GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
THE ORIGIN OF
THE BAPTISTS
By
S. H. Ford
CHAPTER
V
Century Fourteen
Wickliffe and the Lollards
A
bright star rose on the darkness of the fourteenth century, and threw
its light over Britain and the continent of Europe.
It was the
darkest hour of that long night of Papal oppression. Over that
darkness and dead silence, from the Avon to the Tiber, a sound went
fort from Lutterworth; a light from the center of Britain. A
memorable spot is that little village Richard III buckled on his
armor for the battle of Bosworth field. Near it Wolsey fell, and with
him the power of Popery in England. There, too, stands the memorable
little ground of Naseby, where Cromwell and liberty triumphed over
the defeated despot Charles.
Lutterworth! Associations cluster
round it more potent in their influence than the clash of armies or
the fall of kings. The lone voice that went forth from it. the light
that gleamed from it in the fourteenth century are heard and felt
still, must echo and beam through all time, and all eternity. It was
the voice and light of truth, truth which once generated is immortal.
Chains can not bind it; time can not weaken it. Eternal is its
nature; eternity is its guardian. (Bancroft) John De Wickliffe,
rector of Lutterworth, was the chosen instrument to announce that
truth, and bear aloft that flame-torch through the world's valley of
the shadow of death.
On the banks of the Tee, in Yorkshire,
John Wickliffe was born, in 1324. With Bradwordine, and Occam, and
Dunn, and Scotus, the luminaries of the age, He passed his early
manhood in Oxford University. He entered the clerical order, and
beheld before him the highest honors in the "Church." But,
like Luther God's Word had found entrance into his soul, and. in
obedience to its teaching he tore away from his heart the webs and
wrappages of error which incased and deadened it. On, step by step,
he struggled into light, until on the Bible and the Bible alone, he
took his lime and defiant position. Among the principles he advocated
were, that the church consisted only of believers, the saved; that
baptism was a "sign of grace received before," and
consequently should be administered to those only who professed to
have received "grace." "It was in 1371." says
Walsingham, "that Dunn and Wickliffe read the accursed opinions
of the Berengerians, one of which undoubtedly was the denial of
infant baptism." (Neal's History of the Puritans). Thomas
Walden, who was familiar with his writings, called him "one of
the seven heads that rose out of the pit, for he denied the baptism
of infants, that Heresie of the Lollards of which he was so great a
leader." And further, Wickliffe, in the eleventh chapter of his
Trialogues, as quoted by Danvers, states that "believers are the
only subjects of baptisms." In his adherence to the Bible as is
only rule of faith and practice; in his denial of grace or pardon
communicated in baptism; in his rejection of infant and avowal of
Christian baptism; and in his clear definition of a church as an
assembly of baptized believers, WICKLIFFE WAS A BAPTIST. Among
Baptist heroes and martyrs must his name be enrolled. As one of them
was reviled while living, and, forty years after his peaceful death,
his ashes were violated by the foes of truth.
But Wickliffe
did not stand alone. Thousands were around him, and followed him.
Branded, burned, and driven from the haunts of men, these
Wickliffites, these Baptists, were found scattered throughout
England. "They were as numerous," says Sir William Newbury,
in his History of England, "as the sands of the sea."
Here,
then, we have found these people in the midst of the fourteenth
century. Where did these Baptists come from? Did they originate with
Wickliffe? Did the "morning star" of the Reformation usher
in the advent of the Baptists, Whose existence previously was not?
Let us see. Milner, in his History of Christianity, says:
"The
term 'Lollard' was affixed to those who professed a greater degree of
attention to acts of piety and devotion than the rest of mankind. Of
these, Walter Reynard, a Dutchman, was apprehended and burned at
Cologne. This is he whom I have already called Reynard Lollard, in
the account of the waldenses, and from whom the Wickliffites are
supposed to have acquired the name of Lollards."
That
these Lollards were Baptists is evident. The denial of infant baptism
we have already seen was the "great heresie of the Lollards."
