Baxter, Richard (1615–1691)

BAXTER, RICHARD (1615–1691)

BAXTER, RICHARD (1615–1691), English Protestant clergyman and writer. Richard Baxter was at the heart of seventeenth-century Puritanism despite not having held a significant office. Born near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, England, Baxter was brought up to fear sin and love the Bible. Such early influences led him to pursue a clerical career, although he did not attend university. In 1638 he was ordained a deacon in the Church of England; it is unlikely that he ever received ordination to the full priesthood. In 1641 Baxter was appointed preacher at Kidderminster in Worcestershire. On the outbreak of the English Civil War (1642–1649) he fled to Coventry, but he became a chaplain in the parliamentary army in 1645. Later he returned to Kidderminster and engaged in evangelical preaching and personal "conference" with his parishioners. By devoting Monday and Tuesday of each week to this counseling, he was able to erect a voluntary "discipline," but only six hundred of eighteen hundred potential communicants agreed to submit to examination before admission to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. There was no tradition in the Church of England of giving an account to the minister of one's belief and behavior before being allowed to receive the sacrament, and many resented this Puritan intrusion into their spiritual lives.

In 1652 Baxter formed the Worcestershire Association of Ministers to encourage catechizing and discipline, and ministers in several other counties followed suit. These initiatives brought together clergy of different denominations and were an effective response to the challenge of sects such as the Quakers. In the winter of 1654–1655, Baxter met Archbishop James Ussher and they agreed (allegedly within thirty minutes) on a modified form of episcopacy that ought to be acceptable to both Presbyterians and Episcopalians. Baxter's prominence in moderate Puritan circles guaranteed that his views would be sought at the Restoration. He became a royal chaplain and prepared position papers for the Presbyterians, helping to argue their case at the Savoy Conference (1661) where the Episcopalians and Presbyterians failed to agree on revisions to the Prayer Book. Meanwhile the benefice of Kidderminster had been successfully reclaimed by its previous incumbent and, with the 1662 Act of Uniformity looming, Baxter retired from public preaching. Supported by his pious, resourceful, and wealthy wife Margaret, Baxter spent the 1660s in Acton outside London and attended the parish church while also preaching to his own circle. Under the royal indulgence of 1672, he began to preach publicly in London but suffered mounting persecution until in 1685 he was imprisoned for nearly two years. Old and frail, Baxter spent his last years indefatigably preaching and writing until his death on 8 December 1691.

Baxter's significance stems from three sources: his acknowledged leadership of the moderate wing of dissent; his voluminous and diverse writings, which numbered perhaps 111 publications; and his influence with respect to the way subsequent generations viewed the history and religion of seventeenth-century England. This last was a result of his controversial and practical works and even more importantly of Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696), his autobiography edited by Matthew Sylvester, which was in turn comprehensively rewritten by the English clergyman Edmund Calamy as An Abridgement of Mr. Baxter's History of His Life and Times (1702). Baxter's extensive correspondence, which has been cataloged, is housed at Dr. Williams's Library, London. Thus we know more about Baxter the man than we do about most individuals of his era. Prickly, awkward, a hypochondriac, and deficient in tact, humor, and a sense of proportion, Baxter could also genuinely claim to have labored for forty-five years in the cause of mutual understanding and the promotion of basic Christian piety. His sincere ecumenism followed from his conviction that "practical" religion and pastoral work were at the heart of the Protestant ministry. His work at Kidderminster and a stream of books such as The Saints' Everlasting Rest (1649), The Reformed Pastor (1656), and The Christian Directory (1673) manifest this belief, as does his repudiation of denominational labels in favor of such badges as "a mere Christian."

Baxter's pastoral focus had theological implications. He feared the antinomianism of the sects and the strict Calvinists on one hand and the superstition of "popery" on the other: his own theology could be described as a Puritan Arminianism. On several occasions he changed his view of the role of bishops and secular rulers in fostering godliness. Although he could accept a "reduced" episcopacy that would not circumscribe the pastoral efforts of the local minister, he soon turned against the lordly prelates who returned with the Church of England in 1662. He suspected that church of aiming at a French-style Catholicism under the authority of the monarchy. Although deeply worried by the proclivities of Charles II and James II, Baxter's faith in "Christian magistracy" as a vehicle for religious reformation was strong under the Protectorate (1653–1659) and once again after the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689) under William III. Baxter exemplifies some of the deepest impulses of seventeenth-century nonsectarian Puritanism.

See also Church of England ; Clergy: Protestant Clergy ; Dissenters, English ; English Civil War and Interregnum ; English Civil War Radicalism ; Puritanism .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Baxter, Richard. The Autobiography of Richard Baxter. Abridged by J. M. Lloyd Thomas. Edited by N. H. Keeble. London and Totowa, N.J., 1974. Parts of the text of Reliquiae Baxterianae.

Keeble, N. H., and Geoffrey F. Nuttall. Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter. Two volumes. Oxford and New York, 1991.

Secondary Sources

Lamont, William. Puritanism and Historical Controversy. London, 1996. Sets Baxter against two of his contemporaries in a thought-provoking analysis.

Nuttall, Geoffrey F. Richard Baxter. London, 1965. The best biography.

John Spurr