Bap´tists, a Protestant sect, distinguished by their opinions respecting the mode and subjects of baptism. With regard to the mode, they maintain the necessity of immersion, and with regard to the subjects, they consider that baptism ought not to be administered to children at all, nor to adults in general, but to those only who profess repentance and faith. They are sometimes called Anti-pædobaptists, to express their variance from those who defend infant baptism, and who are called Pædobaptists. Apart from the special sect of that name, Baptists are to be found equally among Calvinists and Arminians, Trinitarians and Unitarians. The Baptists as a whole adopt the Independent or Congregational form of church government, and their ecclesiastical assemblies are held for the purpose of mutual stimulus and intercourse, and not for the general government of the body, or for interference with individual churches. The Particular Baptists of England (so called from believing that Christ died only for the elect), the Baptists of Scotland and Ireland, the Associated Baptists of America, and some of the Seventh-day Baptists, are Calvinistic. The other classes, such as the General Baptists (who believe that Christ died for all), are Arminian, or at least not Calvinistic. Most Baptists profess to be Trinitarians. The Free-will Baptists, the Christian Society, and most of the General Baptists of England admit of open communion; the other bodies decline communion with any Christians but Baptists. The Associated or Calvinistic Baptists long ranked in the United States as the most numerous denomination of Christians. The Seventh-day Baptists, or Sabbatarians, observe the seventh day of the week. The Free-will Baptists profess the doctrine of free salvation. The Anabaptists of the Reformation period are not to be confounded with the Baptists, by whom their principles were expressly disclaimed. The first regular Baptist Church appears to have been formed in the reign of Elizabeth, but we may date their first public acknowledgment as distinct from the Anabaptists from their petition to Parliament in 1620. The year 1633 provides the earliest record of the formation of a Particular Baptist Church in London. In 1689 a Baptist General Assembly, held in London, formulated a confession of thirty-two articles and a catechism. The Baptist Union, formed in 1832, comprehends the greater number of members of the sect in Great Britain and Ireland. In July, 1905, a world-congress of Baptists was held in London, and the Baptist World Alliance was constituted. The total number of members of Baptist Churches in the United Kingdom was 405,104 in 1922, and 408,029 in 1920. There are nine colleges for training ministers, of which the chief are: Bristol Baptist College; Regent's Park; Rawdon, Bradford; and the Metropolitan Pastors' College. The Regular Baptists in the United States numbered 7,504,447 members in 1922, and nearly 6,000,000 in 1920, in addition to which there are Anti-mission Baptists, Free-will Baptists, and Seventh-day Baptists. In Canada there are in all about 128,730 Baptists.—Bibliography: H. C. Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists; A. H. Newman, History of the Baptist Churches in the United States; The Baptist Handbook (annually); The American Baptist Year-book (annually); W. E. MacIntyre, Baptist Churches, 1500-1914.
Bar, in law, the railing that encloses the place which counsel occupy in courts of justice; hence the phrase, at the bar of the court, that is, in open court. Hence also persons duly admitted as pleaders or advocates before the courts of England are denominated barristers (see Barrister), and the whole body of such barristers or advocates are called the bar. The enclosed place
or dock in which persons accused of crimes stand in court is also called the bar. Near the door of both Houses of Parliament there is also a bar, beyond which none but the members and clerks are admitted, and at which counsel, witnesses, offenders against privilege, &c., are heard.
Bar, in music, is a line drawn through the stave to mark the rhythm of small portions; the notes composing these are also called a bar.
Bar, in heraldry, an ordinary resembling the fesse, stretching like it horizontally across the shield but narrower.
Bar, Confederation of. See Poland.
Bar´aba, the name of a great steppe in the West Siberian governments of Tomsk, Akmolinsk, and Tobolsk.
Barabin´zians, a rude, uncultivated tribe of Tartars, living on the banks of the River Irtish, and subsisting chiefly on the produce of their herds and on fish supplied by the lakes of the Baraba steppe.
Baraguey-d'Hilliers (ba˙-ra˙-gā-dēl-yā),Louis, a distinguished French general under the first Empire, born in Paris, 1764. After serving under Custine and other generals he joined the army of Italy, and took Bergamo and Venice, of which he became Governor. He took part in the expedition to Egypt, served in the campaigns in Germany and Spain, and commanded a division of the "Great Army" in the Russian campaign of 1812. He was entrusted with the direction of the vanguard in the retreat, but was compelled to capitulate. Napoleon ordered him to return to France as under arrest, but, overcome with grief and fatigue, he died at Berlin on the way, Dec., 1812.
Baranovitchi, a town in Russia, government of Minsk. A battle was fought here between the Russians and the Germans in July, 1916. See European War.