Smyth (Smith), John

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SMYTH (SMITH), JOHN

Reputed founder of the English General Baptists and known as the Se-Baptist, because he baptized, or, as he said, "churched" himself; b. c. 1554; d. 1612. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and ordained in the Church of England. Preaching strict observance of the Jewish Sabbath, he set up in Gainsborough, 1606, a separate congregation, and later left for Amsterdam, where in 1608 he solemnly baptized himself and 40 others. An able but discourteous disputant, quick to change his opinions, he soon declared this to have been an error and was excommunicated by the majority of his followers. With the rest (30 or 40) he applied to join the Mennonites but was refused. He resorted to services in the Great Cakehouse, Amsterdam, until he died of consumption in 1612; then a group of his associates returned to London to establish the first Baptist Church in England. The popular notion that he is the father of the English Baptists rests on such early writings as The Differences of the Churches of Separation (1608).

Bibliography: Works, ed. w. t. whitley, 2 v. (Cambridge, Eng. 1915). a. c. underwood, A History of the English Baptists (London 1947). t. cooper, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 vol. (London 18851900) 18:476478. w. t. whitley, A History of British Baptists (2d ed. London 1932).

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