Weekly Bulletin
Sunday Morning Message
This Sunday in Baptist History
June 22
Thomas Armitage quoted an article, written by a historian named Some, which described the persecution of the Baptists in England at the end of the 16th century. Mr. Some records that the charges against our forefathers were that they “insisted on maintaining all ministers of the gospel by the voluntary contributions of the people; that the civil power has no right to make and impose ecclesiastical laws; that the people have the right to choose their own pastors; that the High Commission Court was an anti-Christian usurpation; that those qualified to preach ought not to be hindered by the civil power … that the baptism of Rome is invalid; that a gospel constitution and discipline are essential to a true church; and that the worship of God in the Church of England is in many things defective. For these views they were accounted as heretics and suffered so severely from 1590 to 1630 we find but slight trace of Baptists in England during that period.”
But there were a few Baptists still in England during that time. For example there was Hendrick Terwoort, who was persecuted out of his Flemish homeland and had come to Britain hoping to find peace. But he was arrested for heresy. While in prison he wrote a confession of faith that sounds very much like ours, including an article stating that Christians should be subject to civil governments including the Queen. But the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, had no love for Christian liberty or for Hendrick Terwoort, and she had him roasted alive at Smithfield on this day in 1575.
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History,” Thompson and Cummins