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 BAPTISTS

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BAPTISTS

Genoese, Domenico Olivieri. He began by uniting several zealous priests with himself for the evangeliza- tion of the people of the cities and country. His plan of forming from this company an association the members of which should devote their time especially to missions was encouraged by Cardinal Spinola and the scheme afterwards received the approbation of Benedict XIV. The pope confirmed the new con- gregation in his Brief of 23 September, 1755, and placed it under the control of the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. The institute had a house and an oratory at Rome near the church of St. Isidoro, and the members held missions in the ditferent churches of the city and in the surrounding country. The Propaganda, realizing their zeal and virtue, wished to employ them in distant missions. A num- ber of them were, therefore, sent to Bulgaria, Mace- donia, and China; some became bishops. Foreign missions did not absorb all their activity, for a nurn- ber were employed in the service of the Church in Italy, two. Father Imperiali and Father Spinelli be- coming cardinals. The only vows imposed by the pious founder were those of continuance in the con- gregation and readiness to go to missions to which the members should be sent by the Propaganda. 01i^•ieri died at Genoa in the odour of sanctity, 13 June, 1766. His societj' disappeared during the troubles which overwhelmed Italy at the end of the eighteenth century.

III. The BaptistineSjOr hermit sisters of St. John the Baptist, had as their founder Giovaima Maria Baptista Solimani. In 1730, when she was forty- tw'o years old, she gathered her first companions together at Moneglia, not far from Genoa. The con- gregation intended to lead a life of penitence in imi- tation of the precursor of Christ and under his patronage. All the choir sisters, therefore, added to their names in religion that of Baptista in honour of their illustrious model. The Capuchin, Father Atha- nasius, aided them by his ad\'ice during the drawing up of their constitutions. Soon after, Pro%-idence gave them the direction of the saintly priest Olivieri, the cause of whose canonization has been introduced. Shortly after taking Olivieri as their director the congregation settled in the city of Genoa. Their founder now went to Rome to obtain the confirma- tion of the Holy See; through the aid of the Barna- bite, Mario Maccabei, the approbation of Benedict XI was obtained in 1744. Two years later, 20 April, 1746, the Archbishop of Genoa received the religious profession of Giovarma Solimani and her twelve com- panions. Soon after tliis, Mother Solimani was elected abbess and governed the house until her death, 8 April, 1758. In 1755 the congregation had sent a colony to Rome which founded a convent near the church of San Nicola da Tolentino. Houses were also founded in some of the other cities of Italy. The congregation drew its members from among the young girls and widows who were admitted into their houses as lay-sisters. Tertiaries took care of their churches and gathered the alms of which they had need. A rigorous cloister was observed. The sisters rose at midnight for Matins, slept in their clothes, went bare-footed, and observed a continual abstinence. The whole hfe was one of extreme aus- terity. Several convents of this congregation still exist in Italy.

Helyot, Ilistoiredesordresreligieux.Vlll, 112-116; Grandet. La i-ie d'un solitaire inconnu mart en Anjou, en odeur de saintete (Paris. 1(399): Heimbucher, Die Orden und KongregoHonen, II, 307-308, 375.

Jean M. Besse.

Baptists (Greek, parrlt^eip, to baptize), a Protes- tant denomination, which exists chiefly in English- speaking countries and owes its name to its charac- teristic doctrine and practice regarding baptism.

I. DiSTiiNCTivE Prin'ciples. — The Baptists con-

sider the Scriptures to be the sufficient and exclusive rule of faith and practice. In the interpretation of them, every indi\idual enjoys unrestricted freedom. No non-Scriptural scheme of doctrine and duty is recognized as authoritative. General creeds are mere declarations of prevalent doctrinal views, to which no assent beyond one's personal conviction need be given. The two principal Baptist confes- sions of faith are the Confession of 1688. or Phila- delphia Confession, and the New Hampshire Confession. The Philadelphia Confession is the Westminster (Presbyterian) Confession (1646) revised in a Baptist sense. It first appeared in 1677, was reprinted in 1688, approved by the English Baptist Assembly of 1689, and adopted by the Baptist Association at Philadelphia in 1742, a circumstance which accounts for its usual name. It is generally accepted by the Baptists in England and the Southern States of the Union, whereas the Northern States are more attached to the New Hampshire Confession. The latter was adopted by the New Hampshire State Convention in 1833. Its slight doctrinal dif- ference from the Philadelphia Confession consists in a milder presentation of the Calvinistic system. Baptists hold that those only are members of the Church of Christ who have been baptized upon making a personal profession of faith. They agree in the rejection of infant baptism as contrary to the Scriptures, and in the acceptance of immersion as the sole valid mode of baptism. AU children who die before the age of responsibility will nevertheless be saved. Baptism and the Eucharist, the only two sacraments, or ordinances as they call them, which Baptists generally admit, are not productive of grace, but are mere sjTnbols. Baptism does not bestow, but SJ^nbolizes, regeneration, which has already taken place. In the Eucharist Jesus Christ is not really present; the Lord's Supper merely sets forth the death of Christ as the sustaining power of the behever's life. It was instituted for the followers of Christ alone; hence Baptists, in theory, commonly admit to it only their own church members and ex- clude outsiders (close conununion). Open com- munion, however, has been practised extensively in England and is gaining ground to-day among American Baptists. In church polity, the Baptists are congregational, i. e. each church enjoys absolute autonomy. Its only officers are the elders or bishops and the deacons. The elder exercises the different pastoral functions and the deacon is his assistant in both spiritual and temporal concerns. These officers are chosen by common suffrage and ordained by "cotmcils" consisting of ministers and representa- tives of neighbouring churches. A church may, in case of need, appeal for help to another church; it may, in difficulty, consult other churches; but never, even in such cases, can members of one congregation acquire authority over another congregation. Much less can a secular power interfere in spiritual affairs; a state church is an absurdity

II. History. — (1) The Baptists in the British Isles. Persons rejecting infant baptism are fre- quently mentioned in English historj' in the six- teenth century. We learn of their presence in the island through the persecutions they endured. As early as 1535 ten Anabaptists were put to death, and the persecution continued tlu'oughout that cen- tury. The \-ictims seem to have been mostly Dutch and German refugees. What influence they exerted in spreading their \-iews is not known; but, as a necessary result. Baptist principles became, through them, less of an unacceptable novelty in the eyes of Englishmen. The first Baptist congregations were organized in the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury. Almost at the verj' start, the denomination was divided into "Arminian", or "General " Baptists, so named because of their belief in the universal