The growth of English Baptists went on with rapid acceleration through the 19th cen tury. Some of the best-known preachers of England were of their number—Robert Hall, Charles H. Spurgeon, Alexander Maclaren (qq,.v.). The organization of the Baptist Union in 1832 marked a great advance in soli darity, and gradually all the denominational societies have been either absorbed by it or affiliated with it. The Regents Park College (1817) and Spurgeon's Pastor's College (1856) have been followed by other institutions for the training of a ministry for the churches.
The first Baptist church in Wales was formed at Swansea, in 1649, by John Myles, and after the Restoration it emigrated in a body to Massachusetts. Vavasor Powell left the Church of England and became a Baptist about 1655, and aided in establishing some 20 churches in Wales. After the Act of Tolera tion, Welsh Baptists increased rapidly; an as sociation was formed in 1799,- and the Baptist Union of Wales in 1867. The churches are now more numerous than those of any other denomination save the Wesleyans, and are mostly of the Calvin4tic type. In Scotland the beginning of Baptists was still later, the first church having been formed in 1750. Though some preachers of notable power have risen among them, like Archibald McLean and the Haldane brothers, they have never made a con siderable impression on the Scotch people.
From the beginning, the Baptist churches of Great Britain have been divided on the ques tion of communion with other churches. Most of the early Calvinistic churches and part of the General Baptists insisted on "close* com munion, the restriction of the ordinance to the baptized (immersed). Most of the Gen eral Baptists and part of the Calvinistic favored 'open* communion, or invitation to the euchar ist of all Christian people, whether immersed or not. Many churches followed the "open* communion principle to its logical conclusion and admitted the unbaptized to membership also, thus forming what were known as "mixed* churches. The number of churches adopting the more "liberal* practices has been steadily increasing.
The number of Baptists in Great Britain in the last accessible report (1916) was: England, 1,997 churches, 264,923 members; Wales and Monmouthshire, 940 churches, 124,795 mem bers; Scotland, 151 churches, 21,871 members; besides a few in Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, bringing the total to 3,135 churches and 414,925 members.
Baptists in European countries have no historic connection with the Anabaptists of the Reformation period, but began in the 19th century with a mission to France (1832), a church of six members being formed in Paris in 1835. After the Revolution of 1848 there was freedom from persecution and opportunity of growth, and there has been gradual prog ress, though slow. Before the European War, there were 41 churches, with 1,602 members reported. The lack of a school for the train ing of a native ministry has been a great bar to the advance of French Baptists.
In Germany, the Baptist churches were the result of the conversion and labors of John Gerhardt Oncken, a native of Oldenburg (1800), who spent some years in England and was a colporter in his native land of the British Conti nental Society. He came to Baptist views of the Church and its ordinances from independent study of the Scriptures, without knowing that a people existed anywhere who held and prac tised such principles. Professor Barnas Sears, of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Hamil ton, N. Y. (now the theological department of Colgate University), was pursuing studies in Germany; Oncken became aquainted with him and was by him immersed, together with six others, and the first Baptist church of Ham burg was constituted. For some years Bap tists were severely persecuted, but gradually weregranted toleration, and have rapidly in creased, until in 1916 they numbered 232 churches and 44,338 members. They have estab lished missions in the surrounding countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Russia, Switzerland, which have been very successful. In Russia, especially, the Baptist missions have met with great success among the Stundists (q.v.), a large part of whom have adopted the Baptist principles. Russian Baptists in 1916 numbered 839 churches and 60,295 members. With the granting of complete toleration in that country, there is every reason to expect that their development will prove remarkable. A Triennial Conference formed in 1849 unites the operations of the German churches and their missions (known since 1855 as the Ger man Baptist Union). A theological school was established at Hamburg in 1880, which has given these churches a well-trained min istry, and this fact has had much to do with their progress.