BATTISTI. - Some authors trace the origin of their sect back to the origins of Christianity, an assertion rejected by all the other sects. There is no lack of those who are accustomed to link them to the Anabaptists of the 16th century, an opinion however rejected by the majority of the Baptists. Setting aside these two opinions, there is commonly 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 of Edward VI (1547-53) there were Anabaptists in England; several of these were condemned to death for their doctrine (1535, 1539, 1550) and others were so condemned under Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). Many English Baptists do not acknowledge their origin from 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), the persecution by the official Church of England forced many nonconformists into exile, and some withdrew to Holland. Among these were J. Smyth and T. Helwys, who, in dealing with the Mennonites, became persuaded that the Baptism they had received in infancy was invalid; they therefore had themselves rebaptized and founded, together with certain other Englishmen who imitated them, the first English Baptist Church in Amsterdam ca. 1608. Helwys returned with some companions to England in 1611 and there established the so-called first Baptist Church on English soil. During the reign of James I and of his son Charles I (1625-49) and the turmoils that accompanied them, the Baptists grew despite being persecuted 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 at this time the writer John Bunyan became famous. The Toleration Act of 1689 granted them greater freedom. But already there was creeping in among them the split between the General Baptists, also called Arminians or open, who professed the Arminian doctrine of general redemption and admitted to the Supper all those who presented themselves, and the Particular Baptists, also called Calvinists or closed, who held the Calvinist doctrine of redemption limited to the elect alone and admitted to the Supper only the followers of their own sect.
Of the other divisions of the English Baptists, only the sect of the Seventh Day Baptists is mentioned, which professed that the Sabbath and not Sunday must be consecrated to the Lord, and the sect of the Free Will Baptists, who practiced foot washing and anointed the sick.
II. AMERICAN BAPTISTS
The first American Baptist Church has no relation whatsoever to the English Baptists. W. Rogers (1599-1683), an Anglican minister, joined the non-conformists. Persecuted by Archbishop Laud, he emigrated in 1631 to Massachusetts and for some years was a Puritan minister. Intolerant of the ecclesiastical and civil system established in that colony, he criticized it openly, 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 persuaded that the Baptism received in infancy was invalid and had himself baptized by a companion of his, Ezekiel Hollyman, to whom he immediately afterward administered Baptism as well. Some imitated this example, and thus was founded the first Baptist Church in America, Calvinist in doctrine, which after a short time came into contact with certain General or Arminian Baptists who emigrated to America, the division that was spreading in the mother country continuing in the English colonies.
Soon the independent spirit of the colonists caused further schisms. In 1653, from the Church founded by Rogers in Providence, the "Six-Principle Baptists" separated, that is, those who in addition to the common doctrines accepted as fundamental doctrines the six points indicated by St. 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. In the 18th century some Baptists wished to establish associations for religious instruction, for missions, etc., to which other Baptists objected, considering them contrary to Holy Scripture. The former called themselves "Separate Baptists or New Lights" and the latter "Regular Baptists or Old Lights." In 1806 a Baptist minister, D. Parker, gave rise to the "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Baptists," that is, to those who professed that there are in man two spiritual seeds, one infused by God, the other by the devil, partly reviving the doctrines of Manichaeism.
But the great division of the American Baptists came over the problem occasioned by slavery. Those of the north were opposed to it, while those of the south favored it; this difference of opinion caused the schism of 1844-45, still not 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 many negroes (in 1936 they numbered more than 3,000,000), who, to avoid friction with the whites, in 1895 formed among themselves the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America (National Baptist Convention of U.S.A.), which cultivates many missions among the negroes of the Antilles, of Liberia and of 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 Baptists, English and American, are divided into more than 20 sects. The Italian Protestant Di Silvestri Falconieri in his pamphlet Questioni Battesimali enumerates some of them, which we have cited in the preceding pages: Calvinist Baptists, Congregationalist Baptists, Old Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Baptists of the Six Principles, the Tunkers, the Campbellites or Reformed Baptists, the Se-Baptists, Open Baptists, Closed Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, Scotch Baptists, Unitarian Baptists, Particular Baptists, General Baptists, Baptists of the New Connection, Believers' Baptists, and one does not know 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 a Church has really vanished — but rather with voluntary associations, with Confraternities, with Congregations of believers after their own fashion, all adults, of course, ready to split over any slight discrepancy whatsoever, who have in common only the erroneous idea of not conferring Baptism on infants and of rebaptizing those who received it as infants" (Di Silvestri-Falconieri).
IV. DOCTRINE
The Baptists 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 exchange, they give great importance to the assemblies held in the individual Congregations, in which the members of the individual Churches voluntarily bind themselves to specific schemes of doctrine and discipline. Despite this broad freedom, almost all Baptists, whether by tradition or by solidarity, agree on certain doctrines. Such 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-sufficient, and there must be an absolute separation between Church and State.
V. MISSIONS OF THE BATTISTI
The English Baptists, after centuries of slumber, began their missions in India at the end of the 18th century with William Carey, and the Americans at the beginning of the 19th century in Burma with Adoniram Judson, and at present they form one of the sects that supports the most missions and missionaries. Suffice it to indicate that they not only work among almost all pagan peoples, but have extended their missions to Protestant nations (Germany, Scandinavian countries, etc.) and Catholic ones (Italy, France, etc.); indeed in some nations they have formed centers which in turn have undertaken new missions. Among the 45 Baptist sects or missionary societies, the greatest number come from the United States, from England and from the British dominions, but also from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, China and Japan.
VI. BAPTIST MISSIONS IN ITALY
The English Baptists entered Italy in 1866, and after founding various stations they ceded them in 1923 to the American Baptists of the South, with 12 native pastors, 16 congregations and 8 churches. But E. Clarke, who directed the station of La Spezia, did not comply with that decision and continued his work under the name of the "Independent Mission of La Spezia."
The American Baptists of the South came to Italy in 1869, a few years after the English, and they still endure there with more than 50 churches or chapels and about thirty towns regularly visited.