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 New
Testament congregational independence rests upon twin principles
of structure and polity. John Wyclif, in 1380, took one of the
first steps toward home when he sent forth “lay” preachers.
Martin Luther stressed the “priesthood of believers” and in
1523 “advocated the right of a Christian congregation to call,
to elect, and to depose its own minister... But congregations of
pure Christians, capable of self-government, could not be found
in Germany at that time... Luther abandoned this democratic idea
after the Peasants’ War, and called on the arm of the
government for protection against the excesses of the popular
will.” (Schaff, VII, 538.)
A
fierce independence developed in the mountain canton of the
Swiss Grisons, and by 1526 “the episcopal monarchy was
abolished and congregational independency introduced. . .“ But
apparently it was the Swiss Anabaptists (“Radicals”
according to Schaff) who first moved resolutely toward
restoration of true N.T. independence. “The Reformers aimed to
reform the old Church by the Bible; the Radicals attempted to
build a new Church from the Bible. The former maintained the
historic continuity; the latter went directly to the apostolic
age, and ignored the intervening centuries as an apostasy. The
Reformers founded a popular state-church, including all citizens
with their families; the Anabaptists (re-baptizers, rt)
organized on the voluntary principle select congregations of
baptized believers, separated from the world and from the State.”
“The first and chief aim of the Radicals was not (as is
usually stated) the opposition to infant baptism, still less to
sprinkling or pouring, but the establishment
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of a pure church
of-converts in opposition to the mixed church of the world. The
rejection of infant baptism followed as a necessary consequence.”
(Schaff, VIII, 71, 75.)
There
were revolutionary Anabaptists (Munzer, in Germany, 1521-f.) who
saw independence as incompatible with submission to civil
authorities, and sought to overthrow them. The tie between
church and state was such in those days, that any independent
doctrine was likely to be considered heretical; so, early
advocates of congregational independence and autonomy were
subject to terrible persecution. They were drowned, beheaded,
burned at the stake, etc. Extreme revolutionaries and
non-violent moral citizens were judged indiscriminately and
persecuted by Roman Catholics and Protestant Reformers alike —
God will judge. But the concept of local churches, self-created
by agreement on the part of saints, self-sufficient in support,
oversight and operation, was now well planted and would not be
destroyed.
A
blending of Dutch Anabaptists and English Independents was made
possible because of their common opposition to national churches
and in the demand that regeneration should precede church
membership. By 1535 congregations were formed in Norwich,
England. Later, the independent principle was given impetus by
Scotch Baptists, Sandemanians, James Haldane and John Glass
— known to the Campbells, and surely influencing their
concepts of congregationalism, which they preached in this
country.
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