English Separatist Research Articles

Elizabethan Separatists, Puritan Conformists and the Bible

Sixteenth-century English separatists and Puritan conformists held a great deal in common but one simple distinction set them apart. Separatists recognised no other authority but Scripture: not logic, philosophy or reason; not tradition; not any human writing. Puritan conformists allowed a place for those authorities, though subordinate to Scripture. That distinction shaped printed debate over church government and worship. Separatists worked within an ‘all-or-nothing mentality’; in response, conformists were forced to adopt a ‘bare-minimum mentality’, which was quite different from how they argued in the opposite direction against the bishops of the Church of England.

General Baptist Origins and Original Sin

ABSTRACTWhether John Smyth and the General Baptists emerged out of the Anabaptist or English Separatist movement remains a subject of debate. One understudied point in this debate is Smyth’s developing thought on the subject of Original Sin. Careful study of Smyth’s writings reveals that he adhered to a traditional, Augustinian, understanding of Original Sin until after he founded the first Baptist Church. Once this church was founded, his views shifted in a distinctly Anabaptist direction, not a merely Arminian one. This adds another important data point in favour of the English Separatist theory of Baptist origins.

The Ecclesiological Contributions of Thomas Helwys’s Reformation in a Baptist Context

Abstract The English Separatist movement provided the background for which John Smyth and Thomas Helwys emerged to reconstitute a biblical ecclesiology. Through the study of the New Testament, they came to the position that infant baptism and covenantal theology could not be the foundation for the New Testament church. Both men embraced believer’s baptism as the basic foundation in which a recovered church should be built. Unfortunately, Smyth defected to the Mennonites, leaving Thomas Helwys to continue the fledging work known as Baptists. This article will examine the life of Thomas Helwys and his contribution to Baptist ecclesiology; it will also review selected literary works that contributed to the recovery of a New Testament church and the founding of Baptist ecclesiology.

‘They bee Full Donatists’

This study shows how the rise of the English separatist movement in the latesixteenth century was characterized by a polemical struggle over the applicability of the epithet of ‘Donatism.’ A pejorative slur, the Donatist label was often utilized during the early-modern period against dissident movements which refused to recognize the legitimacy of the established church. It was a perfect polemical weapon, serving to connect such rogue congregations with all the dangerous implications, both theological and political, of the ancient schism. But what was ‘Donatism’ in the context of Elizabethan England? What were its characteristics and subversive doctrines? In this article, I will examine the portrait of the ancient sect as painted by both the opponents of separatism and the early separatist leaders themselves in order to assess what aspects of the Donatist label resonated with the polemical presuppositions of each side.

‘The time of most distress’: Plymouth plantation's demographic crisis

Despite ill omens and unfavorable contractual terms, English Separatists from Leiden and people recruited by investors in London established a settlement at Plymouth in the winter of 1620/21. Sickness and disease killed half the colonists, devastating families and reshaping the population in terms of gender balance, age, and social status. Between 1621 and 1623 the arrival of additional settlers and the constant intrusion of transients caused food shortages, instability, and clashes with local Native Americans. Disputes involving civil and religious leadership led to significant outmigration. Improved social relations after 1625 masked problems that stemmed from the first winter's deadly toll and the sporadic arrival of impoverished Separatists from Leiden.

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

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.

Roger Williams and Puritan radicalism in the English separatist tradition

A text that seeks to demonstrate how Roger Williams developed the 17th-century English separatist tradition into the American political doctrine of separation of church and state.

John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition. By Timothy George. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1982. x + 263 pp. $16.95.

John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition. By Timothy George. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1982. x + 263 pp. $16.95.

Book Review: John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition

Book Review: John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition

The Opposition to the English Separatists, 1570-1625: A Survey of the Polemical Literature Written by the Opponents to Separatism. By Edward H. Bloomfield. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1981. 191 pp. $10.25 paper

The Opposition to the English Separatists, 1570-1625: A Survey of the Polemical Literature Written by the Opponents to Separatism. By Edward H. Bloomfield. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1981. 191 pp. $10.25 paper

The English Separatists and John Smyth Revisited*

The English Separatists and John Smyth Revisited^*

John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition

John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition

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The Opposition to the English Separatists, 1570–1625: A Survey of the Polemical Literature Written by the Opponents to Separatism. By Edward H. Bloomfield. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1981. xiv + 191 pp. $20.25 cloth; $10.25 paper.

