barclay consult Joseph Smith, Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books 2 vols., London, 1867, and Supplement, 1893. The sketch in DNB, iii, 167-170 is also valuable; also Reliquiol Barclaian(e a olsetion of Letters privotedg printead, 1870 (lithographed).

BAR COCHBA. See BAR KOBBA.

483

483 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Barolay Barefooted Monks sad Nnae BARDENHEWER, BERTRAM OTTO: German Roman Catholic; b. at Munchen-Gladbach (16 m. w. of Dusseldorf) Mar. 16, 1851. He was educated at the universities of Bonn (Ph.D., 1873) and Wiirz burg, and in 1879 became privat-docent of theology at the University of Munich. In 1884 he accepted a call to Munster as professor of New Testament exegesis and Biblical hermeneutics, and two years later returned in the same capacity to Munich, where he still remains. He has been a member of the Deutsche morgenlandische Gesellschaf t since 1873, and of the papal Bible Committee since 1903. He was rector of the university in 1906, and has written Hermetis Trismegisti qui spud Arabes femur de castigatao" animce libellus (Bonn, 1873); Des heiligen Hippolytus von Rom Kommentar zum Buehe Daniel (Freiburg, 1877); Polychronius, Bru der Theodors von Mopsuestia and Bisahof von Apamea (1879); Die pseudo-aristotelische Schrift fiber die refine Crete, bekannt enter dem Namen Li7ber de causis (1882); Patrologie (1894); and Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur (2 vols., 1902-03). Since 1895 he has edited Biblische Studien at Freiburg. BARDESAhfES, ber"de-4'niz (BAR-DAISAlY)

Gnostic; b. of Persian parents (Nuhama and Nasiram; cf. Chron. Edess., ed. L. Hallier, T U, ix, 1, Leipsic, 1892, 90; Michael Syrus), at Edessa, on the Daisan, on the 11th day of Tammuz (July), 154; d. there 222 (Moses of Chorene, Hist. Armen., ii, 63; Michael Syrus). He was educated with the princes at the court (Epiphanies, Har., lvi, 1) and won distinction as well by his bodily excellences as for versatility of mind and the linguistic and scientific knowledge which he acquired. With his parents he went to Mabug (Hieropolis), where he became acquainted with Kuduz,, a priest of the Dea Syra, who adopted him and taught him the doctrines of his cult. When twenty-five years of age, the priest sent him to Edessa, where he heard the preaching of the Christian bishop Hystaspes, was instructed by him, and baptized. He soon interested the Abgar of Edessa (Bar-Manu, c. 179216) in the new religion. When Caracalla took Edema (216-217), Bardesanes fled into Armenia, where he spent his time in writing and preaching, but returned afterward to Edessa.

Of his writings, Eusebius (Hilt. eccl., iv, 30) and Theodoret (H(er. tab., i, 22) mention dialogues against the teachings of Marcion; Eusebius and Epiphanius 0.c.) mention also an apology. An Armenian church history, composed in his exile, was used as source by Moses of Chorene. Ephraem Syrus (Serm- adv. hcer., lie) knew of a book of 150 psalms or hymns. By their hymns Bardesanes and his son Harmonius became the creators of the Syria, church hymn. Whether the hymns (e.g., the hymn on the destinies of the soul) preserved in the so called Acts of Thomas (cf. W. Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, i, London, 1871, 247) ass to be traced to Bardesanes, is doubtful. Eusebius, Epiphanies, and Theodoret mention also a work of Bardesanes " On Fate," which is extant under the title " ° The Book of the Laws of the Countries,.. though apparently revised by one of his disciples. F1n'llY, George, Bop of the Arabians, quotes a

passage `Yom a work of Bardesanes on " The Mutual Synodoi of the Stars of Heaven."

It is impossible to assign to Bardesanes in the present state of knowledge the place which he occupies in Gnostic speculation. Some affinity with Valentinianism can be established from the work which has been preserved, which, however, reproduces the views of Bardesanes in a revised form. But there can be no doubt as to' his connection with the Babylonian Gnosis. He was certainly greatly influenced by Chaldean mythology and astrology. His cosmogonic speculations, which Hort (DCB, i, 254) rightly calls " strange Mesopotamian heathenism," contain no special originality when compared with the Mandaean and Ophitic fancies. It is noteworthy that he retained the unity of the divine principle against the Marcionites, which does not preclude his speaking of an " eternal matter." His " Christ " is that of the Docetw (who had no real body and did not really suffer). He denied the resurrection of the flesh. He made a mysterious connection between the soul and the celestial spirits. But in this determinism he saw only a natural limitation which did not preclude the free volition of man. For the rest, he explained his speculations only in narrower circles and seems to have kept silent about them in the presence of the congregation. Church history must not forget that Bardesanes won Edessa for Christianity. His influence was still strong in the time of Ephraem, who opposed him vigorously

and hated him as the head of the three-headed monster, Marcion, Mani, Bardesanes. Nevertheless the people took pleasure in Bardesanes's fantastic religious poetry. Ephraem substituted orthodox hymns for the heretical, but retained the meter. The celebrated" Rabulas (q.v.; d. 435) seems to have .been the first to put an end to Bar-

desanism in Edessa. But it was not confined to Edesaa; it spread to the Southern Euphrates, to

