Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Page played a part in the
early history of the Baptist Church in Virginia
Article of January 20, 2000
Founded by members of the Church of England, the Virginia colony established in its charter that no other churches were to be tolerated. With the notorious bloody code of 1611, the first published for the government of the Colony, every man and woman in the Colony,
"or who should afterwards arrive, should give an account of faith and religion to the parish minister, and if not satisfactory to him, they should repair often to him for instruction; and if they refuse to go, the Governor should whip the offender for the first offense, for the second refusal to be whipped twice and to acknowledge his fault on the Sabbath day in congregation; for the third offense to be whipped every day till he complied."
Over forty years into the establishment of homesteads on the Shenandoah frontier, the Baptists began to find hope in escaping the long-experienced persecution in Virginia. By 1756 several Baptist congregations were organized in what is now Rockingham, Shenandoah Page Counties. By the 1770s, on the east side of the Massanutten Mountain, in what is now Page County, a congregation was being built up by Baptists, partly, as it appears, from the Mennonite community and centered around the famous White House.
Elder John Koontz and others began teaching the gospel according to the Baptist faith in the area of Mill Creek. Preaching in both German and English, Koontz's sermons were moving and eloquent enough to convert many, including Martin Kauffman and many of his Mennonite flock. Reportedly, his efforts to convert so many subjected Koontz on more than one occasion to beatings by "ruffians" of the Massanutten neighborhood.
As a result of the great deal of concern over the preachings of Koontz and the influence that it bore upon the local Mennonite congregation, local Mennonites sent for preachers from Pennsylvania. As a result, Peter Blosser arrived on the eve of the Revolutionary War and began preaching non-resistance among many of the area's residents.
Interestingly, Martin Kauffman, the aforementioned Baptist preacher convert from the Mennonites, supported Blosser's anti-war sentiment, and supported that ideology in this area of the Valley � ultimately resulting in a division in the White House congregation.
Nevertheless, by 1775, according to church historian Robert Semple, the Baptists were facing a "Very favorable season." The concept of revolution against the noted "Establishment" was favorable to many. As a result of the regular session in their General Association, the Baptists of Virginia submitted petitions throughout the state, to be forwarded to the Virginia Convention or General Assembly to in fact abolish the current established church of the colony, "and religion left to stand upon its own merits; and, that all religions societies should be protected in the peaceable enjoyment of their own religious principles."
By 1776 this bill had been passed. Unremarkably, there is said that there were no Tories among the Baptists during the War for Independence. By 1784, Baptists were finally being recognized and supported by individuals from all denominations.
Thomas Jefferson, in preparing his "Act for Religious Freedom" which passed the Virginia General Assembly in 1786, made clear the right for religious freedom when he wrote that:
"no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capabilities."
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