The Baptist People
From the First to the Twentieth Century
By P. E. Burroughs, 1934
Chapte III
In the Times of the Reformation (1500 to 1600)
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We cannot grasp the nature and meaning of the sixteenth century Reformation, which by reason of its pre-eminence is called "The Reformation," unless we know in some measure the conditions in the dominant Roman Catholic Church during the period involved.
I. Religious Conditions of the Time
1. Vital Religion Was at a Low Ebb
With the decline of spiritual religion there came a corresponding decline in morals. As illustrative of the depths of iniquity to which the Catholic Church had sunk, we may mention the prevalent sale of indulgences. The power of the church was absolute in life; even in death that power did not cease. Even after death, in purgatory, the church had power of control. It could, through indulgences, reduce or shorten the sufferings by which sin was supposed to be removed before the soul could enter heaven. The church could transmit to those in purgatory the stored-up merits of Christ and of worthy saints, and thus hasten their release. Such transmission
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of merit to poor and needy souls in purgatory was called an indulgence. Such indulgences were sold at auction, and in this way vast sums were wrested from the credulous and superstitious for the treasuries of the church. Jesus had said, Freely, without price, ye have received; freely, without price, give. Now men, under sanction of the church and for the profit of the church, were selling at public auction the grace of Christ. It was this infamous scandal that aroused the wrath of Martin Luther and started the Reformation in whose light the nations of the earth still dwell.
2. The Bible was Lost in the Mists and Fogs of Obscuring Tradition
Jesus had chided the Jews because they put the "tradition of the elders" above "the commandments of God." Even so, the pure and cleansing stream offered in the Word of God had in the days preceding the Reformation been displaced by the stagnant waters of error and superstition. The Catholic Church had carefully kept the Holy Scriptures from the masses of the people. Thus the people could not read the Scriptures for themselves; and since their priests made no effort to teach or interpret the Scriptures to them, they were without the light and leading of the divine Word.
II. How the Reformation Came
1. The Revival of Learning
During the century preceding the Reformation there came an intellectual quickening which, beginning especially in Italy, spread to all parts of Europe. There came into the great universities a new life and a new spirit of investigation, and out of these centers the light spread even among the masses of the people. As far back as the fourteenth century, Dante, Petrarch, Chaucer, and a host of lesser lights, were producing literature which was destined to stir the minds of men and move then-hearts toward higher and better things. This strange
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pervading stimulus of thought, this significant uprising among the people, this eager restless quest for light and truth paved the way under God for the new day which was to come.
2. A General Quickening
The Reformation as a development along religious lines had its counterpart in similar developments along many diverse lines. In reality, the period was distinguished by a general progress which included all departments of life.
The period was marked by important inventions. The use of movable types in printing made possible the multiplication and wide diffusion of books and periodical literature; the first complete Bible came from the presses about 1455, and from that time the art of printing was rapidly developed. Gunpowder and personal firearms went far to lift the lower classes more nearly to the plane of those who had been their masters. The introduction of the mariner's compass made it possible for daring sailors to find their way to remote seas.
3. New Explorations at Sea
The period was likewise characterized by nautical discoveries of the greatest importance. Nine years after the birth of Martin Luther, Columbus discovered a new western continent, and this discovery quickened the pace of Europe as nothing else could have done. Vasco da Gama sailed to India around the Cape of Good Hope, and thus opened a new highway to the commerce of the nations.
4. Men Turned Toward the Bible
So long as the Bible could be read only in the Latin tongue, it was of necessity a sealed book to the rank and file of the people. They could not have access to the sacred pages, and even if they could have secured the precious copies, they could not read them. In spite of the opposition of the dominant church, the Bible in whole
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or in part was translated early in the sixteenth century into many languages, and was circulated in England and on the continent. With the invention of printing, the Bible was the first book to be printed, an edition in the Latin language coming from the presses as early as 1455. The reformers of the sixteenth century could never have accomplished their far-reaching work without the aid which came from this quickened circulation of the Holy Scriptures.
5. God Prepared Men of Rare Insight and Courage for the Emergency
In natural endowment and in spiritual enduement, the leaders whom God raised up for the great Reformation must forever command the admiration of thinking men. Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and the intrepid group which led the Anabaptists - these men must largely account for the Reformation.
It is perhaps impossible for us at our distance, and with our changed environment, to appreciate the difficulties which beset the early leaders of the Reformation. Luther declared the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures, and from this source declared that justification is by faith, that human merit and righteousness are nothing at all. He swept away many of the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church, such as purgatory, indulgences, the sacraments. He retained infant baptism and baptismal regeneration, not seeing, apparently, the utter inconsistency of these things with his major premise.
Zwingli in Switzerland was more thorough and more consistent than Luther. Dr. W. J. McGlothlin tersely said: "Luther's principle of reform was the retention in the church of everything which the Scriptures did not forbid; Zwingli's was the rejection of all the Scriptures did not warrant."
