The early Baptists of Virginia

Front matter

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Preface

The book which is here offered to the public is an enlargement of an Address delivered by Dr. Howell, in New York, in 1856, before the American Baptist Historical Society, and then published by the Society in pamphlet form. Soon after its publication, in 1857, he expanded it into a book, and a subsequent revision in 1864 gave it its present form. The interest which the original attempt to set forth the character and work of early Virginia Baptists excited, induces the hope that the present completer work may be received by Baptists everywhere as a valuable contribution to their history. It commends itself indeed to all students of history, and especially to the friends of religious liberty, as a careful delineation (drawn for the most part from original sources) of a part of one of the great

movements of modern society.

l*

6 PR EFA CE.

It is matter of regret that the learned and pious author is not permitted to witness the heightened interest which the Baptists of Virginia are showing in the great names and deeds of their past. No one would have felt deeper sympathy with, or taken more earnest part in, the memorial-movement than he, and none would have kept a praiseworthy denominational pride more free from narrow-minded or merely worldly sectarian feeling.

The book appears under the disadvantages of a posthumous work. If the author were living, he might choose to make additions or modifications; but his manuscript is printed as he left it, without alteration.

Chapter I Introductory

Virginia Baptist History Unwritten — Injustice to the Memory of the Early Baptists, by both Friends and Enemies — Sources of Information regarding them — A Sketch of their Principles — Influence of these Principles upon other Denominations — Present condition of Baptists in Virginia — Design of the present Work 11

Chapter II. Baptist Element Among The Eaely Colonists Of Vir- Ginia

Intolerance in the Old World towards Baptist Principles — Increasing number of Baptists — The violence of their Persecutions— The New World an Asylum — The Presence of Baptists in other Colonies — The number and condition of Baptists in London and its Neighborhood — The Soldiers of Cromwell's army who escaped to Virginia — Virginia a place of concealment for the Persecuted — The emigration of Baptists from Virginia to North Carolina 19

Chapter III. Causes Which Delayed The Organization Of Baptist Churches In Virginia

The Government of the Virginia Colony — Rule of the London Company — The Episcopal Church established in the Colony — Laws enforcing religious conformity — Instances of persecution— Intimidation of the People. . . ... 34

8 CONTENTS.

. CHAPTEE IV.

BAPTIST PRINCIPLES IN VIRGINIA FIRST EMBODIED IN VISI- BLE CHUBCHES.

Mistakes on that Subject — Act of Toleration — Correspondence with English Baptists — Nordin and "White — Constitution of a Church at Burleigh, south of James River — Other Churches in its neighborhood Organized — Churches in Loudon and Berkeley Counties, and other places in the northern part of the Colony — Loveall, Heaton, Garrard, and other Ministers — Causes of Baptist Impunity — Philadelphia Association 49

Chapter V. Pbogeess Of Baptist Principles In Virginia

Stearns and Marshall — Prevalence of Revivals — Ministers among the Converts — Multiplication of Churches — Organization of Associations — The Kehuki, the Charleston, the Sandy Creek, the Ketocton — The General Association of Virginia. . .63

Chapter VI. Causes Of Baptist Success In Virginia

Character of the People — Demoralization of the State Church — Persecution of the Baptists — Their manner of Preaching. . 71

Chapter VII. Controversies Of The Early Baptists Of Virginia

Predestination and Arminianism — Classes of Baptists in England — The Immigration to Virginia of both Classes — Their Discussions here; their Division — Action regarding Reunion, of Ketocton Association, of Sandy Creek, of the General Association, of Kehuki, of the General Committee — Reunion of the Churches 87

Chapter VIII. Episcopacy Among The Early Baptists Of Virginia

\ Episcopacy adopted in Virginia — Its previous prevalence among English Baptists — Discussion on the Subject — Institution of Apostles — Its Failure in Practice— Its Abandonment. . , . 100

CONTENTS. 9

Chapter IX. Causes Of The Reunion Among The Early Baptists Of Virginia

Discordances to be Overcome — Union in a few vital Principles — Ardent Christian Love — Their indiscriminate Persecution — The Political ends they mutually Sought 116

Chapter X. Evils That Prevailed Among The Early Baptists Of Virginia

The failure of their Educational Plans — Their mistakes regarding the use of Money as a means of extending Religion — Their conduct as to wealth and social Position — Their Neglect in regard to Books — Their carelessness in reference* to centres of Influence — Their Errors regarding the unaided force of Truth — Injudicious ordinations of Ministers. . . 122

Chapter XI. Political Action Of The General Association

Design of the General Association of Virginia — Its Declaration of principles on Political Subjects— Principles of the Primitive Christians on Religious Liberty— Of the English Baptists— Its memorials to the State Convention and Legislature — Memorials of the other Denominations — Its Commissioners — Baptist principles embodied in the Constitution of Virginia. . 139

Chapter XII

INFLUENCE OF THE BAPTISTS IN FORMING THE STATE GOVERN- MENT OF VIRGINIA.