In the Dutch Martyrology is an account of one L. Clifford, who was
arraigned as a Lollard, and confessed and recanted, acknowledging
that they renounced infant baptism. And Fox, in his Martyrology, has
extracted from the register of the Bishop of Hereford, on of the
charges of which the Lollards were found guilty, "that faith
ought to precede baptism."
Of these Lollard Baptists was
William Sawtre, the first name in that illustrious roll of martyrs
who died for soul-freedom in Britain; and soon after, at the hour of
midnight, one hundred of those down- trodden Christians assembled to
worship god among the bushes of St. Giles, near London, hoping , at
that hour and unfrequented place, to be free from detection and
molestation, were tracked and murdered by the king and a troop of his
courtiers.
Among the Lollards was one illustrious man of
title, wealth, and courage. It was Sir John Oldcastle, Earl of
Cobham. He was apprehended and brought to trial before the Bishops.
He met them and their charge with fearless intrepidity. Nobly he
avowed and advocated the doctrines which have distinguished Baptists
in every age. Honor and preferment were before him if he would but
recant; disgrace, ignominy, and death the reward of his
steadfastness. He chose to be numbered with the scorned,
down-trodden, vulgar Baptist; And confront shame and suffering,
rather than abandon or betray the immortal principles that inspired
them.
Faith, inwrought, heartfelt faith, shining, without a
shadow into the depths of a man's being, revealing the eternal verity
of the thing believed, faith resting on a rock which the rush of a
wrecked universe can not move, this is the soul of true heroism.
There never was a hero without it. Dragged, amid insults, to Tyburn
to be hung up by the waist and burned to death, his possessions
confiscated, his family impoverished, his name cast out as evil, Sir
John Oldcastle never wavered. this was the victory whereby he
overcame the world, even his faith. In death he warned the people to
follow nothing but the scriptures; prayed for his enemies, and
exclaimed, "I die in triumph!"
And so he received
the crown which celestial conquerors wear. Pity or regret found no
place in the hearts of his sanctimonious murderers. "He was an
Anabaptist." said Parsons the English Churchman, "and
deserved to die as a traitor." (Dr. Thomas Fuller, Church
History, vol. ii, p. 448).
"Not satisfied with his
death," [ says Fox,] "the clergy induced the Parliament to
make fresh statutes against the Lollards. It was enacted, among other
things, that whosoever read the Scriptures in English, should forfeit
lands, chattels, goods, and life, and be condemned as heretics,
should be hanged for treason against the king, and then burned for
heresy against god." (Fox, Acts and Monuments). "No sooner
was this act passed than a violent persecution was raise against the
Lollards." (Ib., Book of Martyrs, p. 224).
In an old
history of the Welsh Baptists are recorded the labors and sufferings
of an intelligent, active Baptist layman, who, from Wales, passed
into England in company with a preacher. His name was Walter
Brute.
"While the Lord was employing the immortal
Wickliffe to prepare his way in England, he remembered Wales in his
tender mercy, and visited her with the dayspring on high. The pioneer
in the cause of the Reformation in Wales was Walter Brute, who was a
native of the principality, and who had been at Oxford, where he
became acquainted with Wickliffe, with whom he formed an intimacy,
and fully entered into his views respecting the reformation of the
church. It is an old adage, that like begets like, which was verified
in the case Brute. Having reflected on the pitiable condition of his
countrymen, who were bewildered in the haze of ignorance, his heart
was moved with compassion. He left the university, endowed with the
principles, fortified with the intrepidity, and fired with the zeal
of his colleague; and fully determined to resist the delusions and
abominations of the secular church, even unto blood, he entered his
native land, where he soon distinguished himself." Fox says,
that Walter Brute was "eminent in learning, gifts, knowledge,
zeal, and grace."