John Calvin, coming a generation later than Luther and Zwingli, was able to take account of their ministry and build on their work. "He gave to the world a system
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of theology which was the most logical, consistent and thorough statement of Christian doctrine ever offered to the world." The essential features of this system are summed up in a comprehensive fashion by Dr. W. J. McGlothlin:1
It started from the sovereignty of God, and from this controlling idea deduced all the other elements of the system, such as decrees, election, the security of believers, the helplessness of the unregenerate, and so forth. It leaned heavily on God who was all and in all. Man was utterly helpless except as God by his sovereign will helped him. Salvation depended on election, and the reasons for election were hidden in the inscrutable will of God. It was a stern system, but it gave to men a confidence in God and a sense of divine power that put red blood into their spiritual veins and nerved them for the mighty struggle that was upon them in the effort to overthrow the Catholic Church.
While all of these reformers built on the Bible, and with rare courage went a long way back toward the teaching of the Scriptures, they all fell short in some respects of an absolute return to Scripture teaching and practice. All of them retained infant baptism, and thus failed to rise to the point of demanding a spiritual and regenerated church membership. All retained the union of church and state.
III. The Anabaptists in the Reformation
1. Their Beliefs
The Anabaptists of the time urged that the reforming movement should be complete, that the errors of Romanism should be entirely uprooted, and the return to New Testament principles and practices should be thorough. Their name, Anabaptists, re-baptizers, was given them by their critics. They themselves wished to be called simply brethren or believers. They declared that infant baptism had no warrant in Scripture, that it was
------------------------------------ 1The Course of Christian History, 1918.
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a clear perversion of Scripture in that it was administered before, instead of after, regeneration; and they further declared that it was indirectly at least the source of many of the departures and corruptions which had long cursed the world.
They accordingly insisted that those baptized in infancy should be duly and properly baptized when in later life they made a credible profession of faith. This was regarded by those who practiced infant baptism as a re-baptism. Hence, they called these people Anabaptists. Later the prefix was dropped, and they came to be called simply Baptists.
2. Their Great Numbers
We could wish that this Anabaptist development of the sixteenth century could be more clearly traced in its remoter origins. Dr. A. H. Newman tells us that the movement "had its roots in the evangelical parties of the Middle Ages, to which it owed its modes of thought, its types of Christian life, and its methods of work."
The great Baptist movement on the Continent did not originate with any particular man or in any one place. It seems to have sprung up in many places at about the same time, and its general growth was wonderful, between 1520 and 1570 - half a century. Keller says: "A contemporary, who was not a Baptist, has this testimony concerning the beginning of the movement: 'The Anabaptist movement was so rapid, that the presence of Baptist views was speedily discoverable in all parts of the land.' He mentions Switzerland, Moravia, the South and North German States and Holland, with many principalities, and writes: 'The more I examine the documents of that time, at my command (as archivist of Munster), the more I am astonished at the extent of the diffusion of Anabaptist views, an extent of which no other investigator has had any knowledge.'"
3. Similarity to Present-Day Baptists
The teachings of these Anabaptists were in many things the same as the teachings of the Baptist people
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today. We outline briefly some of these teachings, and the reader may well judge for himself.
(1) Their basal distinguishing doctrine was the competency of the soul for God, the right and the ability of every man to stand before God. They denied that the church, the priest, the ordinances, or any human institution, had a right to come between the soul and God.
(2) They demanded a spiritual and regenerated church membership. Following this principle to its just conclusion, they rejected infant baptism.
(3) They urged a complete separation of church and state. This was the inevitable corollary of their demand for a regenerated church membership, and without hesitancy they advocated a free church in a free state. In this they stood against the whole religious world. Thus, passing by traditions and going direct for their authority to the New Testament, they opposed an established custom ages old.
(4) They baptized by immersion all whom they received. Through the centuries Christ had justified his own declaration that the gates of Hades should not prebaptist.pvail against his church. The fundamental assumptions on which he had founded his church were eternal and could not be repressed or destroyed. Long before the
Reformation, the Anabaptists had sought to proclaim many of these principles, and after the Reformation, under the title Baptists, they continued their witness
with varying power and success. In the next chapters we follow the course of the Baptist people in England, and later on trace their beginnings and ministry on the soil
of the New World.
Teaching Suggestions
Question-Answer Study
Describe religious conditions at the time of the Reformation.
Trace some developments which led to the Reformation.
Mention briefly some of the men whom God raised up "for the emergency."
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How did the Baptists get their name?
Indicate some tenets of the Anabaptists.
Blackboard-Outline Discussion
I. Religious Conditions of the Time
1. Religion at low ebb
2. Bible was lost in mists of tradition
II. How the Reformation Came
1. Revival of learning
2. General quickening
3. New explorations at sea
4. Turning toward the Bible
5. Men of insight and courage raised up
III. The Anabaptists in the Reformation
1. Their beliefs
2. Their great numbers
3. Similarity to present-day Baptists
(1) Competency of the soul for God
(2) A regenerated membership
(3) Separation of church and state
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[From P. E. Burroughs, The Baptist People, SSB of SBC, 1934. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]