Petitions to the Legislature from the General Association, and from the Hanover Presbyteiy and other Presbyterians — Methodist Petitions — Episcopal Claims— Jefferson's advocacy of Baptist Principles — The Marriage Law — Assessment Law — Law to establish Religious Liberty — Suspension of the salaries before paid by the State to the Established Clergy— The Vestry and Glebe Laws 157

Chapter XIII. Change In The Political Organization Of The Early

BAPTISTS OF VIRGINIA.

Political and religious condition of the country during the period of the General Association — Causes of the anomalous

10 CONTENTS.

composition of the Association — Purposes to which it was Limited — In what respects it exceeded its Limits — The Result of Union, both the adoption and abandonment of Episcopacy— The extent of its achievements in its legitimate Sphere — Character of the General Committee — Its Declaration of Principles 175

Chapter XIV. Comparative Position Of The Early Baptists Of Vir- Ginia

Proceedings of the General Committee — Survey of the Field — Episcopalians and Methodists against Religious Freedom — Middle ground of Presbyterians — Baptist hostility to any connection between Church and State 185

Chapter XV

TRIUMPH OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. Defeat of the " Bill establishing a Provision for the Teachers of Religion " — Passage of the " Law establishing Religious Freedom— History of that Law — Its leading Provisions — Opinions of it entertained by Episcopalians and Methodists — Passage of the " Law Incorporating the Episcopal Church" — Repeal of that Law — Passage of the Law repealing all Laws in relation to the State Church, and by which it ceased to be the State Church — Sale of the Glebes — State of Religion in the Baptist Churches 200

Chapter XVI

INFLUENCE OF THE EARLY BAPTISTS OF VIRGINIA IN THE FORMATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

Incidental Influence — Direct Influence— Objections to the Federal Constitution by the General Committee — Correspondence with Washington — Amendment to the Constitution — Its Approval. 223

Chapter XVII. Defence Of The Early Baptists Of Virginia

Their Position and Influence — Their Disinterestedness— Education of then- Ministers — Style and Elocution of their Sermons — Defence a duty of their Successors. 233

EARLY BAPTISTS OF VIRGINIA.

Chapter I. Introductory

Virginia Baptist history unwritten. Injustice to the memory of the Early Baptists, by both friends and enemies. Sources of information regarding them. A sketch of their principles. Influence of these principles upon other denominations. Present condition of Baptists ■in Virginia. Design of the present work.

The pride of ancestry is a natural and commendable passion. It is cherished with enthusiasm by both families and nations. JSTor is it surprising that into this spirit churches also warmly enter. He must be strangely constituted who feels no interest in the character of his progenitors. In their honor, every man must be conscious that he is a partaker. From their shame, who does not involuntarily shrink ? To this general principle, in its application to churches, the Baptists of Virginia seem to have formed a marked exception. Never has a class of men existed who were more devoted, laborious, self-sacrificing, disinterested, and successful than were the fathers of this State. Not one century, however, has passed away, and already they are nearly forgotten, even by their own ecclesiastical children ! This injustice to a large and influential class of her people is not characteristic of Virginia as a State. " To make familiar to the popular mind whatever concerns her greatness and honor, every form of intellectual communication has been exhausted. Song and oration, history and novel, have been full of her glory. Her chivalry and her statesmanship, her arts and her letters, her power and her resources, have brought into requisition the talents and scholarship of her most illustrious sons. Volume after volume has been laid upon her literary altars, evincing the warmest devotion to the interests of her people, to her honor as a State, and demonstrating her distinguished position in the great American Confederacy." Nor have any of the other leading denominations been wanting in able, learned, and enthusiastic historians. The History of the Baptists of Virginia remains unwritten ! Poetry has not enshrined their exalted deeds. Literature has raised no worthy monument to commemorate their name and virtues.

