Thomas Helwys

Thomas Helwys (c. 1575 – 1616) was an English barrister (lawyer), Puritan leader, and theologian. His theological beliefs is one of the forming basis of the Baptist tradition. In the early 17th century, Helwys was the principal formulator of a demand that the Church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have freedom of religious conscience. This advocacy of religious liberty being held could be dangerous at that time. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of early Puritan Dissenters under King James I, and is considered a martyr.

Early life

Helwys was born in Gainsborough, England, to Edmund and Margaret Helwys who were descendants of an old Norman family. Edmund had sold his land in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and had taken a lease on Broxtowe Hall in Bilborough parish. In 1590 when his father died, Helwys assumed control of the estate, but in 1593 he temporarily left the care of the estate in the hands of his father's friends and began studies in law at Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London. His family was on the rise in London. Geoffrey Helwys, his uncle, was a successful merchant, an alderman and the sheriff of London. His cousin Gervase was knighted by King James before becoming lieutenant of the Tower of London. After completing his studies at Gray's Inn in 1593, Helwys spent some time in the capital.

Helwys married Joan Ashmore at St. Martin's church, Bilborough, in 1595. They had seven children over the next twelve years and lived at Broxtowe Hall. During this time, Helwys' residence was a center for persecuted Puritans within the Church of England and he likely contributed financially to their missions.

In 1606, when Archbishop Richard Bancroft was forcing ministers to submit to the '' Book of Common Prayer'', Helwys took part in a conference of Puritans in Coventry discussing whether to dissent from the Church of England and become Separatists. The conference included John Smyth, John Robinson, Richard Bernard and Arthur Hildersham. The conference came across the established church notice, and all the Puritans who attended the conference were excommunicated and subsequently persecuted. Helwys developed a close bond with Smyth, and he and his wife became committed members of the recently formed Gainsborough congregation led by him after the excommunications, where it included 60 or 70 members. The Dissenters in Gainsborough were allowed to conduct services in Gainsborough Old Hall by the hall's sympathetic owner Sir William Hickman.

Ministry

As Nonconformism was illegal, the Gainsborough and Scrooby Dissenters were arrested and their houses raided. Joan Helwys was imprisoned in York Castle by the Archbishop of York in 1607. Between 1607 and 1608, Helwys, Smyth, Robinson and many others from the Gainsborough and Scrooby congregations fled to the safety of Amsterdam in the more tolerant Dutch Republic. Helwys organised the Gainsborough group's emigration—according to Robinson, "If any brought oars, he brought sails." Assuming their safety, Helwys allowed his family to remain in England. His wife was soon arrested, and after refusing to take the oath in court she was imprisoned. It is likely that she was banished after three months in prison.

It was in the Dutch Republic that a distinctive Baptist faith first started to emerge amongst the English émigrés, around 1609, and Helwys was one of its pioneers.John H. Y. Briggs, ''A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought'', Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2009, p. 467 Taking the Brownist idea that church membership was only for believers to its logical conclusion, Smyth became convinced that baptism into the church should be for Christian believers only and not for infants. In January 1609, Smyth baptised himself first then the rest of his followers, starting with Helwys. The other English Dissenters in Amsterdam rejected this new teaching. Later that year, the congregation led by Smyth started renting a meeting house from Dutch Mennonites and were persuaded by them to abandon the doctrine of predestination. Some of the members accepted Mennonite Christology, that is, Monophysitism (the belief that Jesus Christ's humanity wasn't taken from Mary, his mother). Smyth and Helwys did not accepted it, so they excommunicated these members for heresy.

In 1610, Smyth decided he had been wrong to baptise himself and applied to join the Mennonites, accept their Christology, and be re-baptized. Helwys excommunicated Smyth for heresy, wrote against it, and assumed the main leadership of the church with about twelve members. Helwys formulated what is considered the earliest Baptist confession of faith. This confession became the 27 Articles or the Helwys Confession in 1611. In the next twelve months or so, Helwys wrote three important works: ''A Short and Plain Proof, By the Word of God, That God's Decree Is Not the Cause of Any Man's Sin or Condemnation: And That All Men Are Redeemed by Christ; As Also That No Infants Are Condemned'' (an argument for Arminianism), ''An Advertisement or Admonition to the Congregations, which Men Call the New Fryelers, in the Lowe Countries'' (a polemic explaining his differences with the Mennonites), and most importantly, ''A Short Declaration on the Mistery of Iniquity''.

''The Mistery of Iniquity'' was a critique of the failings of Roman Catholicism, state-church Protestantism and Brownism. It was the first English book to defend the principle of religious liberty. For Helwys, religious liberty was a right for everyone, whether Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims or atheists. The book also argued that Dissenter ministers such as Smyth and Robinson had been wrong to take their churches overseas to escape persecution and that they should return to England. The historian of Separatism, Stephen Tomkins, describes ''The Mistery of Iniquity'' as the most radical and outspoken book of the age and "the most far-reaching declaration of universal religious freedom yet seen in English", but adds: "It is a pity that this most ground-breaking treatise of the Separatist movement should also be its most mean-spirited."

Despite the obvious risks involved, in 1612 Thomas Helwys and 12 émigrés returned to England and established the church in Spitalsfields, East London, considered the first Baptist church in England.Earle E. Cairns, ''Christianity Through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church'', Zondervan, USA, 2009, p. 331 They brought ''The Mistery of Iniquity'' with them, and one copy of it was delivered to King James, with a handwritten inscription arguing for liberty of conscience. "The King", Helwys said, "is a mortal man, and not God, therefore he hath no power over the mortal soul of his subjects to make laws and ordinances for them and to set spiritual Lords over them." Helwys and other members of the congregation were thrown into Newgate Prison, where they wrote a petition to the king. ''Persecution for Religion Judg’d and Condemn’d'' was written in Newgate in 1616, either by Helwys or John Murton.Britannica
THOMAS HELWYS
britannica.com, UK, retrieved June 8, 2021

Death and legacy

Helwys died around 1616 at about the age of forty. Helwys' presentation copy of ''A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity'' is preserved in the Bodleian Library. Helwys is honoured with the Helwys Hall at Regent's Park College, Oxford. Thomas Helwys Baptist Church in Lenton, Nottingham, is named after him. Broxtowe Hall, the Helwys' family home, is now only a remnant, but in nearby Bilborough Baptist Church there is a simple plaque to his memory.

Notes

References

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External links

Writings of Thomas Helwys
* ttp://www.learnthebible.org/history-thank-the-baptists-for-freedom-of-worship.htm "You Can Thank the Baptists for Freedom of Worship" by Pastor David F. Reaganbr>"Thomas Helwys, A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity" by Walter B. Shurden, Callaway Professor of Christianity, Executive Director, The Center for Baptist Studies, Mercer University, Macon, GeorgiaThomas Helwys Baptist Church
Lenton, Nottingham
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Helwys, Thomas
1570s births
1610s deaths
17th-century English Baptist ministers
17th-century English theologians
17th-century Protestant theologians
Arminian ministers
Arminian theologians
English Baptist theologians
People from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
People from Nottingham (district)