The Opposition to the English Separatists, 1570–1625: A Survey of the Polemical Literature Written by the Opponents to Separatism. By Edward H. Bloomfield. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1981. xiv + 191 pp. $20.25 cloth; $10.25 paper.

Franciscus Junius (1545-1602) and the English Separatists at Amsterdam

At the end of 1598 or the beginning of 1599 an English separatist congregation at Amsterdam sent its confession of faith to the theological faculty of Leiden University for judgment. This resulted in a correspondence between the professor primarius of the faculty, Franciscus Junius, and the congregation. It is with this correspondence, and with Junius’s point of view, considered in the context of his book Le Paisible Chrestien, in which he sets forth his eirenical ecclesiology, that this paper is concerned.

William Penn and Early Quakerism (review)

BOOK REVIEWS127 of diplomats and helped build the peace movement in the land of the "Samurai." Next Elizabeth Comstock, the young English widow who came to America in search of work to support her small daughter. She found openings for her gifts, "the pioneer spirit of George Fox, the social witness of Elizabeth Fry and the evangelical concern of Joseph John Gurney." Though she traveled widely, Michigan was her home. Susie Erazer, an American Indian Quaker blazed a trail of understanding of the Indians' problems through her singing and her loving spirit. From the Northwest Errol Elliott has chosen William Hobson who dev veloped a community in Willamette Valley with Quakerism as its guiding principle. Last, Walter Malone of Ohio is portrayed with his deep concern for spreading the Christian message at home and abroad. Some of his group started Friends' work in East Africa where there is now a yearly meeting with 30,000 members—the largest in the world. These are not biographies. They are profiles. Heredity, training and individual strengths are outlined with a clear hand as these Friends follow the spirit of Christ as it was revealed to each. These sketches help us to understand the different emphases which various Quaker groups hold dear. They also show a common dependence on the light within and courage and determination to follow that light. They show the importance of obedience and the wonderful way diat God uses those who seek to know and do His will. PhiladelphiaEsther B. Rhoads William Penn and Early Quakerism. By Melvin B. Endy, Jr., Princeton, Princeton University Press. 1973. viii and 410 pages: $17.50. Here at long last is a study of William Penn which focuses on his thought and which places him squarely within the context of early Quakerism. Most recent studies of Penn have given primary attention to his activities as a politician and colonizer, and the roots of his thought in Quaker religious experience have been comparatively neglected. This thorough and independent study by a competent young scholar goes far toward filling this gap. Professor Endy's book is also a valuable contribution to the understanding of early Quakerism. For almost a generation the early Quakers have been seen so exclusively in the context of left-wing Puritanism that other strains in their ancestry have been overlooked or minimized. We have been given a sharply defined image of the Quakers of the Interregnum as a compact body of English separatists and sectarians, holding a theology fairly close to Calvinism and setting out to proclaim the imminent Day of Visitation and fight the Lamb's War. Doubtless this is one aspect of early Quakerism, but, as Endy shows in meticulous detail, it provides an over-simplified picture. There were other influences and tendencies present from the beginning, derived from continental mysticism and spiritualism, from die Anabaptists, and to a lesser degree from such "rationalistic" sources at Platonism, Arminianism and even Socinianism. Endy does not deny that Quaker thought moved in somewhat different 128QUAKER HISTORY directions after the Restoration as a new generation of better-educated leaders came to the fore. But he insists that the tendencies which developed in this period had their beginnings among the earliest Friends. It may not be easy to find traces of "rationalism" in George Fox but Endy shows that they were present in forms which led inevitably to further development in the next generation. He also emphasizes the important transitional role played by such figures as Penington and Fisher, particularly the latter. Fisher's Rusticus ad Académicos is not very readable and therefore remains largely unread, but Endy extracts many quotations which show deep insight. If Penington provides thè background for Keith and Barclay, Fisher provides essential elements for understanding William Penn. Fisher's background as a General Baptist explains his Arminian tendencies and these provide systematic grounding for Fox's instinctive rejection of Calvinistic doctrines such as election and irresistible grace. In the midst of various and sometimes conflicting tendencies, Penn is one of those who strove to bring a degree of order and consistency into Quaker theology, while keeping it firmly rooted in experience. He is admittedly less systematic than Barclay...