It is true that Ashland and Leland, Edwards and Gano, Burkitt and Read, Backus and Benedict, Semple and Taylor, have written Chronicles of the Early Baptists of Virginia, but they are exceedingly brief, fragmentary, and imperfect, and some of them have not even been published. Separately they are of little value? and collectively they embody only a few of those facts which they found floating upon the surface of public knowledge, and even these they have thrown together with little arrangement or discrimination. The injury done to their fame by this carelessness of their friends, has been greatly aggravated by the misrepresentations of their ecclesiastical opponents. Jarrett and Burke, White and Hawks, Foote and Meade, and a few others, have published Annals, more or less full and pretentious, of their several denominations. It is impossible, however, to read these works without feeling deep regret that the prejudices and aversion of these writers were permitted so fully to control all their statements regarding Baptist people, and Baptist principles. Their strange distortions of the facts in history are, it is believed, to be attributed rather to their ignorance of the subject upon which it was their business to treat, than to any deliberate purpose to mislead the public mind. However this may be, these several works, so far as they refer to the Baptists, are wholly unworthy of their distinguished authors.

Ample materials for a full and faithful history of the Baptists of Virginia are accessible. They can be obtained, however, only by laborious, persevering, and well directed investigations. To some of them reference has already been made, in the several books indicated. Others will be collected in the form of pamphlets; and the correspondence of the first churches, and especially those south of James River, with churches and brethren in the city of London ; and the records of various denominational proceedings, in Europe and America. But the richest repositories, and those which still remain almost wholly unexplored, are the records of the Courts in the several counties, before which at various times they were arraigned on account of their religion, and by the orders of which they were fined, imprisoned, and otherwise severely punished ; their memorials and other communications, addressed to the State Convention, and subsequently to the General Assembly ; the " Complimentary Answers," and other records, found in the Journals of these bodies ; the laws of the Colony and the State, as embodied in "'The Revised Laws of Virginia ;" " Hening's Statutes at Large," "The Code of Virginia," and other books of like character ; " The Works of Thomas Jefferson," the papers of James Madison, many of which are published in " The Federalist ;" their several memorials to Congress, and its proceedings regarding them ; and their correspondence, official and unofficial, with Washington and Jefferson, during the period in which these gentlemen occupied the chair of President of the United States.

The proper exploration of these sources of knowledge will open to the industrious investigator numerous others. With such materials, why may not some Baptist Irving, Prescott, or Bancroft soon produce a history worthy of the exalted character, and distinguished labors and successes, of the Baptists of Virginia? To write such a work is no part of my present purpose. Imperative professional duties, which cannot be intermitted, leave me, even if I possessed the necessary genius and skill, no time for such an employment. All that I shall attempt will be to ascertain to what extent the Baptist element existed among the early colonists in Virginia ; the time and circumstances, under which Baptist principles were embodied among them in visible churches ; the subsequent extraordinary progress of these principles among the people; the principal causes that facilitated their advancement; the controversies that prevailed among the Baptists, and their harmonious adjustment; the political doctrines which they maintained ; the influence they exercised in the formation of the government of the State, and of the United States ; and the position, social, intellectual, and moral, of their ministers and people in the Commonwealth. The period within which I shall confine myself, is that which commences with the settlement of the English Colony at Jamestown, and closes with the termination of the eighteenth century.

One very important advantage contemplated in the execution of this purpose is the presentation of a sketch at least, and in a form indisputably authentic, of those peculiar principles by which in all ages and countries Baptists have been invariably distinguished. In our day, and in this country, so many of these great principles have been adopted by other denominations, that the masses have ceased to remember that they ever were peculiarly Baptist, and are accustomed publicly to proclaim, that Baptists differ from others mainly, if not exclusively, as to "the mode, and subjects of baptism ; and perhaps in some unimportant matters relating to church organization and polity !" Nor have Baptists themselves cared to correct this injurious mistake! On the topics indicated, they do indeed stand alone ; but these form, in reality, a very small, and by no means the most important, part of their peculiarities. These doctrines may, it is believed, be summarily set forth thus :

The Bible is the only rule of faith and obedience ;

regeneration and sanctification are the work of the Holy Spirit, in the heart of the believer; justification is exclusively by the grace of God, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ; holy living is the only conclusive proof of real discipleship to Christ ; membership in the churches is confined strictly to the professedly regenerate ; all ministers are, as to office, the equals of each other; a church is a single congregation of believers, meeting in one place, maintaining uncorrupted the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel; each individual church is free, no power, ecclesiastical or civil, outside of itself, having over it any authority or rule whatever : baptism and the Lord's Supper are always declaratory of the previous faith of the recipient; the churches and the State are, as such, entirely separate, and neither can legislate for the other; every man has an inalienable right to perfect freedom of conscience and worship; and all are entitled to the full and equal protection of the government under which they live, in the exercise of all their rights, political, social, and religious. These, it is believed, embrace the outlines of the Baptist faith peculiarly. As a whole and in its several parts, it clearly bears the stamp and seal of Almighty God. He who embraces these views is, in principle, necessarily a Baptist. No church that departs from them can long remain evangelical. JSTo State that fails in its civil government to concede and act upon them, ever can be free.

