Since the mid Fifteenth Century when Johann Gutenberg invented printing by movable type (1456) Bibles had fallen into the hands of the common people there was a proliferation of Christian bodies springing up across Europe and in England which were outside the Catholic Church and the Church of England. The King James translation had no small part in the explosion of Baptists in England, across Europe and in America. We Baptists have a spiritual kinship with many of these groups. The people we know as Baptists have not always been called Baptists. They have sometimes been called Dissenters. They have been called Non-conformists. They have been called Separatists. Sometimes they were identified by some religious leader who shared their views such as the Mennonites (followers of Menno Simons) or Waldensians (followers of Peter Waldo). A common term in Europe was the term Anabaptists, "Radical Reformers". The founder of the Anabaptists in Zurich was Conrad Grebel who was born about 1490 and a follower of Zwingli. However, a serious break with Zwingli occurred in 1525 when the Zurich Council issued a mandate restraining Grebel and Felix Manz from holding "Bible study" or "Bible schools". Finally, Zwingli was unable to justify infant baptism from the Scriptures and he broke with his Anabaptist supporters in 1525. The most outstanding of the German Anabaptists was Balthasar Hubmaier. He was a devout Roman Catholic who was baptized by Wilheim Reublin who was an Anabaptists refugeee from Zurich. When Hubmaier fled from Waldshut where troops had been sent to arrest him, he went to Zurich. There he was imprisoned for a time and later banished to Augsburg and later to Nikolsburg in Moravia where he witnessed more than 6,000 conversions in a single year. These groups all held certain civil authority over the Church. They rejected the Divine right of Kings. They insisted on a personal experience of salvation by grace through faith. They insisted on baptism of believers only. They insisted on a regenerate Church membership. They believed that the Church should be governed by the teaching of Scripture. They believed in high moral standards of the Church membership. They insisted on the congregational form of Church government. They felt that the Church had two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's Supper. They insisted that baptism was testimonial and that the Lord's Supper was a memorial and that neither conveyed grace. They also believed in religious liberty for all.
ENGLAND
In 1534/35 Henry VIII declared himself to be the Head of the Church in England. He had become infatuated with Anne Boleyn. He wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Spain, to marry Anne but Rome refused. He then declared himself to be Head of the English Church, divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn anyway. This marked the split of the Church of England with Papal authority. Catherine bore a daughter who became known as Queen Mary (Bloody Mary). Bloody Mary took the English back into the Roman Catholic fold for five years. Then her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, overthrew Papal authority again and from that time on (1558) the Crown headed the Church in England.
In 1600 John Smyth was preaching at the Church in Lincoln. He had received the Master of Arts degree in 1593 from Christ College where had had been a student of Francis Johnson. He was elected "Lecturer" or "Preacher" of that city on September 27 by a City Council vote of 8 to 7. In 1602 the Council settled on a stipend of 40 pounds a year plus house house rent for life. That was done on August 1st but the action was annulled by October 13 when he was abruptly deposed because he had "approved himself a factious man in this city by personal preaching and that untruly against divers men of good place". He obviously had criticized some of the leading citizens because of the way they lived their lives and he was deemed to be "non-conformist" in his views. When he was dismissed he was a sick man. He made his way to Broxtowe Hall to the happy home of his prosperous friends, Thomas and Jane Helwys. They took him in, made him welcome and gave him the best room and the best care. While they nursed him back to health, they spent a great deal of t9ime sitting by the fire and talking of the Scriptures. These two men are generally considered the first of the English Baptists.
