BAPTISTS, the name of a religious body that sprang from the Separatist movement in England. Though there were groups of Ana baptists in England in the 16th century, they were mostly of Dutch origin and made no per manent impression on the English people. One wing of the English Puritans at length de spaired of reforiping the Church of England in accordance with their ideas, and decided that it was their duty to come out of that institution and establish a "pure church,' Le., consisting only of the regenerate. These early Separatists grew into the two modern denom inations known as Congregationalists and Baptists.
From about 1593, groups of Separatists gathered in and about Gainsborough, in Lin colnshire. About 1606, persecution drove them to Holland. Part of them, who had met at Scrooby manor, went to Leyden, whence many afterward became the Pilgrims of the May flower who established the colony of Plymouth in 1621. The Gainsborough group went to Amsterdam with their "teacher," the Rev. John Smyth, who had been a clergyman of the Church of England and a lecturer in Lincoln in 1600. Here Smyth first became acquainted with the theology of Arminius, which he soon adopted, and with the Mennonites, whose re jection of infant baptism seemed to him to be according to Scripture. He gave utterance to his new views in a tract called 'The Character of the Beast' (1609), and 36 adherents joined him in establishing a new church on the prin ciple of baptizing believers only. Smyth bap tized himself and then his followers, and on this account he is often called the "Se-Baptist." In 1611 members of this sect returned to Lon don and established a church there; similar churches were formed in other places, and these General Baptists (so called because they believed in a general or universal atonement) increased rapidly. In 1644 their opponents esti mated their numbers at 47 churches.
In 1616 a congregation of Separatists was gathered in Southwark, London, by Henry Jacob, a former minister of the Church of England. A peaceable division of this church took place in 1633, a part going out to estab lish a new church and receiving "a new bap tism," which probably meant a baptism on pro fession of faith. In 1640 a further division occurred, and some of the new group became convinced that baptism should be immersion ,• so they sent one of their number, Richard Blunt, to Holland, where he was immersed by a Mennonite minister at Rhynsberg, and on his return the members of this church were all immersed. In a few years this became the established practice of all the Baptist churches. In 1644 seven churches issued a "Confession of faith," in which baptism was for the first time defined as "dipping or plunging the body under water." This group of churches became known as Particular Baptists, because they in sisted on the Calvinistic doctrine of an atone ment for the elect only. This distinction of
General and Particular Baptists became less significant with the lapse of time, and ceased altogether with the formal union of the two bodies in 1891. Both groups were one in their advocacy of believers baptism and soul lib erty. The Confession of 1644 was the first public document to assert liberty of conscience for all men, as "the tenderest thing unto all conscientious men, and most dear unto them, and without which all other liberties will not be worth the naming, much less the enjoying.' The Revolution, just then beginning, was their opportunity. Baptists were uniformly on the side of Parliament, and several of them rose to high rank in Cromwell's army, while their churches grew rapidly.
It was natural that they should experience their full share of persecution after the Res toration,— long imprisonment, heavy fines and even death rewarded their devotion to civil and religious liberty. One of their preachers, John Bunyan (q.v.), was confined 12 years in Bedford jail for the crime of preaching the gospel, and employed his time in writing the immortal allegory of 'Pilgrim's Progress' (q.v.). The Revolution of 1688, and the adop tion of the Toleration Act in the following year, removed from Baptists the worst of their disabilities, but their growth for a time was checked by the influence of Socinianism among the General Baptists and Hyper-Calvinism among the Particular Baptists. Not until the Wesleyan revival of the 18th century awakened all England to new spiritual life and vigor did Baptists rise to their opportunities. A new era in their history is marked by the life and labors of William Carey (q.v.), who led the way in organizing the English Baptist Missionary So ciety, in 1792, and he became its first mission ary to India. This was the beginning of the great modern missionary movement among English-speaking Christians, with all that move ment has accomplished for the progress of civilization, as well as of Christianity. One of the converts of the Wesleyan revival, Dan Taylor, established the "New Connexion of General Baptists' on an evangelical basis, and this body soon became strong and influential. English Baptists took a prominent part in the important modern Sunday-school movement. One of their number, William Fox (q.v.), be gan, in 1783, the first school for teaching the Bible to children, and secured in 1785 the for mation of the first "Society for Promoting Sunday-schools.° The demand for the Bible promoted by such study caused the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1802), in which a Baptist minister, Rev. Thomas Hughes, was a leader and the first secretary.