Europe had seen some serious horrible periods of religious persecution. From the Renaissance period came a way of free thinking. Humanism spread all over Europe. With that renewed way of thinking the French Protestant Reformation came of the ground. The free thought spread from the South to the North and soon differences in religious ideas started to light the fires between different groups. During the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries there were a series of European wars of religion.

Who would have thought that after the 16th century "Beeldenstorm" (roughly "image storm" or "statue storm"), and Bildersturm in German ("image/statue storm") lots of people would have come to understand that man may not make and bow in front of images of God, does forget the power of the Roman Catholic Church and its influence on kings and governors.

Through the Low Countries from south to north spread a fire to stimulate people to come to worship God properly. Similar outbreaks of iconoclasm took place in other parts of Europe, especially in Switzerland and the Holy Roman Empire in the period between 1522 and 1566, notably Zürich (in 1523), Copenhagen (1530), Münster (1534), Geneva (1535), and Augsburg (1537). In England there was both government-sponsored removal of images and also spontaneous attacks from 1535 onwards, and in Scotland from 1559.

From the East came more non-trinitarian groups infiltrating West-Europe, which made the Roman Catholic Church very nervous which made them to use all means to kill the spreaders of unitarism in the bud.

In France Huguenot Calvinists had begun in 1560 to destroy the statues and images in churchbuildings. At the same time there were several non-trinitarian preachers who went around to tell the Biblical Truth. They received some interest among the common people but met with resistance from the spiritual dominating class. Many were persecuted and then imprisoned and tortured until they changed their mind or if they did not want to accept the Trinity, they were put to death in the public so that people could be frightened from that belief in only one God. At the same time there was a prolonged period of war and popular unrest between Catholics and Huguenots (Reformed/Calvinist Protestants) in the Kingdom of France between 1562 and 1598. Several edicts were signed to come to a solution and more peace between the different opinions of faith.

Humanist scholars were not afraid to expose their ideas but also to question lots of ideas of others, especially those words from the Roman Catholic Church. They dare to approach theology from a new critical and comparative perspective, and argued that exegesis of Scripture must be based on an accurate understanding of the language(s) and grammar(s) used in writing the Greek scriptures (New Testament) and also, later, the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), rather than relying exclusively on the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible, as in the Medieval period.

In 1495 the Venetian Teobaldo Manucci Aldus Manutius, byname Aldus Manutius the Elder, (Italian Aldo Manuzio il Vecchio), became the leading figure of his time in printing, publishing, and typography, founder of a veritable dynasty of great printer-publishers, and organizer of the famous Aldine Press. He began using the newly invented printing press to produce small, inexpensive, pocket editions of Greek, Latin, and vernacular literature, making knowledge in all disciplines available for the first time to a wide public, by his excellently edited pocket-size books printed in inexpensive editions.

In the Sophocles of 1502 occurred the first mention of the Aldine academy, an organization of scholars founded by Manutius to edit classical texts. Between 1503 and 1514 his production included works by Xenophon, Euripides, Homer, Aesop, Virgil, Desiderius Erasmus, Horace, Pindar, and Plato.

The German humanist John Froben made it possible by print to have the ideas of the religious reformer and catalyst of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, spreading all over Europe.

In France there were several serious Bible Students who started to organise themselves, making different groups or societies to come together at regular intervals to discuss the Bible and how mankind had to live by that Word of God. As such in the 16th century we can find the Meaux Circle which put emphasis on the literal interpretation of Scripture and highlighted Christ.

For many true believers, being part of one or another Christian denomination, it became clear that there was a lot of corruption in the Church and that a lot of lies were told by the clergy to have power over the people. Common people started to show their dissatisfaction with the ups and downs of their church community and the prevailing ecclesiastical power. Their criticisms played a part in spreading anticlerical sentiments, such as the publication of the Heptameron by Marguerite, a collection of stories that depicted immorality among the clergy. Many started also seeing how "The Church" did not live according their preaching. They more and more became fed up by the hypocrisy of their church.

Lots of people started to believe that it was a false teaching that people could pay to get pardoned and to receive salvation. They came to believe faith in Christ was more important than their membership and payments to their main church.