Khorasan, even to China. In the West it seems to have been without influence, and to the real West it never penetrated. G. KRtYGER.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: His Book of the Laws of Divers Counb^iee is given in Eng. tranal., ANF, viii, 723-734; a rich bibliography will be found in ANF, Bibliography, p.108. Consult A. Merx, Bardpeanea G~oatidue, Halls, 1863; A. Hilgenfeld, Bardeaanes der letzte Gnoatiker, Leipaie, 1864; idem, Ketxergeechichte des Urchriatenauma. Leipeie, 1884; DCB, i, 250-560 (especially noteworthy); Harna* Litteratur, i, 184-191, ii part 2;128-132; Krfiger, History, pp, 75-77; F. Nau. Urte Biographic in6dite de Bardieanefaetrowue (from the chronicle of Michael syrus), Paris, 1897; idem, Le Livrv des loin des pava (syriac and French), Paris, 1899· F. C. Burkitt, Early Eastern Chriaanily, London, 1904. On the use of his hymns by Ephraem syrus consult H. Bur-

ee~. Huns and ~ontiliea of Bphraem $pll, pp. XXVifi xl, London, 1853.

BAREFOOTED MONKS AND Mgg; The popu-

lar name for members of various re]igioUB orders who go without any foot-covering whatever or with

sandals in place of shoes. They are also called " discalced " (Lat. discalceati, " unshod,,), but this name is more properly restricted to those who wear sandals and is used especially of the " discalced Carmelites." It is said that the custom was introduced in the West by St. Francis of Assisi (q.v.), who, with his companions, in 1209 discarded

484

Barham THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 484 Barlaam and Josaphat

shoes in supposed obedience to Matt. x, 10, and thenceforth went wholly barefoot. There have been barefooted or discalced members of many orders, the Clarenines, Recollects, Capuchins, Poor Clares, Minimites, Augustinians, Camaldolites, Servites, Carmelites, Cistercians (Feuillants), Trinitarians, Passionists, and others. It is usually the stricter divisions of the order who adopt the practise.

BARHAM, RICHARD HARRIS: Church of England; b. at Canterbury Dec. 6, 1788; d. in London June 17, 1845. He studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, took orders in 1813, and in 1817 became curate of Snargate, Kent. In 1821 he removed to London as minor canon of St. Paul's and thenceforth resided in London, where he held different livings and positions. He was esteemed for his exemplary life, and his sound sense and kind heart made him a good counselor and valued friend. His fame rests upon the Ingollsby Legends, written under the pseudonym " Thomas Ingoldsby "for Bentley's Miscellany and The New Monthly Magazine, collected in book form 1840; a second series was published in 1847 and a third, edited by the author's son, the same year (many later editions). In this work Barham proved the possession of humorous powers of a high order and produced what is perhaps the best collection of rimed mirth in the English tongue; his extraordinary command of language appears also in passages of much lyric beauty; and the satire of theological and church tendencies which have not yet passed away give the work more serious value than that of merely promoting amusement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Life and Letters of the Rev. R. H. Barham vrith a Selection from his Misod laneoue Poems. edited by his eon, R. H. D. Barham, 2 vole., London. 1880. BAR HEBRAEUS. See ABuLFARAa. BARING-GOULD, SABINE: Church of England; b. at Exeter Jan. 28, 1834. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge (B.A., 1854), was ordered deacon in 1864, and was ordained priest in the fol lowing year. He was then successively curate of Horbury, Yorkshire (1864-$6), vicar of Dalton, Yorkshire (1866-71), and rector of East Mersea, Essex (1871-81). He inherited the family estates of Lew-Trenchard in 1872 and since 1881 has been rector of Lew-Trenchard, Devonshire. His nu merous works include The Path o f the Just (London, 1854); Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas (1862); Post Mediasval Preachers (1865); Book o f Were-Wolves (1865); Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (2 vols., 1866-68); The Origin and Development of Religious Belief (2 vols., 1869-70); The Golden Gate (1870); The Silver Store, Collected from Mediaeval Christian and Jewish Mines (1870); Legendary Lives of Old Testament Characters (2 vols., 1871); One Hundred Sermon Sketches for Extempore Preachers (1871); Village Conferences on the Creed (1873); The Lost and Hostile Gospels (3 vols., 1874); Yorkshire Odd ities (1874); Some Modern Dtfeulties (1875); Vil lage Sermons for a Year (1875); The Mystery of Suf fering (1877); Germany, Present and Past (1879); Sermons to Children (1879); The Preacher's Pocket (1880); The Village Pulpit (2 vole., 1881); Church Songs (1884); The Seven Last Words (1884); The Passion of Jesus (1885); The Nativity (1885); The Resurrection (1888); Our Inheritance, a History of the Holy Eucharist in the First Three Centuries (1888); Historic Oddities and Strange Events (2 vols., 1889-91); Old Country Life (1889); In Trou badours' Land (1890); Conscience and Sin (1890); History of the Church in Germany (1891); Songs of the West (1891); The Tragedy of the Ceesars (2 vole., 1892); Curious Survivals (1892); The Deserts of Southern France (2 vols., 1894); A Garland o f Country Song (1894); Old Fairy Tales Retold (1894); Old English Fairy Tales .(1895); Napoleon Bona parte (1896); A Study of St. Paul (1897); The Sunday Round (1898); Book o f the West (2 vols., 1899); Book of Dartmoor (1900); Virgin Saints and Martyrs (1900); Brittany (1902); Book of North Wales (1903); Book of Ghosts (1904); Book o f (South Wales (1905); Book o f the Riviera (1905); and Memorial of Horatio, Lord Nelson (1905). He has likewise written a number of novels, and edited the Lives of the Saints (17 vols., London, 1872-77).

