Thomas Helwys leads part of Smyth's congregation back to London and founds the first Baptist church on English soil at Spitalfields; his plea for universal religious liberty, addressed to James I, lands him in prison, where he dies.
The Event
- Date
- 1612 (exact)
- Era
- Reformation; Standard ecumenical periodization
- Location
- London; today London, England
- Traditions
- Christianity
- Streams
- Baptist
- Key figures
- Thomas Helwys
- Key texts
- A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (1612)
Primary Sources
- Thomas Helwys, A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity
Secondary Sources
- González, The Story of Christianity, vols. 1–2 (Harper, 2010)
Provenance: HIST-0073; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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