BATTISTI

BATTISTI. — Some authors trace the origin of their sect back to the origins of Christianity, an assertion rejected by all the other sects. Some are accustomed to link them with the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century, an opinion, however, rejected by the majority of the Baptists. Leaving aside these two opinions, there is general agreement concerning the origins of the English Baptists and the American Baptists.

I. ENGLISH BAPTISTS

It is certain that in the time of Henry VIII (1509–47) and Edward VI (1547–53) there were Anabaptists in England; several of them were condemned to death for their doctrine (1535, 1539, 1550), and others suffered the same fate under Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603). Many English Baptists do not acknowledge their origin in these first English Anabaptists, but seek it elsewhere. Toward the end of Elizabeth’s reign and at the beginning of that of James I (1603–25), persecution by the official Church of England forced many nonconformists into exile, and some withdrew to Holland. Among them were J. Smyth and T. Helwys, who, through their dealings with the Mennonites, became convinced that the Baptism they had received in infancy was invalid; they therefore had themselves rebaptized and, together with some other Englishmen who followed their example, founded the first English Baptist Church in Amsterdam around 1608. Helwys returned with some companions to England in 1611 and there established what is known as the first Baptist Church on English soil. During the reign of James I and of his son Charles I (1625–49), and the disturbances that accompanied them, the Baptists developed despite persecution by Puritans, Independents, and Anglicans. Cromwell (1649–58) did not molest them. After the restoration of the monarchy, they were persecuted like all the other nonconformists, and it was during this period that the writer John Bunyan became famous. The Act of Toleration of 1689 granted them greater freedom. But division had already begun to spread among them between the General Baptists, also called Arminians or Open Baptists, who professed the Arminian doctrine of universal redemption and admitted to the Lord’s Supper all who presented themselves, and the Particular Baptists, also called Calvinists or Closed Baptists, who held the Calvinist doctrine of redemption limited to the elect alone and admitted to the Lord’s Supper only the followers of their own sect.

Of the other divisions among the English Baptists, only the sect of the Seventh-day Baptists need be mentioned, who held that the Sabbath, not Sunday, ought to be consecrated to the Lord, and the sect of the Free Will Baptists, who practiced foot-washing and anointed the sick.

II. AMERICAN B

The first American Baptist Church had no connection with the English Baptists. W. Rogers (1599–1683), an Anglican minister, joined the nonconformists. Persecuted by Archbishop Laud, he emigrated to Massachusetts in 1631 and for several years served as a Puritan minister. Dissatisfied with the ecclesiastical and civil system established in that colony, he openly criticized it, so that he was excommunicated and took refuge outside the colony, in Rhode Island, where he founded the city of Providence. In 1638 he became convinced that the Baptism he had received in infancy was invalid and had himself baptized by one of his companions, Ezechiele Hollyman, whom he himself immediately afterward also baptized. Some imitated this example, and thus the first Baptist Church in America was founded. It was Calvinist in doctrine and, after a short time, came into contact with some general or Arminian Baptists who emigrated to America; thus the division that prevailed in the mother country continued in the English colonies.

Soon the colonists’ independent spirit led to further schisms. In 1653, the “Baptists of the six principles”—that is, those who, in addition to the common doctrines, accepted as fundamental doctrines the six points indicated by s. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews (6:1–2): repentance, faith, Baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment—separated from the Church founded by Rogers in Providence. In the 18th century, some Baptists wished to establish associations for religious instruction, missions, and so forth; other Baptists opposed them, considering them contrary to Sacred Scripture. The former were called “separate Baptists or new lights,” and the latter “regular Baptists or old lights.” In 1806, a Baptist minister, D. Parker, gave rise to the “Baptists of two seeds in the spirit,” that is, those who professed that there were two spiritual seeds in man, one infused by God and the other by the devil, thereby partially reviving the doctrines of Manichaeism.