The English Separatist Tradition from the Marian Martyrs to the Pilgrim Fathers. By B. R. White Pp. xiv+179. (Oxford Theological Monographs.) Oxford University Press, 1971. 2.75.

Journal Article The English Separatist Tradition from the Marian Martyrs to the Pilgrim Fathers. By B. R. White Pp. xiv+179. (Oxford Theological Monographs.) Oxford University Press, 1971. £2.75. Get access The English Separatist Tradition from the Marian Martyrs to the Pilgrim Fathers. By B. R. White Pp. xiv+179. (Oxford Theological Monographs.) Oxford University Press, 1971. £2.75. R. A. Beddard R. A. Beddard Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume XXV, Issue 1, January 1974, Pages 214–215, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/XXV.1.214 Published: 01 January 1974

The English Separatist Tradition: From the Marian Martyrs to the Pilgrim Fathers

The English Separatist Tradition: From the Marian Martyrs to the Pilgrim Fathers

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method. By Charles Hartshorne Randomness, Statistics and Emergence. By Philip McShane. Language and Being: An Analytic Phenomenology. By Stephen A. Erickson. Doing and Deserving. By Joel Feinberg. Responsibility. By Jonathan Glover. The Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Basil Mitchell. Faith and Philosophical Enquiry. By D. Z. Phillips. Regliion and Secularisation. By Vernon Pratt. Humanism and Christianity. By Martin C. D'Arcy. Studies in Presocratic Philosophy: Volume I, The Beginnings of Philosophy. Edited by David J. Furley and R. E. Allen. Socrates: A Source Book. Compiled by John Ferguson. Hegel's Idea of Philosophy. Edited with an introduction by Quentin Lauer, S. J. Essays on Bertrand Russell. Edited by E. D. Klemke. The Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible: Old Testament Illustrations. Edited by Clifford M. Jones. Amos, Hosea, Micah. By Henry McKeating. The First Book of Samuel. By Peter R. Ackroyd. A History of Israel. By John Bright. Pauline Perspectives. By Ernst Käsemann. Translated by Margaret Kohl. Cyprian:‘De Lapsis’and‘De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate’. Text and translation by Maurice Bévenot, S. J. Athanasius‘Contra Gentes’and‘De Incarnatione’. Edited and translated by Robert W. Thomson. The Spanish Church and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century. By P. Linehan. Elizabethan Puritanism. Edited by Leonard J. Trinterud. Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, Vol. I. Edited by Carl S. Meyer. Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, Vol. II. Edited by Carl S. Meyer. The English Separatist Tradition. By B. R. White, Antichrist in Seventeenth‐Century England. By Christopher Hill. The Correspondence of Lord Acton and Richard Simpson, Vol. I. Edited by Joseph L. Altholz and Damian McElrath. Lettres de George Tyrrell à Henri Bremond. Edited by A. Louis‐David. Preface by Maurice Nédoncelle. Schweitzer: a Biography. By George Marshall and David Poling. Histoire du salut et philosophie. By L. Malevez, S. J. Sacerdoce et Célibat. Études historiques et théologiques. Edited by J. Coppens. The Eternal Feminine: A Study on the Text of Teilhard de Chardin. By Henri DE Lubac. The Spirituality of Teilhard de Chardin. By Thomas Corbishley. Mission and Ministry. By Adrian Hastings. The Misery of Christianity. A Plea for a Humanity without God. By Joachim Kahl. Translated by N. D. Smith.

The English Separatist Tradition: From the Marian Fathers to the Pilgrim Fathers. By B. R. White. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. xiv + 179 pp. $9.00.

The English Separatist Tradition: From the Marian Fathers to the Pilgrim Fathers. By B. R. White. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. xiv + 179 pp. $9.00.