the rite of Infant Baptism, maintained the necessity
of the rebaptism of adults, and thought dipping the
proper form of the rite, be ministers of parishes,
or be included in any way among the State-clergy?
That such ministers did hold livings in Cromwell’s
Established Church is a fact. Mr. John Tombes,
the chief of the Anti-Paedobaptists, and himself one
of Cromwell’s Triers, retained the vicarage of
Leominster in Herefordshire, with the parsonage of
Boss in the same county, and a living at Bewdley in
Worcestershire; and there are other instances.
Baxter’s language already quoted implies nothing
less, indeed, than that Anti-Paedobaptists in considerable
numbers were presented to Church-livings by the patrons
and passed by the Triers; and he elsewhere signifies
that he did not himself greatly object to this.
“Let there be no withdrawing,” he says,
“from the ministry and church of that place
[i.e. a parish of mixed Paedobaptists and Anti-Paedobaptists]
upon the mere ground of Baptism. If the minister
be an Anabaptist, let not us withdraw from him on that
ground; and, if he be a Paedobaptist, let not them
withdraw from us.” He even suggests
that the pastor of a church might openly record his
opinion on the Baptism subject, if it were contrary
to that of the majority of the members, and then proceed
in his pastorate all the same, and that, on the other
hand, private members might publicly enter their dissent
from their pastor’s opinion, and yet abide with
him lovingly and obediently in all other things.
How far, and in how many places, this method of leaving
Paedo-baptism an open question was actually in operation
in the Established Church of the Protectorate, and
whether Infant Baptism thus fell into complete abeyance
in some parishes where Anabaptists of eminence were
settled, or whether the Paedobaptist parishioners
in such eases quietly avoided that result by having
their children baptized by other ministers, are points
of some obscurity. On the whole, the difficulty
can have been felt but exceptionally and here and
there, for it was obviated on the great scale by the
fact that most of the real Anabaptists, preachers and
people alike, were Voluntaries, disowning the State-Church
altogether, and meeting only in separate congregations.
Even for such, however, in localities where they were
pretty numerous, there seems to have been a desire
to make some provision. Thus on March 13, 1655-56,
it was ordered by His Highness and the Council “that
it be referred to General Desborough, Major-General
for the County of Devon, to take care that the Church
under the form of Baptism at Exeter have such one
of the public meeting-places assigned to them for
their place of worship as is best in repair, and may
with most conveniency be spared and set apart for
that use.” The Exeter Baptists may have
thought it not inconsistent with their principles
to accept so much of State favour. Not the public
buildings, so much as the Tithes and Lay Patronage