But the great division among the American Baptists arose over the issue occasioned by slavery. Those in the North opposed it, whereas those in the South favored it; this difference of opinion caused the schism of 1844–45, which has still not been healed, between the Northern Baptists (Northern Baptist Convention) and the Southern Baptists (Southern Baptist Convention). In the Southern states, the intense propaganda of the Baptists converted very large numbers of Blacks (in 1936 there were more than 3,000,000), who, in order to avoid friction with whites, formed among themselves in 1895 the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America (National Baptist Convention of U.S.A.), which maintains many missions among the Blacks of the Antilles, Liberia, and other parts of Africa. In the official census of the United States, they are all grouped separately under the name of “negro baptists.”

III. DIVISIONS

The English and American Baptists are divided into more than 20 sects. The Italian Protestant Di Silvestri Falconieri, in his pamphlet Questioni Battesimali, lists some of those cited by us on the preceding pages: Calvinist Baptists, Congregationalist Baptists, Old Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Free-Will Baptists, Six-Principle Baptists, the Tunkers, the Campbellites or Reformed Baptists, the se-Baptists, open Baptists, closed Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Scottish Baptists, Unitarian Baptists, Particular Baptists, General Baptists, Baptists of the New Connection, Baptist believers—and no one knows how many other Baptist denominations exist or arise every day... In substance, one does not find oneself «faced with a Church; indeed, the idea of the Church has truly disappeared, but rather with voluntary associations, Confraternities, Congregations of believers in their own manner, all adults, naturally, ready to divide over any minor disagreement whatsoever, who have nothing in common except the mistaken idea of not conferring Baptism on children and of rebaptizing those who received it as children» (Di Silvestri-Falconieri).

IV. DOCTRINE

The b. reduce the authority of their confessions of faith to simple declarations to which no one is obliged to assent unless they conform to his own convictions. In return, they attach great importance to the meetings held in the individual Congregations, at which the members of the individual Churches voluntarily bind themselves to certain schemes of doctrine and discipline. Despite this broad freedom, almost all the b., whether by tradition or in solidarity, agree on certain doctrines. These are: the invalidity of the Baptism of children and the necessity of rebaptizing those who received it as children; Baptism must be by immersion; each individual Church or Congregation must be independent and self-governing, and there must be absolute separation between Church and State.

V. MISSIONI DEI B

The English Baptists, after centuries of lethargy, began their missions in India at the end of the eighteenth century with William Carey, and the Americans at the beginning of the nineteenth century in Burma with Adoniram Judson; at present they constitute one of the denominations supporting the greatest number of missions and missionaries. Suffice it to say that they work not only among almost all pagan peoples, but have extended their missions to Protestant nations (Germany, the Scandinavian countries, etc.) and Catholic nations (Italy, France, etc.); indeed, in some nations they have established centers which have themselves undertaken new missions. Of the 45 Baptist missionary denominations or societies, the greatest number originated in the United States, England, and the British dominions, but also in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, China, and Japan.

VI. BAPTIST MISSIONS IN ITALY

In Italy the English Baptists entered in 1866 and, after founding various stations, ceded them in 1923 to the American Southern Baptists, with 12 national pastors, 16 congregations, and 8 churches. But E. Clarke, who directed the La Spezia station, did not conform to this decision and continued his work under the name “Independent Mission of La Spezia.”

The American Southern Baptists came to Italy in 1869, a few years after the English, and are still active there, with more than 50 churches or chapels and about thirty towns regularly visited.

BIBLI: A. Taylor, History of the English General Baptists, London 1818; Ph. Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, 3 vols., New York 1877; S. B. Titterington, A Century of Baptist Foreign Missions, Philadelphia 1891; Seventh Day Baptists Handbook, Plainfield N. J. 1896; C. A. Ramsey, Histoire des Baptistes, Neuchâtel 1897; J. C. Carlile, The Story of the English Baptists, London 1903; D. G. Whittinghill, E. Y. Mullins, G. B. Taylor, I. B., Rome 1913; J. A. Rushbrooke, The Baptist Movement in the Continent of Europe, London 1915; P. Chimilleri, The Baptists in Italy, Nashville 1923; Fr. Di Silvestri-Falconieri, Questioni Battesimali, Rome 1931; J. I. Parker, Directory of World Missions, New York 1938; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Census of Religious Bodies 1936, Bulletin No. 28 Baptist Bodies, Washington 1939; H. H. Pullen, The Spezia Mission for Italy, Seattle Washington, Camillo Crivelli