Ideas and Ideals: Baptists, Independents and Separation from the State in Kent
In 313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which gave Christianity full legal equality.1 However in 380 an edict decreed that “all the peoples” of the empire should “practice...the Christian religion”. This move created a structure that would quickly depart from its original purity, a church beholden to the state. From that day to this groups of Christians have sought to return to New Testament simplicity and purity. Often they have had to do this in the teeth of opposition from the official faith of the state in which they lived.
In Medieval England the first defined group to be dissatisfied with the established order of a state enforced faith were the followers of John Wycliffe. Known as Lollards, they emphasised the need for people to read the Bible in the vernacular and the need for personal religion. They were particularly numerous in the Weald of Kent with a very strong following for several generations in Tenterden. Their doctrines found expression in other later dissident voices and groups.
On the continent in the wake of the reformation arose a more radical movement called Anabaptism. This taught separation of the Church and State and drew fierce opposition with the result that many fled to England. As Henry Dosker states, “in the turbulent times of the great persecution in the Lowlands, refugees by the thousand left Holland for the harbour of refuge in the great island kingdom.”2 Anabaptists found in England kindred spirits among Lollard communities and Kent was regarded as a hot bed of activity, so much so that in 1547 Bishops were appointed to deal with them.3 Joan of Kent was the most well known radical who was condemned to be burned at the stake in 1550. The Elizabethan Settlement in England brought little relief for those who disagreed with the status quo. Those who separated themselves from the Church of England were labelled as Brownists after Robert Browne (1550-1633), the father of Congregationalism. He taught that authority was to be given to each congregation to govern themselves as independent religious bodies, with each individual congregation electing and supporting its own ministry. From these congregations came the Pilgrim Fathers.
James I on his accession would allow no changes and stated “he would have them conform or harry them out of the land”. Dissent was harshly suppressed resulting in many arrests and the exile of whole congregations to Holland and then America.4 John Lothrop, the Curate of Egerton, left there in 1623, to join London’s oldest independent congregation. In 1632, as he met for worship in Blackfriars, Laud’s warrant officer broke in and arrested 42 people; John was held until he agreed to go into exile and so in 1635 Lothrop with thirty-four of his friends landed at Scituate Mass. Within weeks many more sympathisers arrived from Kent,5 so that the main thoroughfare of the settlement was named Kent Street.6
The most numerous dissenters in Kent however were to be the Baptists. A group of English exiles in Amsterdam formed a church under the leadership of John Smyth (c.1564 -1612) and Thomas Helwys. In 1611 Helwys led the group back to England, and wrote “The Mistery of Iniquity”, the first English printed book to plead for full religious freedom. In this he argued for freedom of religion for all, specifically including in this Islamic, Judaic, and atheistic belief. W S Wyles in his Fragment of Baptist History suggested that there had been a meeting of Anabaptists at Smarden before 1603, but it is more likely that this was a Lollard meeting. Eythorne in East Kent had a meeting at an early date but was not officially organised as a Baptist meeting until the late 17th century.
Nonconformity flourished during the Commonwealth period, especially so in Kent after 1653 when Baptist evangelists came from London. The Smarden Baptist church is the county’s oldest with records dating from its inception. This church began through an unusual chain of circumstances. The Vicar of Marden, Francis Cornwell, had spent time in Maidstone Jail for nonconformity and during this time accepted Baptist beliefs and was baptised by immersion at the hands of William Jeffery, an active General Baptist preacher who was responsible for planting over twenty churches in Kent.7 When Cornwell was released in 1644, he was appointed to preach a visitation sermon in the parish church at Cranbrook. He boldly took the opportunity to expound his new views of the church and preached from Mark 7.7: “They worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Such outspokeness caused an outcry followed by a public debate. Christopher Blackwood, the Curate of Rye [1606 - 1670] was present and he calmed the tumult promising to answer these arguments at an open public meeting. However, he himself became convinced Cornwell was right.
Blackwood’s studies were printed in 1644 as The Storming of Anti-Christ ... or Compulsion of Conscience and it’s [sic] Baptism.8 This little book was primarily a powerful plea for liberty of conscience to worship God according to one’s own personal convictions. The other half of the book was a powerful array of arguments against the practice of pedobaptism. Blackwood wrote that “infant baptism upholds a national church, for it is hereby that all nations become pseudo Christians (as many of them) Christians, not from any national multiplication of disciples.”9 Blackwood argued powerfully against the evil of persecution and showed that the Old Testament is not a pattern for the relationship between state and church. He believed that “the godly may resist their cause confidently in the vast power of God’s truth,”10 and “that even as we do not cast persons infected with leprousy out, but minister, neither should the magistrate cast hereties. It is not possible for God’s elect to be deceived but it is possible for hereties to be converted.”11 Blackwood accepted that absolute freedom should be permitted to all, provided they did not endanger the state or its citizens. The Warden of Merton, Francis Taylor, took up the cause of the Baptists and in 1644 baptised eight hundred people in London. The message was taken back to Kent by soldiers and this “separatist” movement grew, despite considerable opposition, so that in 1668 the great Presbyterian preacher Richard Baxter commented bitterly that Kent was “the very seat and centre of all sects.”
By the end of the 17th century Baptists and Independents had become the two main nonconformist groups in Kent. The next article will look at the differences between them.
violate civil peace. Even Catholics he bravely advocated should be at complete liberty until such times as they threaten the stability of the state. These were radical views and far ahead of their time. Blackwood was baptised by Jeffery along with Richard Kingsnorth and others who then began to meet in Kingsnorth’s house, named Spillshill near Staplehurst. In 1640/4 over 80 people met and covenanted together to constitute a church after the New Testament pattern. This pioneer group met in Spillshill until 1677, by which time they had meetings all around the Weald and a membership drawn from over thirty parishes.
