St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-05

of all the Christian denominations which have
existed for 800 years, have never violated the
religious freedom of others.
Second, the Baptists in every particular
stand forth pre-eminent as the champions OF
religious freedom.
'There is not" says Underhill, "a confes
sion of faith, not creed framed by the re
formers, which does not give to the magis
trate coercive power in religion, and al
most everyone at the same time curses the
resisting Baptists. Not a reformer is there,
he says, '.of any eminence who did not take
part in this crusade. Luther, Melancthen
Zwingle, Calvin, Cranmer, Ridley and many
more all had their part. The details of the
suferings of the Baptists upon the continent
OF Europe for their opinions is heart-sicken
ing. In Germany they have been plundered
thrust into dungeons, banished, and numbers
of them beheaded or burned alive. Baptist
ministers in Switzerland in great mum
bers were drowned and burned anc
at last multitudes of them tired of holding
their meetings in the woods and under cover
of midnight, fed to Moravia where, for 6
season, they were tolerated, until in time
Frederic expelled them from thence also. In
the Netherlands the hand of oppression was
also heavy. Under Philip IL, it was decreed
that no settler should come into Holland
without proof that his children had been
baptised according to
THE RITES OF ROME,
and all these suferings, in the endurance OF
which hundreds of all ages and condition:
met death, were not for crime or sedition
but for religious opinions. All this was on
the continent. If we turn to England
the same sad picture is presented. Henry
VIII, in 1884. in assuming the headship OF
the English church, issued a proclamation
commanding foreigners who had been hap.
tised in infancy and had renowned
that baptism and been rebaptised
to leave the realm in twelve days on
pain of death if they renamed. Even ole
Bishop Latimer. in sermon before Edward
VI, said: 1.-The Anabaptists that were burnt
alive here in divers towns in England, went
to their death even lntrepidy, as We will say,
cheerfully. Well, let them CO."
Under Edward VI. many BaptiSts suffered
DEATH even Cranmer and Latimer, Ridley and
John Rogers approving or actually assisting
as inquisitors. Under bloody Mary many of
our fathers passed to heaven through the
fire.
Elizabeth began her reign, and at once
commanded all holding the opinions of the
Anabaptists to depart the realm within
| twenty days, under severe penalties.
Two were burned at Southfeld by warrant
| of the Protestant Elizabeth-their crime,
! opinion. During the reign of Charles II the
! jails of England were filed with Baptist
martyrs and confessors. Passing to this
| country we find much antecedent to the rev.
| olution in keeping with the spirit of those
|
was the established religious order in Mas
| sachusetts and Connecticut and the Episco-
pal in Virginia. These churches were then
! established and supported by law. 1t is an
eXaggeration to suppose that the Puritans
came to this country to establish religious
| liberty as such. They came to establish
their own faith, and before long they began
to exclude all others, repeating the mistake
of the transatlantic prosecutors, and they
were more rigidly intolerant in their colonial
| enactment against dissenters than either En-
gland or Holland, whence they had fled, so
King Charles, in 1861, when they were hang
| ing Quakers in Boston, disannulled their
cruel claws, and in 1869, the Independents of
| England strongly protested against the cruel
ties practiced in the American colonies.
Not to detail the history of the conflict of
| Roger Williams with his prosecutors. Suf-
flee TO say that he boldly preached religious
liberty, liberty of conscience and liberty
of worship, and declared that the civil
| magistrate had no right to coerce the con-
sciences of men, nor infiiet civil penalties
| upon men for their forms of religious faith
| and worship. For the utterance of these
| sentiments he was banished. He however
| escaped arrest and fed into the wilderness
! among the sayages from the persecution of
| his brethren the Puritans. For fourteen
weeks he says l knew not what bed or bread
| did mean in his wanderings in dead of
| winter through the forests and among the
Indians. In March 1889 Williams became a
Baptist, and then formed the first Baptist
church in America. Two years afterwards he
| obtained the charter for the colony of Rhode
| Island, and in September 1914 under that
| charter he established the first government
| on earth that granted full religious liberty.
| In 1868 the president of Harvard univer
| sity, Mr.. Henry Demster, preached sermon
| declaring that he found no scriptural author
| ity for infant baptism, and for this doctrine
| he was removed from the presidency.
In 1858 Thomas Gould of CharlestDwr rn.
| fused to have his baby baptised because he
| believed the practice unscriptural. For this
| they censured him in the church and punished
him in the courts for more than seven years
Soon after he and some others united to form
| the First Baptist church of Boston For fifty
years no one could vote for the rulers in the
colony of massachusetts, unless he was q COM
| municant in the standing religious order.
In Connecticut similar oppression prevailed.
| and here also members of Congregational and
| Presbyterian churches likewise joined in the
| struggle against it and were in turn prose-
cuted.
| In Virginia perhaps our Baptist
| FATHERS SUFFERED MOST.
They were in some cases hunted like wolves
! and driven from the colony. The jails were
| filed with them, they were publicly whipped
| and everywhere tormented. The father of
| Henry Clay was imprisoned in Virginia for
| the crime of being Baptist minister. James
| Ireland was dragged from the stand while
tried to blow up the prison with gunpowder
AS We read such chapters Of history, for the
| principles of pre-American history, for the
| principles of our grand free republic has not
| yet risen above the old tyrannous spirit of
| Europe, our blood runs hot with Indignation
| All classes and conditions, all sects and de-
nominations unite in long loud protest
| against any appropriation for such laws and
magistrates as prevailed in our colonies, even
| 1870 years ago. But is it sufficiently appreci-
ated how great part our Baptist fathers
acted in the endurance OF expressions and in
struggle against them in order that we
might receive our great heritage;
which no dreamer of 1776 could have imagined
| in his utmost visions? Not it in pride-more
| than to give honor TO whom honor is due
| but in gratitude do we consider the changes
| OF 100 years, and the astonishing growth OF
| that people, then so deSpised and oppressed,
now so honored, independent and growtbful.
| 1t may possibly be pleaded in eXtenuation
| OF the errors and crimes of the men to whom
we have referred, that these crimes and er-
! rOrS were in accordance with the spirit OF the
| age in which they lived Granted. Then the
Baptists who in that very age pleaded not
merely for deliverance for themselves but for
equal religious freedom for all, must have
| been before their age. They were They
| held doctrine for the ages because it was
from the ages, and have ever since been the
| champions of this doctrine, which will stand
! abreast of the most advanced age of time be.
| cause it is a divine doctrine. the doctrine OF
the freedom of the human conscience.
| The first modern treatise ever written upon
religious liberty was written by Leonard Bus.
| ker, Baptist, in 16l4. Its title is ssRelieious
peace; or Plea for Liberty of conscience. .
Not plea
FOR MERE FEDERATION,
but for liberty OF conscience for every human
| being. Let some of its words witness: s.Tha1
it may he lawful FOR any person or persons:
yea. Jews, Turks, pagans aDd papists to write
| dispute, confer and reason, print anC
publish any matter touching any religion
| either for or against whomsoever." Can the
nineteenth century, can 1886 for fulness sur
pass that?
In 1870, the year the Pilgrims
| landed at Plymouth, another treatise was
published by those calling themselves .tyoul
| majesty's loyal subjects nnjustly called Ana
baptists." Its title was "a most humble sup
| plicatiOn of MANY Of the kinp's LOYAL sIlhiccts