Bye- Paths in Baptist History Part 2 – Early traces of Baptists in Britain

Jim Curran January 8, 2020

Bye- Paths in Baptist History Part 2 Early traces of Baptists in Britain

The true origin of Anabaptists,” says Mosheim, is hid in the remote depths of antiquity.’* But there is no reason to doubt that as early as the Third Century Baptists already existed in Britain. At that period ” no persons were admitted to baptism by the churches generally”—still to quote Mosheim— ” but such as had been previously instructed in the principal points of Christianity, and had also given satisfactory proofs of pious dispositions and upright intentions.” Coupling with this testimony the statement of Tertuian, the celebrated African writer, that in 209 ”those parts of Britain into which the Roman arms never penetrated have yielded subjection to Christ,” we are warranted in saying that the early British Christians were men holding the distinctive principles of Baptists.

We have no further trace of Baptists in these islands until the Fifth Century, although there existed, during the interval, as we learn from various sources, a numerous, well-ordered, and flourishing Christian community. In the year 410, the Britons were not only harassed and oppressed by the Saxons, but were distracted by religious controversies. Pelagius, who had once been a monk at Bangor, in North Wales, succeeded in spreading the poison of his opinions among his fellow countrymen. Among these opinions was the belief in the lawfulness and necessity of infant-baptism. Two zealous bishops from the Continent laboured to check the progress of Pelagius opinions, and many wanderers were reclaimed and baptized in the river Allen, near Chester.

The third trace of Baptists in Britain is found in the time of Ethelbert. Again the Principality claims the honour of having sheltered and preserved, if it did not originate, some of the earliest Baptist confessors in this country; but the claim rests upon an obscure passage in the Chronicle of the Venerable Bede, and upon a version of Bede’s words found in Fabyan’s New Chronicles of England and France, a book published in the time of Henry the Seventh, and which had the honour of being burnt in the following reign by order of Cardinal Wolsey. We give the story in which the passage occurs, and for two reasons: first, it reveals the Scriptural character of the Christianity of Britain before the time of Romish corruptions; and secondly, it shows with what sturdy independence these early Christians rejected the arrogant pretensions of Rome.

We will resume with that story in the next segment.

Quoted from Joseph Jackson Goadby. Bye-paths in Baptist history