I don't like or use the term "Baptist" as it covers a wide range of denominations which are not meaningfully identified by the term.
There is no reason to suppose that the early church practised other than the baptism of believers. And of course nearly all churches baptise converts.
History records Christianity coming to Britain in Roman times, so the faith was well established here in the early centuries. After the Romans left, invasion from the continent of Europe by Saxons & others drove the Christian Britons to the west of the country, including Wales, so there was a large Christian community in various parts before Augustine arrived with a commission from the Pope to establish Catholicism. Around 600 AD.
I don't like or use the term "Baptist" as it covers a wide range of denominations which are not meaningfully identified by the term.
There is no reason to suppose that the early church practised other than the baptism of believers. And of course nearly all churches baptise converts.
History records Christianity coming to Britain in Roman times, so the faith was well established here in the early centuries. After the Romans left, invasion from the continent of Europe by Saxons & others drove the Christian Britons to the west of the country, including Wales, so there was a large Christian community in various parts before Augustine arrived with a commission from the Pope to establish Catholicism. Around 600 AD.
The British/Welsh Christians refused to accept submission to the Papacy, not the practice of baptising infants. Augustine cursed them & the Saxons slaughtered them.
You can find more detailed information in Church history books.
The Bible translator Wycliffe & his poor preachers lived nearly 200 years before Luther & the Reformation. Over 100 hand copied Wycliffe Bibles still exist.
Here is more local information from Hay-on-Wye about that pre-Reformation period.
We worship at the Evangelical church in Hay-on-Wye and have driven through the "Gospel Pass" mentioned in the article, but getting very lost on the narrow mountain roads.
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I refer you to an intellectually honest (non-biased) work: 'History Of The Church In England' by John H. Moorman.
As to your claim that here is no reason to believe that the Early Church practiced anything but believers baptism, consider the following evidence, The Didache, which in fact does mention infant baptism, but also the early Church Fathers Acknowledged it. Here are a just a few of the many that did:
Polycarp (69-155), a disciple of the Apostle John, was baptized as an infant. This enabled him to say at his martyrdom. "Eighty and six years have I served the Lord Christ" (
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9: 3). Justin Martyr (100 - 166) of the next generation states about the year 150, "Many, both men and women, who have been Christ’s disciples since childhood, remain pure at the age of sixty or seventy years" (
Apology 1: 15). Further, in his
Dialog with Trypho the Jew, Justin Martyr states that Baptism is the circumcision of the New Testament.
Irenaeus, c. A.D. 185: He came to save all through means of Himself—all … who through Him are born again to God—infants, and children, and boys, and youths, and old men. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission … (Against Heresies II:22:4)
Origen (185-254), "The Church received from the Apostles the tradition of giving Baptism even to infants. For the Apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the innate stains of sins, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit." (Origen, Commentary on Romans, 5:9)
Hippolytus "Baptize first the children, and if they can speak for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them" (The Apostolic Tradition 21:16 [A.D. 215]).
Tertullian CE 200 and Justin Martyr CE 150 teach this, learning from apostles.
And for this [baptismal rite] we have learned from the apostles this reason. Since at our birth we were born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits and wicked training; in order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe; he who leads to the laver the person that is to be washed calling him by this name alone.
Cyprian is in the line from Tertullian.
But again, if even to the greatest sinners, and to those who had sinned much against God, when they subsequently believed, remission of sins is granted—and nobody is hindered from baptism and from grace—how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins—that to him are remitted, not his own sins, but the sins of another.
Not only all these early christians affirmed the validity of the baptizing of infants, but NOBODY was challenging it! Where was the outrage to this practice??? There certainly were other heresies being challenged and debated and lots written about it.
The Witness of the Catacombs
The witness of the literary texts of the early church fathers, councils and apologists for the practice of infant Baptism in the first Christian centuries receives valuable confirmation from the catacombs and cemeteries of the Middle East, Africa and southern Europe. Below are epitaphs from the 200’s of small children who had been baptized. It is interesting to note that there are no Christian epitaphs in existence earlier than 200. As soon as the era of Christian inscriptions begins, we find evidence for infant Baptism.
In that century there are attributes and symbols in tombstones inscriptions of little children which allows us to clearly infer we are dealing with baptized children. The following is as early as 200 or shortly thereafter:
In the second last line is the phrase
Dei Serv(u)s which means slave of God followed by the
Chi Rho symbol for Christ. The last line is the Greek
ichtheos familiar as the "fish symbol" - an anagram for Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior. These words and symbols mark the one-year, two months, and four-day-old child as a baptized Christian.
From the Lateran Museum, also from the 200’s, is a Greek inscription that gives information about the religious status of the parents. It reads, "I, Zosimus, a believer from believers, lie here having lived 2 years, 1 month, 25 days."
Also from this era are headstones for children who received emergency baptism with ages ranging from 11 months to 12 years. Since the patristic sources of the third century, as those earlier, give us to understand that the children of Christian parents were baptized in infancy, we must conclude that these emergency baptisms were administered to children of non-Christians. The inscriptions themselves confirm this conclusion. In the Roman catacomb of Priscilla is reference to a private emergency baptism that was administered to the one-and-three-quarter-year-old Apronianus,
The historical evidence to the practice of infant baptism is overwhelming.
