By Anthony Peck


THOMAS HELWYS Unlikely Prophet of


Universal Religious Freedom


Helwys is the original Baptist pioneer.


INTRODUCTION W


e do not know much about the life of Thomas Helwys. Neither the date of his birth, possibly in the 1570s,


or that of his death, probably in Newgate prison around 1615, are certain. We know that he was born and lived as an English gentleman in Nottinghamshire and trained as a lawyer, but there are periods of his life about which we know nothing. But two factors have assured Helwys’ place in the history of Baptists around the world, and in the history of religious toleration and religious freedom. The first is that Helwys together with John Smyth were leaders of the earliest Baptist church begun in exile in Amsterdam in 1609, and Helwys went on to found the first Baptist church in England, in Spitalfields in London, exactly 400 years ago in 1612. So Helwys is the original Baptist pioneer. The second factor is that in the middle of a rather


polemical book attacking nearly every other religious group in England at that time, Helwys made what is usually considered to be the first plea for universal religious freedom in the English language, and since then religious freedom


Helwys made . . . the first plea for universal religious freedom in the English language, and since then religious freedom for all, not just themselves, has been a core conviction of Baptists in every part of the world.


THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXT Thomas Helwys was born into the age of English Queen


Elizabeth I who had achieved the final settlement of the Church of England as the State Church established by law, which allowed for no other lawful religion. During her reign came the growth of Puritanism, which as its name implies ought to “purify” the State Church by recalling it to what the Puritans saw as the authentic biblical faith. They wanted limits set on the power of the bishops and a greater place given to preaching. The more radical of the Puritans became so disillusioned with the Church of England that they separated from it completely to form their own congregations, on the basis of a covenant. These Separatists, as they were called, included among their number John Smyth, who had been trained as an Anglican clergyman, and Thomas Helwys, then a lawyer and a member of the English gentry, who joined Smyth’s Separatist congregation in Lincolnshire in east England. When King James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I as King James I of England, there were high hopes among the Separatists that James, coming from Presbyterian Scotland, might allow some kind of religious toleration in England. These high hopes were dashed at the Hampton Court Conference of 1603 in which, although James conceded some moderate Puritan demands, he re-affirmed conformity with the Church of England as the only religious option.


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for all, not just themselves, has been a core conviction of Baptists in every part of the world. It is this second aspect on which I want to focus in this paper.


JULY/SEPTEMBER 2012


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