BAR KOg'BA: The name traditionally assigned to the leader of the great insurrection of the Jews in Palestine against the Romans under the emperor Hadrian in the years 132-135 (see ISRAEL). The Roman historians Spartian and Dio Cassius, however, give no name hand do not even speak of one single prominent leader; nor does the name occur on the coins struck during the revolt, or, according to Derenbourg (p. 423), in the rabbinical authorities. It rests on Christian tradition beginning with Justin Martyr, an author likely to be well informed. In his larger " Apology " (xxxi) he speaks of the leader of.the rising as Barchochebas, saying that he inflicted severe penalties on the Christians .(regarded as apostate Jews). Eusebius (Hilt. ecd., IV, viii, 4) reproduces this passage, with the variant spelling Barchachebas, and confirms it in IV, vi, 2, where he says that the leader won his authority over the ignorant by basing on his name (meaning " star " or " son of a star ") the claim to have been sent directly by God as a light to the oppressed. Beyond this Eusebiua appears to know nothing of him except that in the last decisivb battle, at the present Bittir (7 m. by rail s.w. of Jerusalem), in the eighteenth year of Hadrian (134-135), he suffered the penalty of his deeds.

That the Jews had a native leader in this rising is clearly proved by the coins, both those which are adapted to Jewish use from coins of Vespasian and Trajan, and must thus belong to this period, and .those which on account of similarity of treat ment are evidently of the same date (cf. F. W. Madden, History o f Jewish Coinage, London, 1864, 203 sqq., and Coins of the Jews, 1881). The in scriptions of these give on the reverse sometimes " in [the year of] the freedom of Israel " alone, sometimes the same with the number 2 for the year, or " year 1 of the deliverance of Israel "; on the obverse sometimes " Eleazar the priest " (who must not be confounded with the uncle of Bar Kokba, the scribe Eleazar), sometimes " Jerusa lem," claiming the right of coinage for the city, and sometimes " Simeon, prince of Israel." That

