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The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-1649 This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The British Baptists and politics, 1603-1649 Wright, Stephen The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 09. Oct. 2021 The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-49 2007_ Stephen John Wright King's College, London - ILC 1L' The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-44 The thesis is concerned to challenge the long-standing orthodoxy in which the Baptists appear as two separate and separately originating denominations called 'Particular' and 'General' defined on the basis of attitude to predestination and the atonement. It shows, first, that there were from the foundations of the 'Generals' in 1609 two tendencies, one continental, a clencalist and pacifist grouping influenced by the Dutch Mennonites (Smyth), and the other chiefly reflecting the English tradition of erastianism and local lay predominancy in religion (Helwys), whose traditions were broadly continued under the leadership of Murton and after. The baptized congregations which emerged from London Independency in the 30s were less hostile to high Calvinism. Immersion was adopted in 1641 by people of different congregations, including those which were later known as "General" but were not differentiated according to theology at the time. The supposedly "General" Thomas Lamb's congregation contained prominent high calvinists till 1644. There is no evidence for any denominational structure in the years 1640-44. There was no such thing as the 'Particular Baptist' denomination until the seven London churches issued a confession in October 1644, and no controversy on theology between baptists before that date; arguments centred on the question of who could initiate baptism anew. The familiar denominational structure crystallised 1644-7 in response to politics and only secondarily reacted back upon politics. The numbers of Baptist army officers in 1647 has been over-estimated. Many of the strong contingent of Army Particular Baptists in Ireland were converted there and this is likely also to apply to Scotland. The Particular Baptists were influential in the direction of social and political conservatism in England in 1647-9, but some of their members and even leaders, were influenced by the Levellers. The chief organized religious support for the Leveliers was in the group of General Baptists around Lambe, all of whose leaders were active Levellers. After 1649, this tendency became less influential. Large numbers of Baptists rejected fonnal ordinances from 1648-52, some army figures earlier, and they were influenced often by millenarian and ecstatic tendencies: in a related and parallel movement, General Baptists fell off towards a proto- Quaker 'seeking' and even (more rarely) 'ranting', which both also rejected formal ordinances It was in the face of such difficulties that denominational lines tended to harden. The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-49 1. Puritans, Separatists and Baptists, 1603-10 6 2. The Baptists in England 1611-1638 35 3. Re-foundation and Recovery, 1638-1642 61 4. Internal discussions and external allignments, 1642-45 87 5. The Baptists and Politics, 1645-47 124 6. The Army, the Levellers and the Revolution 164 APPENDICES 203 Abbreviations 207 Bibliography 209 2 1. Puritanism and Separatism, 1603-07 1. Early career of John Smyth 5 2. The Separation of 1607 9 3. The Separatists in Holland 13 4. Smyth's congregation and its Principles 15 5. Smyth and the Ancient Church in Holland 17 6. Smyth and Helwys embrace believers' baptism 23 7. The English Baptists and the Mennonites 26 2. The Baptists in England 1611-1638 1. Helwys and Murton in London 35 2. The context of the Baptists efforts in England 37 3. Baptists and the Calvinist mainstream 39 4. Hetwys and Murton on the state 43 5. Baptists in the localities 47 6. The English remaining in Holland, and their friends 53 7. The Baptists and Politics in the 1630s 57 3. Refoundation and Recovery, 1638 - 1642 1. Henry Jessey, Samuel Eaton & Origins of the Particular Baptists 61 2. Stinton's Transcript no 2 and William Kiffin 64 3. The reinstitution of baptism by immersion 69 4. Ecclesiastical Politics on the Eve of the Civil War 74 5. Thomas Lambe, and some early