John Smyth and the Baptists

There were English refugees in Holland at the start of the 17th century. They were 'Independents' who had been persecuted in England for refusing to join a Church of England church that was run by Parliament. They had wanted to see the English church reformed more thoroughly than the State would accept. They had begun to look more closely at how the Bible described the church. They described the church as a 'gathered community', a group of people joined together by personal faith in Jesus. Some decided that a person should be baptised after they have chosen to believe in Jesus for themselves. If they had already been 'christened' as a baby, they would have to be baptised again.

It's one thing to decide that something like that is right. It's quite another thing to do something about it! After all, to be baptised as an adult when you had already been 'christened' as a child was just not done. The only people who were known to have done such things had a bad reputation. But we know that one man had the 'courage of his convictions'. His name was John Smyth. He had been a scholar at Cambridge University.
He had a secure future as part of the establishment … till he became a "Separatist", and had to flee abroad to escape James the First's persecution of people like himself. In1608, in Amsterdam, he baptised himself.