"Cast Out from among the Saints": Church Discipline among Anabaptists and English Separatists in Holland, 1590-1620

Abstract

The tolerant atmosphere of The Netherlands attracted many persecuted Protestants to seek refuge there in the sixteenth and seveteenth centuries. This article focuses upon three significant Separatist groups that made their home in Holland in the years between 1593 and 1620—the Ancient Church led by Henry Barrow and John Greenwood, the proto-Baptists led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, and the proto-Pilgrims led by John Robinson—and examines their application and interpretation of church discipline, which they all saw as an essential mark of the true church. Furthermore, this study explores the practice of discipline among an indigenous Christian group with which the English Separatists had contact in Holland—the Waterlander Mennonites. After examining the shades of difference among these various separatist groups in Holland, the article explores how contact with indigenous Dutch Anabaptists impacted these English factions and the view of discipline they carried with them from Holland back to England and then to North America. Particular attention is paid as to how the Waterlander group influenced John Smyth's followers and how Smyth made shifts in his theology of discipline in order to better align himself with the Waterlander Mennonites.