associates 77 6. Edward Barber and Believers' Baptism 80 7. The reinstitution of immersion and the denominational question 83 4. Internal discussions and external alignments, 1642-45 1. Ecclesiastical politics and theology 1641-42 87 2. A very particular General: Thomas Lamb and his troops 88 3 3. William Kiffin and John Spilsbury 94 4. The Controversy over Succession 96 5. The further evolution of Edward Barber 101 6. The Politics of religion, 1642-44 105 7. Church politics and the 1644 confession 113 8. The General Baptists ot London and Kent: settlement and division 120 5. The Baptists and Politics, 1645-47 1. Baptist churches and Evangelists, 1645-6 124 2. The Confession Revised 129 3. Radicalism of the Evangelists, 1646-7 133 4. The confessional struggle and religious toleration, 1646 - March 1647 141 5. Politics of the Barber/Co rnwell Baptists 143 6. Baptists and Independents, 1647 147 7. The Lambe Congregation and Politics 156 6. The Army, the Levellers and the Revolution 1. Baptist army preachers 164 2. Baptists and the Politics of the Army 172 3. Baptists and Levellers 177 4. Baptists and the Politics of the Revolution, 1648/9 186 5. Review 199 APPENDICES A. Timothy Batte 203 B. The Problem of Robert Barrow 205 Abbreviations 207 Bibliography 209 4 Puritans, Separatists and Baptists 1 Early career of John Smyth It will be suggested that the secession from the Church of England of John Srnyth, Thomas Heiwys, and their friends who later became Baptists, did not arise from new principles embraced "spontaneously". For several years, Smyth, the most important early leader, continued to hope for recognition as a preacher within the official church, but engaged with other radical puritans to resist the general thrust of ecclesiastical politics set in London. Smyth was certainly in conflict with entrenched interests long before his separation. On 27 September 1600 he was elected town lecturer of Lincoln. Here he made powerful enemies, including Alderman Leon Hollingworth. Before 13 December 1602 Smyth was unseated for enormous doctrine and undue teaching of matters of religion' and preaching against 'men of this city'.' Uprooted from his tenure, Smyth sought redress at the common law. The tangled legalities were considered by the Assize judges, who passed the problem to Sir William Wray, and others. These failed to agree, so the whole was left to the umperage of the Lord Shetffield.'2 Meanwhile, Bishop Chaderton of Lincoln had, on 9 December 1602, charged Smyth with unlicensed preaching, a charge upheld on 1 April. Smyth appealed, having held a licence from Whitgifi himself, but the Archbishop revoked this in September 1603, on the grounds that it had been granted upon wrong information', 3 This may have had to do with larger issues. On May 1603 Whitgift wrote to Chaderton that he 'did not think his majesty will suffer any disordered persons in the church', and during the summer diocesan officials were in receipt of several letters from the bishop, often with enclosures from Whitgift. Names of preachers were sent to Chaderton on 20 Sept. Three days earlier Smyth's opponents complained that Sheffield had ordered 'that we should no further prosecute law against Mr Smyth'; if the Bishop should find against him 'we are to release to him all costs and charges of suit we have sustained through his doctrine and misdemeanours'. Chadderton's sentence was almost certainly unfavourable:- Smyth remained unlicensed, but was happy with the financial settlement, thanking Sheffield for having 'wisely and charitably compounded the controversy on both parts to the contentment of either of us " 'HMC 14th Report vol 8 part 2, 76,78,79; Smyth's Lincoln career: Smythi xlv-xlvi; Smythl, 44-5; Burgess, JSSB, 45-54; Hill, Tudor and Stuart Linco n, 110-13. 2 John Beck (Mayor), Hollingworth and others to Bishop, 17 Sept 1603, L.A.O., Cor B 2, 4. L.A.O.,Cj14, if 30v-41v; CSPD 1603-10,24 SOC. li-hi, 245-9; L.A.O., Cor B12, 4; Smythl(PTP), 69. 5 Smyth and the group of clerical puritans in the area had other protectors, especially Sir William Bowes and his wife Isabel. Sir William, from Barnard Castle, Durham, had for long been engaged in border duties and was from 1603 commander of the garrison, and then governor, of Berwick, where he was residing in both July and December 1606.
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