485

488 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Barham Barlaam and Josaphat the leadership of Simeon coincided with the priest hood of Eleazar is shown by a distinct variety which names Eleazar the priest on the obverse and Simeon, without any title, on the reverse. Ac cording to the coins, therefore, during the time of the revolt, Israel had a secular head of the name of Simeon; which leads to the hypothesis that the same man who inspired the people by the name of Bar'Kokba was really called Simeon. This theory finds support in certain coins which show the letters of the name of Simeon on both sides of a temple portico above which is a star. Moreover, the Jewish accounts are consistent with it. The Seder `0lam mentions the three and a half years of a native ruler as the epoch following the wars of Vespasian and Quietus, calling this ruler, however, " Bar Kozeba." And the Talmudic explanations to the Mishnah treatise Ma'aser sheni, when they forbid the payment of tithes with money coined by rebels or otherwise unauthorized, give as ex amples that of " Ben Kozeba " or the " coins of Ko zeba " and the "coins of Jerusalem." By the analogy of the latter, the former might also be a local designation (cf. I Chron. iv, 22); but the variant form first given makes it much more prob able that it is from the name of the ruler; and there is no difficulty in identifying this ruler with the Simeon already mentioned, especially as Jewish tradition, quoting (in the Talmud on Ta`anit) from Rabbi Akiba, shows how easy was the transforma tion of the name of Ben Kozeba into the form Bar Kocheba (or Bar Kokba), with its encouraging reference to the prophecy of Balsam (Num. xxiv, 17). Not much can be safely asserted of Bar Kokba's personality and achievements, for the Jewish sources mentioned above tell nothing trustworthy about him which is not already known from Dio Cassius, with the exception of his relations to Akiba and to Eleazar, whom, on suspicion of treachery, he is said to have killed with a kick. The immense number of his adherents (200,000 men, who had pledged themselves to the conspiracy by cutting off a finger), the fabulous size of his citadel of Bit tir, and the awful bloodshed there, are merely imaginative projections from the natural facts of such a rising. As a consequence of his failure, Bar Kokba has lived in Jewish memory as a de ceiver; but one who could bring about so vigorous and stubborn a revolt and dominate it to its close must have been a man of great power and deter mination, who had made the nation's cause his own. (AuaQST KLwERb1ANN.) BnBLIOGBAPBFFT: The principal source is Dio Cassius, Hidoria Romans, book Wa, chaps. 12-14, ed. F. G. 8tura, 9 vole., Leipsic, 1824-43; the Samaritan Book of Joshua, ed. Juynboll, Leyden, 1848, may be used cautiously. Con sult J. Hamburger, Reaisncyklopedie far B" and Tat mud, vol. ii, Leipsic, 1891; J. Demnbourg, Eami car 1'hia toire e6 la g_ographie de la Palestine, Paris, 1867; idem, Now our la guerre de Bar Koseba, in Maanges do PLoole des Hauks EStudea, ib. 1878; H. Gratz, Geachichte der Ju den, iv, 137 eqq., Leipsie, 1893; Sehiirer, GewAirhte i, 682-685, 695-698, 765-772, Eng. tranal., 1, ii, 297-301, 311; A. Schlatter, Die Tags Trajana and Hadrian#, Giiters loh, 1897; JE, ii, 806-509. $ART-AAM See $EBYCHAm. BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT (or JOASAPH)

The abbreviated title of a Greek religious romance commonly ascribed, without adequate reasons, to John of Damascus. (q.v.; d. about 754). The fuller title is " History of the Soul-profiting .

of Barlaam and Josaphat (or Joasaph)." The popularity of the story is manifest from the fact that it was translated into Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Hebrew, as well as Latin, Icelandic, English, and other European languages. Research has proved that the work is based upon an Indian story (the Lalitavistara, composed 76 A.D.), in which Buddha (transformed into Josaphat) is the hero. Josaphat is represented as son of Abenner, an Indian king bitterly opposed to the Christian religion. His future conversion to a new faith and fame as a religious leader are predicted at the time of his birth by astrologers. Every effort is made by his father to enthral him in pleasures, to conceal from him the miseries of the world, and to shield him from all influences calculated to impress him with a sense of obligation to the world. At last, weary of pleasure and ease, Josaphat goes forth to see the world, is driven to despair by its misery, and is converted by Barlaam, a Christian hermit. To overthrow his son's convictions the king arranges a disputation in which Nachor, a court sage, is to impersonate Barlaam and by a feeble defense of Christianity to discredit it. By special divine interposition Nachor makes a noble defense of Christianity, which leads to his owl+ conversion, and that of the king and his people. Barlaam and Josaphat secured places in the Roman Catholic calendar as saints. It was discovered a few years ago by Prof. J. A. Robinson, by & comparison of the defense of Christianity in the Greek story with the newly discovered Syriac text of the long-lost " Apology " of Aristides (see AmSTIDES, MAR clArtuB), that the former, modified to some extent to suit the purpose for which it was employed is the original of the " Apology." The Greek text is in MPG, xcvi, 860 sqq. A. H. NEwMAN.