From the time of the subversion of the churches under the iron rule of Constantine the Great, to the period of the American revolution, all these principles were, with some slight modifications, repudiated and denounced by every prevalent class of Christians ; and the few who attempted to maintain them publicly did so at the risk of their reputation, their fortune, and their life. Many a martyr has expired on the gibbet and in the flames, whose only crime was the love and support of these great and fundamental principles ! The modifications alluded to had reference to the leaders in the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The Lutheran, the Calvinist, and the English Churches, and, through their overshadowing influence, some of the minor sects, nominally embraced some few of these tenets. They admitted in theory, but ignored in practice, the sufficiency of the word of God, as the only rule of faith and obedience ; they attributed the work of regeneration to the Holy Ghost, but maintained that he accomplished it only through the ordinance of baptism; and they taught justification by faith alone; but the remainder they repudiated and opposed. Especially did they denounce all those which guard the purity of the churches, and their Scriptural polity; their separation from the civil government; the freedom of conscience and worship ; and the right of every citizen, whatever his religion, to the full and equal protection of the government, in his person, property, and political immunities. These and such like doctrines were no less offensive to the Reformers, than they were to the Roman Catholics. The natural results have been, that all these churches have gradually fallen back into nearly all the corruptions from which for a season they had escaped. The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, bodies which sprang out of the German Reformation ; some classes of Episcopalians ; and the Methodist Church — an offshoot of English Episcopacy, have, in a great measure, been saved from a like deterioration only by their contact with the Baptist churches and people, and their practical adoption of so many of the principles by which they have ever been distinguished. Their practice approximates them to Baptists, and counteracts to a gratifying extent the evils inherent in their doctrinal principles.

Every good man must rejoice that now at length the Virginia Baptist Fathers are beginning to attract, to a much greater extent than heretofore, the attention of the Christian world. Not much longer, it is hoped, will they remain without a memorial worthy of their exalted character. When such a memorial is written it will afford another eminent illustration of the power of simple gospel truth over the hearts of men ; its sufficiency to sweep away error, no matter how inveterate and venerable ; and of the facility, when left to its own influence, with which it moulds governments, ecclesiastical and civil, to the principles of freedom and justice. If in these pages I shall be able to contribute somewhat to such a work, my design will have been fully accomplished.

EARL Y BAPTISTS OF VIR GIXIA. 1 9

CHAPTEE II.

BAPTIST ELEMENT AMONG THE EAELY COLONISTS OF VIRGINIA.

Intolerance in the Old World totvards Baptist principles. Increasing number of Baptists. The violence of their persecution. The Neto World an asylum. The presence of Baptists in the other colonies. The number and condition of Baptist Churches in London, and its neighborhood. The soldiers of Cromwell's Army who escaped to Virginia. Virginia a place of concealment for the persecuted. The emigration of Baptists from Virginia to North Carolina.

The early colonists in Virginia were gathered from all classes of the people of England. That there were Baptists among them we have no direct official testimony, but the circumstantial proofs of their presence are full and conclusive. To evince the correctness of this statement, we will in the first place sketch the condition of religious society in the Old World, and especially with reference to Baptists and Baptist principles, for some time previous to the settlement of the Colony at Jamestown, and during the remainder 01 the seventeenth century.

The prevalence of Baptists in most of the nations of Europe, and especially in Britain, from the earliest times and in no very small numbers, will be questioned by no one who is at all familiar with the religious history of the land of our forefathers. The doctrines which they invariably held were equally well known. To the despots of the world, religious and political, they have ever been, and continue to be, immeasurably offensive. Hence, in Europe, Baptists have been denounced by all churches, Catholic and Protestant, and by all civil governments. By all, their doctrines have been authoritatively declared to be " blasphemy against God, and treason against the State." All, therefore, who dared to profess and practice them, were at once declared infamous, and placed without the protection of the laws, and with fire and sword hunted from the world. These facts are all fully attested by historians of every class, and no less clearly by their enemies, such as Fuller and Mosheim and Milner and Xeander, than by their friends, Jones and Irving, Choules, Xeal, Anderson, Orchard, and Underhill.* The movements of the Baptists were traceable everywhere by the blood and gibbets and fires with which their persecutors pursued them.

