Tradition · 1609

Baptist

Protestant churches that baptise only professing believers, usually by immersion, and hold that each local congregation governs itself.

They came from English Separatists who left the Church of England. In Amsterdam in 1609, John Smyth led a group in believer’s baptism. Some of that group returned to England in 1612 and formed the first Baptist church there. Baptists hold to Believer’s Baptism and Congregational Polity, and are now one of the largest Protestant families, especially in the United States.