The story of Barlaam and Josaphat forms the subject of the chief poem of Rudolf of Ems, a Middle High German poet (d. between 1250 and 1254), composed in 1220-23. It was based on a Latin book received from Abbot Guido of Cappel, which is said to have been a translation of the Greek legends of John of Damascus, already rendered by a certain Bishop Otho in the twelfth century. Rudolf, however, was unaware of this version or of another, which seems to have been made in the first half of the thirteenth century, and of which only a few fragments have been preserved. The story of the ascetic life of Buddha was highly attractive to a Christian ascetic, and Rudolf was the more drawn to the theme since he wished to atone for the frivolity of his earlier writings, declaring that this poem was no romance of knighthood, love, adventure, or the summertide, but a complete and sincere war upon the world, whereby men and women might be made better and purer.

Rudolf's " Barlaam and Josaphat " contains about 16,000 verses, and describes the victory of Christianity over heathen teachings. It thus summarizes the Middle Ages, and accordingly rises far

486

above the level of a mere revamping or even amplification of an original source. In the poem Josaphat is the son of a heathen Indian king named Avernier. Astrologers foretell the conversion of the prince, who is accordingly confined by his father in a palace built especially for him. Surrounded by every luxury, he is kept from all knowledge of age, disease, and death. Permitted, after a time, to leave the palace, Josaphat sees a lame man and a blind man, and on a second excursion meets a man weighed down with all the infirmities of age. When sobered by reflection on these sights, God sends him Barlaam, a hermit from the island of Sennaar, who appears in the presence of the prince disguised as a jewel-merchant. Only to the pure in heart, however, can he show the most precious gem, which, he at last tells Josaphat, is Christianity. He then describes the life of Christ, so that Josaphat asks concerning baptism, whereupon Barlaam tells him of baptism, eternal life, the chief doctrines of Christianity, and the lives of the saints and martyrs who renounced the vanity of the world. At the request of Josaphat, Barlaam baptizes him, administers the sacrament to him, and urges him to remain pure in word and thought. The king seeks in vain to win his son back to heathenism, but the priests are refuted, the magician Theodas is converted, and temptations to sensuality are overcome. Avernier then offers Josaphat the half of his kingdom, and his administration manifests the omnipotence of Christianity, while the glory of his father gradually wanes, and his councilors bow before the ethical power of the new faith. Meanwhile Josaphat prays to God to turn his father's heart, and in answer to these petitions the king takes counsel how he may atone for his former iniquity. His councilors advise him to follow the example of his son, whereupon he writes a pathetic letter to Josaphat, full of lamentations and self-accusations. Father and son met, Avernier was instructed by Josaphat, received baptism together with all his councilors, surrendered the entire kingdom to the prince, and lived as a hermit the remaining four years of his life. After his father's death, Josaphat appointed Barachias as his successor and became an anchorite, finding his teacher Barlaam again. He bravely resisted all manner of fleshly temptations, and lived with Barlaam in fasting and prayer until his teacher died. Josaphat buried him, and himself died at the age of sixty. (A. FREYBE.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A collection of titles will be found in V. Chauvin Bibliographie des ouvrages Arabes, vol. iii, Paris, 1898. A Lat. transl. of John of Damascus' story is in MPL, lxxiii, 443-606; and the version of Rudolf of Ema was edited by F. Pfeiffer, Leipsic, 1843. Consult Barlaam und Josaphat; frans6sisches Gedichi des dreisehnten Jahrhunderts von Gui de Cambroi, ed. H. Zotenberg and P. Meyer, Stuttgart, 1864; E. Cosquin, in Revue des questions historiques, xxviii (1880), 579-600; E. Braunholts, Die erste nichtchristliche Parabel des Barlaams und Josaphat, Halle, 1884; H. Zotenberg, Notice sur le livre de Barlaam et Josaphat, Paris, 1886; A. Krull, Gui de Cambrai; eine sprachliche Untersuchung, Gottingen, 1887; F. Hommel, Die alteste arabische Barlaam-Version, Vienna, 1888; Two Fifteenth Century Lives of St. Barlam, ed. J. Jacobs, London, 1893 (contains discussion of the influence of Buddhist legend on Western medieval literature); E Kahn, Barlaam und Joasaph: bibliographischliterargeschichtliche Studie, Munich, 1893; K. S. Macdonald, Introduction to the Story of Barlaam and Joasaph, 1895; idem, Story of Barlaam and Joasaph [London], 1895; Story of Barlaam and Joasaph: Buddhism and Christianity, ed. J. Morrison, Calcutta, 1895; A. Krause, Zum Barlaam und Josaphat des Gui von Cambrai, 2 vols., Berlin, 1899-1900. See also the literature under ARISTIDES, MARCIANUS.

BackContentsNext


CCEL home page
This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at
Calvin College. Last modified on 10/03/03. Contact the CCEL.
Calvin seal: My heart I offer you O Lord, promptly and sincerely