"He fearlessly sounded the trump
of God throughout the land, until, in a few years, the huge temple of
Antichrist began to crumble, and its gilded worshipers to tremble for
their safety, As his weapons were those of truth and righteousness,
and his cause the cause of God, his victory was certain, and he soon
became instrumental in rescuing the prey from the mighty, and in
delivering many lawful captives. His disinterestedness becoming
generally known, and his labors of love appreciated, he found a
number of steady friends among high and low. It may be supposed, that
in traversing the country to preach the truth, and to seek the lost
sheep of the house of Adam, that the established churches were closed
against him; for we learn that he was preaching from house to house,
and in the chief places of concourse and elsewhere, and conducting
the worship of God with the greatest simplicity. He maintained that
baptism was not necessary to salvation; and that it was to be
administered to adults subsequently to conversion. And he frequently
took occasion to protest against the doctrines and discipline of the
Established Church. His zeal for the truth and his exposures of the
Papacy, soon elicited the hostility of the clergy, and fixed upon him
all the envy of the sons of the Church, in the prosecution of the
heresiarch, Walter Brute, whose words the land was not able to bear.
The insolence, oppression, and exsquires of the clergy had become
quite intolerable to the lords and squires, whose hereditary
high-mindedness would not suffer the sons of Levi to surpass them in
authority or splendor. Many of the great congratulated Brute in
putting a check to the clergy from no other principles than those of
personal interest and envy; and gladly availed themselves of the
opportunity to chastise their powerful rivals. Besides, the
Reformation had so extensively prevailed among all ranks, that some
of the great and nobles were pious reformers, and others were
impelled to yield to the force of public opinion,
Arrested and
brought before the Bishop of Herefordshire, he confounded his
adversaries by his fearlessness and acquaintance with the Scriptures.
In the account of his trial, recorded by fox, is his written answer
to the Bishop:
"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, I, Walter Brute, sinner, Layman, husbandman, and Christian,
having my offspring of Britons, have been accused to the Bishhop of
Herefordshire that I did err in matters of Christian faith, by whom I
am required that I should give a written answer.
"If any
man of any state or sect whatever, will show me that I err in my
writings or sayings, by the authority of the sacred Scriptures, or a
probable reason grounded thereon, I will gladly receive his
information. But as for the bare words of any teacher, (Christ only
excepted,) I will not simply believe, unless he shall be able to
establish them by the truth of experience, and the example of God's
Word." Such was the fearless denial of Episcopal and church
teachings which Baptists dared to utter centuries before Luther was
born, and which is their leading characteristic still. Walter Brute
was condemned as an Anabaptist.
But from the ten thousand
sufferers of the poor Lollards we must pass. there still stands at
this hour the gloomy monument of their miseries on the banks of the
Thames, the Lollards Tower at Lambert Palace, London. Fitted up as
the palace of their torture by the Bishop of Canterbury, in 1414, it
stands there a witness to the triumph of truth. It speaks with an
awful, yet prophetic eloquence, of the future of the Baptists.
But
still the question occurs, these Baptists, Lollards, Wickliffites,
Whence came they? Was Wickliffe, then, their father and founder?
It
must be remembered that Wickliffe was denominated by his persecutors,
"The leader of the Lollards." It is evident that thousands
of these Lollards hailed him as a great light, whom God had raised up
and sent forth amid the darkness. that he adopted their principles,
and became one of them, there is little doubt. but why were they
called Lollards? Now Mosheim, with whom there is a general agreement
among historians, states tat "Walter, a Dutchman of remarkable
eloquence, and famous for his writings, who came from Mentz to
Cologne, was burned there in 1322." (History, p. 356) Fuller and
Perrin state that he came to England in the reign of Edward III.
"from the Waldenses, among whom he was a great barb or pastor."
That this man's name was Walter Reynard is most evident, and,
"Lollard," a term of reproach, was given to him and his
brethren because they were accustomed to sing psalms and hymns.
