BAPTISTS. A large body of Christians who object to infant baptism, and claim that, in the Light of Scripture and of the original Greek term (baptizein), baptism is efficacious only when persons are baptized by immersion at an age at which they are able fully to understand the meaning of the rite. Baptism is a new birth (" Except a man be born again, be cannot see the kingdom of God ") of which the recipient must be fully conscious, having been taught the truths of Christianity. Appeal is made to Romans Si. 4: " We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life "; and Colossians ii. 12 : " having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." The Baptists do not care to be identified with the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century, whose principles were certainly in some respects very different. Apparently they claim a kind of apostolic succession for their practices. Some of their principles, however, they find represented among such sects as the Cathari and Albigenses of the Middle Ages. In the twelfth century there were numbers of baptists among the Waldenses. Two leading opponents of infant baptism, Peter de Brueys and Arnold of Brescia, were condemned by the Lateran Council in 1139. Arnold of Brescia and Henry of Lausanne gathered around them many followers and organised a kind of Baptist Church at Toulouse in the south of France. Their followers were called Petrobrusians or Henricians. Coming down to later times, a connection is suggested with the Men nonites (" Dutch Baptists") of the sixteenth century, and more especially with the Brownists (q.v.) of the early part of the seventeenth century. A Baptist Church is said indeed to have existed in England in 1417. At any rate, we are told that " there were certainly Baptist churches' in England as early as 1589, and there could scarcely have been several organised communities without the corresponding opinions having been held by Indi viduals and some churches established for years previous to this date " (H. S. Skeats and C. S. Mlall). But Robert Browne and his successors seem to have been the founders of new denominations. Henry Jacob (1503-1624) is said
to have changed the name " Brownists " into " Inde pendents," and in 1616 to have established at Blackfriars, London, a community which claimed to be "The first Inde pendent or Congregational Church in England." As far as this particular claim Is concerned, " it is now clearly established that an Independent church, of which Richard Fitz was pastor, existed in 1568 " (Skeats and Miall). But the importance of Henry Jacob's church remains. In course of time certain members of this congregation, having convinced themselves that baptism ought not to be administered to infants, separated, and in 1633 established a distinct church of which the minister was John Spils bury. In 1639 there was another congregation which met in Crutched Friars. In the same year Roger Williams (16047-1683) founded the first Baptist Church in North America at Providence. The spread of the movement in England after this was so rapid that in 1046 there are believed to have been forty-six congregations in and around London. In the reigns of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth, the Baptists were numerous and important enough to attract the notice of the authorities and to suffer persecution. Since the reign of William III., in which they obtained a full measure of religious liberty, their progress has been unchecked. In 150S there were 424,00S members of the Baptist Union (formed In 1813) in the British Isles; and in the United States the members numbered over 6,000,000. The Baptists have excellent Colleges, and send their missionaries to India, Ceylon. China, Palestine, the West Indies, Africa, Brittany, and Italy. Their church-government is congregational. The body has a number of sub-divisions. There are : General Baptists or Arminian Baptists (American Free will Baptists) who believe that Christ died to save all men; and Particular Baptists who believe that be died to save only an elect number of persons. There are also Free-will Baptists, Old School Baptists, Six-Principle Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists, Se-Baptists, Scottish Baptists, Tankers, Campbellites, and Hard-Shell Baptists. See John Hunt: J. H. Blunt; Prot. Diet.; Chambers' Bncycl.; the D.N.B.