KING JAMES
In 1603 the year that Roger Williams was born, King James ascended to the Throne of England. While he did some good things he was very intolerant of Dissenters and vowed that they would either conform or that he would "harrie them out of the Land". While Smyth and Helwys were both members of the Church of England, they were both very questioning of the dogma and authority of the Church. They wondered about its structure and meaning and were searching the Scriptures to find satisfaction for their doubts. They had real problems with the idea that the conscience of the people rested on the whim of a King. John Smyth made his way to his home town of Gainsborough. He was not yet a Separatists but was passing through a time of soul searching in his own life. In that town was a Congregational Church which had been organized about 1602. The Church grew rapidly and to avoid the notice of authorities, they thought it unwise to continue to meet together for English law forbad such "conventicles". When the group divided some remained at Gainsborough under the pastoral leadership of Smyth and the remnant removed to Scrooby Manor under the leadership of Richard Clyfton who led the Church for a short while and this is the Church that became the famous Pilgrim Church led by John Robinson, William Bradford and William Brewster.
THE PILGRIM CHURCH
The Gainsborough Church led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys finally fled England under the severe persecution of King James. The group from that Church who had split away because of the size of it and moved to Scrooby Manor also fled England because of the persecution. Both groups arrived in Amsterdam about the same time in 1608. Both groups became Anabaptists by rejecting infant baptism. For a time they were apparently in fellowship with the Ancient Church pastored by Francis Johnson. They soon learned of the seemingly unending controversy between Johnson and the Congregation. Johnson was a very domineering figure and much of his criticism came from the members concerning his own family. He had married a wealthy widow, Thomasine Boyse, who was beautiful but quite frivolous. Some described her as a "bouncy girle". They felt that she had a taste for extravagant and many times immodest dress including several gold rings. She had money from her first husband to provide these things. One particularly ornate gown had become the topic of Church Discipline as well as an ornate hat. The gown was said to be too daring. The Church demanded that it be brought to the congregation for their judgment as to whether or not a Minister's wife should wear it. Johnson's own brother, George, leveled charges that Thomasine often lay in bed until 9:00 AM, even on the Lord's Day. The group from Gainsborough and Scrooby Manor did not care for the confusion in the church and withdrew. They formed the Pilgrim Church. This Church was made up, almost totally, of people who had been a part of the Gainsborough Church.
The Robinson Group ultimately moved to Leiden (also spelled Leyden) where they remained for a few years. There they experienced much difficulty. Although there was no persecution they suffered economic loss and were grieved to see their children leaving the English language and marrying into Dutch families. Finally, 37 of them journeyed to Scrooby to board the Mayflower for America. Pastor John Robinson went with them to see them off. While Pastor Robinson intended to join them in America, he never did as he died in 1625. These people would forever be known as Pilgrims.
THE JOURNEY
Other Separatist had joined the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and counting passengers and crew there were 102 on Board. While most of them were humble Christians there were some very wayward and lawless people on Board among the passengers and among the crew. Some of the Pilgrim Fathers became concerned about what kind of Government they would live under when they landed. When they arrived at Plymouth, before disembarking, they all adopted the Mayflower Compact. This document was lost during the first year in Plymouth and we can never know exactly what it said. We only know what some who were present remembered about it. The scant information that is known about it simply reveals that it was a document agreeing to live under law and be governed by law because some feared that once in the New World there would be anarchy among the group.
In Amsterdam, both Smyth and Helwys became Anabaptists but they finally went their separate ways over the issue of se-baptism. Helwys returned to England where he founded a Baptist Church in Spitafields just outside the Wall of London. He prepared a little booklet addressed to the King. The basic theme of the Booklet was that in civil matters Christians should submit to the authority of the King but in spiritual matters they should submit only to the authority of Christ. In the Inscription of the Book Helwys said, "The King is a mortal man and not God, therefore hath no power over ye immortall souls of his subjects to make lawes and ordinances for them and to set spiritual lords over them". lHelwys made the delivery personally and was never heard from again after 1612.
COMPROMISE
In America, the Pilgrims began to meet with some Puritan Separatists and they formed the Congregational Church which eventually became the established Church. Therefore, the Pilgrims and their early descendants did the very thing in America from which they had fled in England but there is little doubt that there was a very heavy Baptists influence on the Mayflower. THE DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA says, "Today, reference to 'the Pilgrims' is to these pious Christians who brought to the new world the first seeds of what would become the United States."
No comments:
Post a Comment