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SMYTH (or SMITH), JOHN (c. 1570-1612)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 283 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SMYTH (or See also:SMITH), See also:JOHN (c. 1570-1612)  , See also:English non-conformist divine, commonly called the Se-baptist, was See also:born about 1570, and was educated at See also:Christ's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, where he proceeded M.A. in 1593 . He was probably See also:vicar of See also:Hutton Cranswicke in the E . See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire from 1593 to 1600, when he was elected lecturer or preacher of the See also:city of See also:Lincoln, an See also:office of which he was deprived in See also:October 1602 for having " approved himself a factious See also:man by See also:personal See also:preaching and that truly against See also:divers men of See also:good See also:place." Two volumes of his Lincoln sermons, The See also:Bright See also:Morning See also:Star (1603), an exposition of See also:Psalm xxii., and A See also:Pattern of True See also:Prayer (16o5), were dedicated to See also:Lord See also:Sheffield, who had acted as arbiter between the preacher and the See also:corporation . While preparing these books he became connected with the Separatist See also:movement in Scrooby and See also:Gainsborough, joined the Gains-See also:borough See also:church, and became its pastor.' With See also:Thomas Helwys, See also:John Murton (or See also:Morton) and others, he migrated to See also:Amsterdam at the end of 1607 to See also:escape religious persecution, and in that city practised as a physician, and became the See also:leader of " the second English church " (see See also:CONGREGATIONALISM) . About this See also:time he wrote his Principles and Inferences concerning the Visible Church in support of See also:Robert See also:Browne's theory of ecclesiastical polity, which was followed by See also:Parallels, Censures and Observations, a reply to the See also:Christian Advertisements of See also:Richard See also:Bernard (168-160), vicar of See also:Worksop, a puritan who remained in the See also:Anglican church . In i6o8, too, appeared The See also:Differences of the Churches of the Separation, in which he justified his non-communion with See also:Johnson's church on the curious ground that it was no See also:part of See also:primitive and apostolic See also:order to use a See also:translation of scripture during See also:worship, or at any See also:rate to have it open before one while preaching (Christ `having " closed the See also:book " at See also:Nazareth before His See also:sermon) . Under Mennonite See also:influence he went farther, and by See also:March 1609 when he published The See also:Character of the Beast, he had become a Baptist (see See also:BAPTISTS, See also:sect . II.), contending against See also:infant See also:baptism because (I) it has neither See also:precept nor example in the New Testament, (2) Christ commanded to make disciples by teaching them and then to baptize them . He and his See also:company were then faced by the See also:dilemma that their own infant baptism did not See also:count, and See also:Smyth solved the problem by first baptizing himself (hence the name Se-Baptist), probably by affusion, and then administering the rite to Helwys and the others . Afterwards with 41 others he decided that instead of baptizing himself he should have been baptized by the See also:Mennonites, in spite of their heretical view of the See also:Person of Christ, and applied for See also:admission to their fellowship . They were some-what suspicious of a man who had never held one position for See also:long, and demanded a statement of doctrines, which he gave them in twenty articles written in Latin, and in The Last Book of John Smyth, called the Retractation of his Errors, together with a See also:confession of faith in See also:loo Propositions . A friendly Mennonite al-lowed Smyth's church to meet in his bakery, but Smyth himself died of See also:consumption in See also:August 1612, more than two years before the remaining members of his See also:band, by then reduced to 31, were admitted (See also:January 1615) into the Mennonite communion .

Helwys and Morton returned to See also:

England, and established the first English Baptist churches . Smyth was, like the other Cambridge men of his See also:day, especially the Separatists, the bondservant of See also:logic, and wherever he saw " the beckoning See also:hand of a properly constructed See also:syllogism " he was ready to follow . Yet none of those who, in his See also:generation, took the See also:great step had, according to See also:Bishop See also:Creighton, " a finer mind or a more beautiful soul . None of them succeeded in expressing with so much reasonableness and consistency their aspirations after a spiritual See also:system of religious belief and practice . None of there founded their opinions on so large and liberal a basis." In his last See also:declaration he expressed his sorrow for the censures he had passed on Anglicans and Brownists alike, and wrote " All penitent and faithful Christians are brethren in the communion of the outward church, by what name soever they are known; and we salute them all with a See also:holy See also:kiss, being heartily grieved that we should be See also:rent with so many sorts and schisms; and that only for matters of no moment." See J . H . See also:Shakespeare, Baptist and Congregational Pioneers (See also:London, 1906); H . M . See also:Dexter, The England and See also:Holland of the Pilgrims (London and See also:Boston, 1906) . (A . J . G.) ' He was never vicar of Gainsborough, and must not be confused with the John Smyth who was imprisoned in the See also:Marshalsea in 1592 .

End of Article: SMYTH (or SMITH), JOHN (c. 1570-1612)
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