Abelly says the word is derived from loben, "to praise,"
and herr, "Lord." But, however this may be, the fact is
unchallenged, that Walter the Lollard, a shining light in the
midnight of Papal darkness, after passing from country to country,
lifting his eloquent voice and scattering over the wintery seed-
fields the germs of truth, passed trough England to build up the
scattered flock of Christ there, and then breathed out his great soul
amid the fires of martyrdom, before John Wickliffe was born.
That
this Walter Lollard was a Baptist in unquestionable. He came from the
Waldensian Baptists to England, and found Baptists there, who were
welcomed this eloquent teacher among them, may be traced to a still
higher date. At the time when the Norman nobles of William the
Conqueror were crushing out the spirit, the language, and nationality
of Englishmen; when a foreign priesthood and a foreign tongue were
forced by cruel edicts upon the prostrate Saxons, there were those
who still dared to avow their deathless attachment to the simple
truths and ordinances of primitive Christianity. During the reigns of
William and his son Rufus, they were subjected to insults and
persecutions, and were denounced by the imported Popish Bishop,
Lanfrank, of Canterbury. (Fuller, Ecclesiastical History, vol. I).
Gascony and Guienne, the domains of the Dude of Normandy, were, at
the conquest, attached to England. The intercourse between the latter
and the Pyrenean mountains, became general and intimate. "In
Gascony the heretics, says the old monkish historian, Sir William
Newbury, "were as numerous as the sands of the sea." A
company of these Baptists were found in England in the tenth century,
and is thus described by Henry in his history of Great Britain, which
in substance, corresponds with Napier, Collier, and Lyttleton:
A
company of about thirty men and women attracted the attention of the
government by the singularity of their religious practices and
opinions. They were apprehended and brought before the Council of the
Clergy at Oxford. Being interrogated about their religion, their
teacher, named Gerard, a man of learning, announced in their name,
that they were Christians, and believed the doctrines of the
apostles. Upon a more particular inquiry, it was found that they
denied several of the received doctrines of the church, and, refusing
to abandon their damnable heresies. they were condemned as
incorrigible heretics, and delivered to the secular arm to be
punished. The king, ( Henry II,) at the instigation of the clergy,
commanded them to be branded with red-hot iron on their foreheads,
whipped through the streets of Oxford, and having their clothes cut
short at their girdles, to be turned into the open fields, all
persons being forbidden to afford them shelter or relief under the
severest penalties. This cruel sentence was executed with the utmost
rigor, and it being the depth of winter, all these unhappy persons
wee pressed with cold and hunger." A further account of these
people and their treacherous treatment, is found in the Dutch
Martyrology, or " Martyr's Mirror," (This rare book is in
the Jesuit's College of St. Louis) which places the date in 1161, and
gives abundant evidence that they were Baptists. Their leader was
branded on the forehead and chin, and, as they were driven, bleeding
and naked, out into the wintery fields to die, he raided his voice in
triumph, singing,
"Blessed are ye when ye are
hated,
Beaten, despised." etc.
But they did not
all perish. There were among the crushed Saxons a hatred to their
foreign oppressors, dings, and priests, and a common sympathy for
those who suffered from Norman cruelty. The seed was scattered, and a
half century afterward, Walter Lollard preached among these same
Baptist, Waldenses of England.
The Lollards, The Wickliffites,
the suffering, struggling pioneers of the Reformation, we have found
them away up amid the darkness of the middle ages, found them weak,
yet fearless; few, yet mighty; poor, yet powerful, sublime in their
sufferings, and triumphant in their prostration. Baptists they were,
whether represented by Wickliffe. or Lollard, or Gerard. Neither the
power of man, nor the gates of hell could prevail against them.
But
from the Lollards, and from England with it blessed and elevated by
the truths they cherished, let us pass still upward, marking this or
them as a milestone in the path of time.
'In the year 1391,
the king, wishing to show favor to the Church, issued a letter to the
nobility of the Principality, in which he imperiously enjoined them
to assist Dr. John Trevnant, Bishop of Hereford, in apprehending and
punishing Walter Brute and his adherents."Evans Martyn's Letter.