The civil commotions of England which immediately preceded the planting of the Virginia colony gave some respite to the Baptists ; their numbers, therefore, multiplied; and ever and anon churches sprang up, both in the capital and throughout the country. Of their character and numbers, and the spirit with which they bore their persecutions, the distinguished President of the Council of Trent bears unwonted testimony. He says, " If you behold their cheerfulness in suffering persecution, the Anabaptists run before all others. If you have regard to their number, it is like

* Had the author been writing at the present day he would not have failed to insert the name of Dr. J. M. Cramp, whose " Baptist History " was issued by the American Baptist Publication Society after the preparation of the present work. — Editor.

that in multitude they would swarm above all others, if they were not grievously plagued and cut off with the knife of persecution. If you have an eye to the outward appearance of godliness, both the Lutherans and Zwinglians must needs grant that they far pass them." * " The Eoman Catholics," says Underhill, f " abhorred the Baptists, for if this heresy prevailed, a church hoary with age, laden with the spoils of many lands, and rich in the merchandise of souls, must be broken down and destroyed. The Protestants hated them, for if they triumphed, then their cherished headship, their worldly alliances, the pomps and circumstances of their state religion, must be debased before the kingly crown of Jesus. The Puritans loathed them, for Baptist sentiments areixx) liberal for those who seek a papal authority over conscience, and the sword of the temporal power to enforce their ' Holy Discipline/ " They have all sought the destruction of the Baptists, "because from the beginning they have," as the great Locke justly affirms, " been the advocates and friends of absolute liberty ; just and true liberty ; equal and impartial liberty."

In that age Papists and Protestants, who between them ruled the nations of Europe, furiously and by every possible means destroyed each other. Than these, never were enemies more bitter or relentless. In one thing however, and one only, they were agreed: they zealously united all their powers for

* Religious Liberty, its Struggles and Triumphs.— Underhill, pp. 88, 89. t Ibid. 201. (In substance.)

the extermination of the Baptists. Not one of them which either party could reach ever escaped. In several of the treaties between the Catholic and Protestant States, special articles were inserted, as will be seen by examining their National Records, binding both parties to destroy, as far as possible, this hated class of men. Of the manner in which these engagements were fulfilled by the Protestants, D'Aubigne, the distinguished Historian of the Reformation, may be consulted. He says : — " Accordingly Luther, on his return from Wittenberg, extinguished in Germany the fanaticism of the Anabaptists." * The miseries, murders, and desolations, which accompanied this extinguishment, are detailed in the Dutch and other Martyrologies recently published in England by the Hansard Knollys Society. The Auto da Fes of the Catholics, in which so many Baptists perished, were perhaps not exceeded in atrocity by the fiendish butcheries which they suffered throughout Germany, at the hands of Luther and his disciples.

Nor were the Protestants content when they had " extinguished in Germany the fanaticism of the Anabaptists." They pursued them with cruel malignity into other countries. " The princes of Germany," says Dr. Cox,f " having discovered by means of intercepted letters, a secret correspondence between the German and English Anabaptists, wrote an epistle to Henry VIIL, containing a statement of their pernicious doctrines, and warning him of danger likely to

* Hist. Ref. Vol. 3, p. 305. f Life of Melancthon, p. 218.

result from their fanatical proceedings, unless prevented by a bold and timely interference." This "epistle of the princes," was, as we are specifically informed, advised by Luther, and written at their request by Melancthon. It was the united work of the leading German Protestants. Its eifect upon Henry is indicated by the proceedings of an Ecclesiastical Convention, assembled in compliance with the king's order, in 1530, by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in which many of the peculiar doctrines of the Baptists Avere formally condemned, and all of them pronounced by authority, " damnable heresies." Two proclamations immediately followed, directing the apprehension of all persons accused of being Baptists, and ordering the severest punishment to be inflicted upon all who should be convicted of that horrible crime. These processes were directed " against the malicious sects of heretics who, by perversion of Holy Scripture, do induce erroneous opinions, sow dissensions among Christian people, and finally disturb the peace and tranquility of Christian realms, as lately happened in some parts of Germany." * To what extent Henry and his successors on the British throne carried these persecutions, the prisons of the United Kingdom and the fires of Smithficld bear the amplest testimony.

