Now it is conceded by all historians of note that such churches and communities did exist, separate from and persecuted by, the prevailing State churches and civil authorities during all the ages from the Apostles to the Reformation.
When the Reformation under Luther and his coadjutors broke out, these sects to a great extent fraternized with, and were lost in, the multitude of the reformers. Such as continued their separate existence, as the Waldenses of Piedmont, yielding to the influence of the reformers, did from sympathy what the persecutions of the Papists had never been able to compel them to do—abandon dipping for sprinkling in baptism, adopted infant baptism, and took the general forms of religious life, into which Pedobaptist Protestantism grew.
the welsh baptists
Few denominations have a better claim to antiquity than the Welsh Baptists. They trace their descent directly from the Apostles and urge in favor of their claim arguments which have never been confuted.
When Austin, the Romish monk and missionary, visited Wales, at the close of the sixth century, he found a community of more than two thousand Christians, quietly living in their mountain homes. They were independent of the Romish See, and wholly rejected its authority. Austin labored hard to convert them—that is, to bring them under the Papal yoke; but entirely failed in the effort. Yielding things in general, he reduced his demand upon them to three particulars: 1. That they should observe Easter in due form, as ordered by the Church. 2. That they should give Christendom, or baptism, to their children. 3. That they should preach to the English the Word of God, as directed.[1]
These demands of Austin prove that they neither observed the Popish ordinance of Easter, nor baptized their children. They, however, rejected all his overtures, whereupon he left them with threats of war and wretchedness. Not long after, Wales was invaded by the Saxons, and many of these inoffensive Christians cruelly murdered, as was believed, at the instigation of this bigoted zealot, the exacting Austin.
the dutch baptists
The Baptists of Holland have a history that reaches back to a very remote period, if not to the Apostolic age, as some confidently assert. And this antiquity is conceded by historians who have no sympathy with their denominational sentiments.
Mosheim, in his Church History, says, “The true origin of that sect which acquired the name Anabaptist is hid in the remote depths of antiquity, and is consequently extremely difficult to be ascertained.” Eccl. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 427, Mac. Ed., 1811. See Introd. Orchard’s Hist. Bap., p. 17.
Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, contemporary with Luther, declares: “The institution of Anabaptism is no novelty but for thirteen hundred years has caused great disturbance in the church.” Introd. Orchard’s Hist. Bap., p. 17. Thirteen hundred years before his time would have carried it back to within two centuries of the death of Christ.