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"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15
When Did The Baptists
Arrive in Great Britain?
Richard Cook, 1887
It is not known at what period the gospel was introduced into Great Britain. It is certain, however, that Christianity was carried into England at a very early period, probably as early as the close of the first, or beginning of the second century, and as far as baptism is concerned it must have been at that time scriptural.
The “Nonconformists,” an English paper, says, “In England there can be no doubt that Baptists existed so early as the third century. We are warranted in saying that the early British Christians held the distinctive principles of Baptists. Austin, in Canterbury, in the sixth century, had great trouble with a colony of Baptist, in Wales, and used such repressive measures against them as to load his name with infamy.
Toward the close of the seventh century, 692, Ina enacted a law, that all children should be baptized within thirty days of their birth, thus indicating that Baptist ideas largely prevailed.” Infant baptism was introduced into Britain at an early date, but immersion was the prevailing mode, from the first until the Reformation.
Mr. Spurgeon has expressed himself upon English Baptist history. He says, “It would not be impossible to show that the first Christians who dealt in this land were of the same faith and order as the churches now called Baptist. All along our history from Henry II to Henry VIII, there are traces of the Anabaptists, who are usually mentioned either in connection with the Lollards or as coming to Holland.”