Months in advance of Charles II arrival on these shores, four Baptist leaders in Kent – Jeffery and Reeve of Sevenoaks with Hammon and Blackmore of Biddenden – were in Maidstone jail from where they published a tract in 1660 entitled A Humble Petition of several innocent subiects [sic] called Anabaptists now prisoners in Maidstone Jail ... together with an acknowledgement of the kings authority in civil things ... With their reasons meruing [sic] the King’s protection in their civil and spiritual rights. They expressed their hopes that Charles would keep to his promise given at Breda when he declared he would “give liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion”12. This plea and another by the main Baptist body was ignored and thirty-five years of hardship and persecution lay ahead for all nonconformists.
Complete religious toleration was viewed as a threat to the stability of the state by the establishment of the day. In the words of W. K. Jordan, a leading authority: They held as a matter of principle that the State and Church must be completely disassociated. They required no assistance from the civil magistrate in the formation of their church and hence could view with equanimity any political order, which invested them with religious freedom. They fused in the Cromwellian settlement of religion a large measure of freedom and accordingly were inclined to support the civil government with all the means at their disposal.13
Very soon fines, distraint and imprisonment were being meted out liberally to those who held unauthorized meetings. Firstly the Corporation Act of 1661 prevented any Nonconformist from holding office in any municipal body and then the Act of Uniformity of 166
Very soon fines, distraint and imprisonment were being meted out liberally to those who held unauthorized meetings. Firstly the Corporation Act of 1661 prevented any Nonconformist from holding office in any municipal body and then the Act of Uniformity of 1662 forbade all gatherings for worship which did not conform to the new prayer book. Then the Conventicle Act of 1664 forbade more than five persons other than the family to meet for worship, the penalties being £20 each on the preacher and householders; 5/- on each hearer with half to go to the informer. In 1670 the penalties were stiffened and included transportation. The Test Act of 1673 was the final injustice and denied all employment, civil, naval or military under the government to Nonconformists. It was not until 1812 that the limited Toleration Act of 1689 was extended and finally in 1828 the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed. Full access to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge did not come until 1871. The 'meeters' often had to pay the fines for others who could not pay for themselves. Warrants of distress were granted to informers, to levy the amount on the possessions of the accused; and the constables were charged to relieve the 'meeters' of property to three times the value of the fine. Shops were plundered, homes were stripped and cattle were driven off their owners' lands to satisfy these disgraceful laws.14
Little is recorded of how our Kent people fared, but we do know an attempt was made to arrest George Hammon, the pastor of the Biddenden meeting. On his way to take a meeting, he was caught in a storm. As he sheltered under a tree, a stranger from a nearby house called out saying 'I hear there is to be a meeting nearby and I am an informer' George replied, 'I am a man taker also, will you come with me to the same place?' So they walked together to the assembled gathering and waited. Whereupon George said to the spy 'There is no minister, so it cannot be a conventicle unless someone preaches, so let you or I preach.' The spy declining, Hammon to his great surprise spoke with such power and effect that the informer became a changed man.15 The minister of Biddenden, John Knott, had his goods seized and offered for public sale but he was so well respected nobody would bid for his property.16 In 1672 an indulgence was granted and many men took the opportunity to license their homes or those of their supporters for preaching. Fifty-three licenses were granted in Kent but this relief was short lived and within the year persecution was renewed. In 1676 Smarden alone had one hundred nonconformists and this shows that persecution did little to change their views.
The coming of William and Mary was a welcome relief to all nonconformists. Parliament speedily passed the Toleration Act of 1689, which was the first statutory grant of religious toleration in England and extended religious liberties to Catholic and Protestant alike, ending the Church of England's monopoly of the nation’s religious life. At long last the State recognised the right of Nonconformists to have their own preachers and places of worship. Thus dawned a new day that many previous generations of dissenters had longed to see. Their faith in God and the strength of their convictions are cause for thankfulness. Today we enjoy liberty of conscience hard won for us by these folk. For generations they were an underground church suffering fines, imprisonment and even martyrdom. We are deeply in their debt.
N. I. Hopkins – Whitstable
Norman Hopkins is the author of ‘The Baptists of Smarden and the Weald of Kent - 1640-2000’. 216pp with over 80 illustrations, £11 post-free. Available from the author at 9, Strangford Road, Whitstable, CT5 2EP.
References:
1. Williston Walker. History of the Christian Church. T&T Clark 1986 p125
2. Henry Dosker. The Dutch Anabaptists. Philadelphia. (1921), pp.284-285
3. R.J.Smithson. The Anabaptists. (1935), pp.198-199
4. Clarence W Wate. Congregationalism in Situate. (Situate, 1967), p.11
5. Samuel Deane. History of Scituate. (Boston, 1831), p.9
6. Ibid., p.8
7. Rudge. op. cit. Introduction
8. Printed 1644. 'written by C.R. out of his earnest desire to hath to a thorough reformation, having formerly seen the mischief of half reformation'
9. Blackwood. Apostolical Baptism. P.31
10. Blackwood Storming of Anti-Christ op.cit., pp.24-26
11. Blackwood Storming of Anti-Christ op.cit., pp.21-26
12. Tracts on Liberty of Conscience. (Knollys's Society, 1847), p.289
13. W.K. Jordan, Development of Religious Toleration in England 1640-1660. (1935), p.40
14. T R Hooper. A Surry and Sussex Border Church. 1925, p96
15. A Taylor. op. cit., Vol.1, p.286
16. A.C. Millar, Eythorne - The story of a Baptist church. (1924), p.17