The sentiments and practice of Calvin and his disciples regarding the Baptists are well known to have been in perfect consonance with those of the German and English princes and divines. This is sufficiently evinced by the martyrdoms which by his concurrence * Struggles and Triumphs, &c, p. 92.

were inflicted even in Geneva itself. The learned Boyle has justly said, " Not a Reformer of any eminence can be named who did not take part in this crusade [against the Baptists.] Luther, Melancthon, Zwingle, Bucer, Bullinger, Calvin, and others abroad ; at home, Cranmer, Latimer, Eidley, Philpot, Becon, Turner, and many others." *

During the reign of Elizabeth, the Baptists in England, to defend themselves against the defamation of their enemies, ventured to publish an unpretending treatise, in which they summoned boldness to protest against " Persecutions for conscience' sake." In that work they maintained the following great principles : — " According to the word of God, Christ is the Supreme Head of his church; the Queen has no right to frame ecclesiastical laws, nor to appoint ministers of religion ; the Church ought to be composed of believers only ; the baptism of infants is unlawful." These annunciations shocked insufferably all parties. John Knox himself, the father of Scotch and British Presbyterians, responded in a work entitled, "An answer to a great number of cavillations, written by an Anabaptist Adversary." It must ever be regretted that a man, so excellent in many respects as was Knox, permitted himself in this volume to apply the bitterest epithets to those whom he chooses to regard as his adversaries, and to denounce them in the most unmeasured terms. He closes his book in the following language, addressed to the writer of the treatises referred to : — " It is my full purpose to lay the same to thy

charge, if I shall apprehend thee in any commonwealth where justice against blasphemers may be ministered according to God's word."

As on the continent of Europe Catholics and Protestants were agreed in persecuting the Baptists, so in Britain Episcopalians and Presbyterians, in all else irreconcilable enemies, concurred and co-operated in every possible measure for their extermination. Scotch Presbyters and English Bishops suffered at the hands of each other every possible injury which one could inflict upon the other. Many a time in our early years have we been moved to tears by the recital, in books skilfully prepared for children, of the sufferings of Covenanters, but no allusions were made to the miseries these very Covenanters inflicted upon the Baptists of their day. We have wept in our youth over the hard fate of Cranmer and Ridley and Rogers and others, who under the reign of bloody Mary fell martyrs by the hands of the Papists. Who that does not know the facts would suspect that these were the very men who under the preceding reign were the most zealous and active in arresting Baptists and sending them to be burned at the stake. Neal's History of the Puritans * discloses many melancholy transactions, evincing their deep guilt as persecutors, and showing that the sufferings which at last overtook them bore many of the features of a just and righteous retribution. The formidable multiplication of Baptists about this period, to which we have before referred, and the rapidly growing popularity of their peculiar doctrines with

♦Choules' edit. N. Y. Vol. 2, pp. 352—380. 3

26 EARL Y BAPTISTS OF VIR GIKIA.

the masses of the people, greatly irritated the English government. Laws were therefore enacted, " Commanding the most rigid search for them throughout the kingdom, with a view to the utter extermination of this hated sect." A "Commission" for the purpose was appointed, at the head of which stood the great names of Cranmer and Ridley, both of whom executed their bloody office, not only without relentings, but with singular ferocity. For proof and illustration of these facts, a single example shall suffice. Joan of Kent, a distinguished and noble lady, was the first Baptist arrested under this new authority. With very little ceremony or delay, she was convicted as a heretic, and sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. To consummate this horrible judicial murder, it was necessary, in compliance with the law, that the sentence of the court should be approved by the king. The amiable and youthful Edward was now upon the throne. The victim of these cruel prelates was well known to him as one among the best and most estimable of women. He therefore refused his assent. He would not sign her death warrant. Cranmer was deputed by his associates to go to the young king, and to persuade him to comply with their decision. His arguments are recorded by the historian. Two of them may be mentioned. He assumed that Joan was a blasphemer, and maintained the justice of the sentence against her from the law of Moses, according to which all blasphemers were commanded to be stoned; and he enforced the obligation of Edward to approve their sentence, ordering her to the stake, by the consideration, that there are impieties against God which princes as his deputies are obliged to punish, among which blasphemy holds the highest place, just as the king's deputies are obliged to punish offences against the king's person. The young monarch, says Burnet,* heard him long and patiently, and, "rather silenced than convinced " by his argument, " he set his hand to the warrant with tears in his eyes, telling Cranmer, that if he did wrong, as he signed it only in submission to his authority, he (Cranmer) should answer for it to God." And indeed, soon and sternly did he answer for it to God.