Zwinglians, Lutherans and Calvinists found their way into the different regions of Europe, whilst non-trinitarian anabaptists and Baptists continued to try to reach people without making alliances with certain rulers, like the other protestants did. Though it must be said that Waldensians went affiliating with the Reformed tradition of Protestantism, but continued participating in "dissident religious activities".

The Regent Queen-Mother Catherine de Medici (Catherine de Médicis, Italian Caterina de’ Medici) became one of the most influential personalities of the Catholic–Huguenot wars. She tried to heal the religious division in the country by means of a national council or colloquy on the topic. Even when some of the involved parties sought no toleration of Protestants, they saw it was not possible to continue in the way they did and therefore wanted to reach some form of concord for the basis of a new unity.

On the banks of the Seine River in the town of Poissy in July 1561 the council debated the religious issue whilst hoping to compromise on the form of worship. The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé petitioned the Regent for the young King Charles IX—the Queen-Mother, Catherine de Medici for the free exercise of religion.

Roman Catholicism became considered the state religion but from the decree onwards all "injuries or injustices" against the citizens of France on the basis of religion became forbidden. In theory this sounded nice but in practice that was a totally different matter. By the end of the Colloquy in Poissy in October 1561, it was clear that the divide between Catholic and Protestant ideas was already too wide. The prosecution and murdering of people who thought differently than the Catholic Church continued.

Although most of the big religious wars ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, there were still serious conflicts like the Savoyard–Waldensian wars (1655–1690), the Nine Years' War (1688–1697, including the Glorious Revolution and the Williamite War in Ireland), and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714).

But the idea of freedom of religion attracted lots of people in several European countries. Being aware of the continuing unrighteous Anti-Protestant massacres many sought to find other regions where they could live in peace and with the freedom of religion.

Although England renounced religious persecution in 1689, and later the Republic of France declared itself as a country of liberty of thought and religion on the European continent religious intolerance still caused many difficulties.
Religious persecution was often bloody and implacable and is remembered and resented for generations. Several people from the North to the South of Europe came disgusted by the way clergy treated people with other ideas.

The 1620 establishment of Plymouth Bay Colony in Massachusetts by the religious immigrants known as the Pilgrims may be regarded as the beginning of large-scale migration from Europe to the territory that would eventually become the United States. The reason to leave their motherland was their hope to be able to separate themselves from the English State Church entirely. For the Pilgrims it was clear the only way for them to follow their separate faith without persecution from English authorities, was to go into exile in Holland, but when that did not seem to be the best solution, they wanted to separate themselves from the Old World, daring to start the long voyage to the unknown regions in the Far West.

Certain religious groups, like the Puritans, had put their hope in finding like-minded people in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Also the Society of Friends, popularly known as the Quakers, whose rejection of social hierarchy led to their persecution in England, saw an opportunity to find more peaceful grounds in the New World. Soon after the denomination was established, Quaker immigrants were arriving in America. In 1675, large-scale migration began when the first ship of Quaker passengers reached Salem in West Jersey. Other ships followed, docking in Delaware Bay.

Quaker leader William Penn managed also to attract other believers and by his policy of religious toleration attracted members of other persecuted religious groups.

During the 17th and early 18th centuries, in what is now a part of the eastern United States, were formed 13 British colonies. The colonies grew both geographically along the Atlantic coast and westward and numerically to 13 from the time of their founding to the American Revolution (1775–81).

Those places in the Far West attracted lots of religious people who wanted to have nobody anymore dictating what they had to do and what they had to believe. They looked for a place where they could develop freely, without a church dictating their life. For many there was also the economic opportunity, especially in the form of readily available land. In Britain and continental Europe the colonies were looked upon as a land of promise. Many had heard so many stories of how better it was over there that it formed an attraction to leave everything behind in their region where the state and church seemed to want to be aster over them.

In certain countries those in charge hoped to get rid of the protestants by presenting them a country of milk and honey. The colonies also encouraged immigration, offering inducements to those who would venture beyond the ocean.

Displeased with the political and economic evolution in their region but also finding no salvation in other countries of Europe, many wished to say goodbye to this continent and to exchange this "Old World" for the "New World" where they hoped to have more freedom.

In the face of European persecution, refusing to compromise passionately keeping to their religious convictions for lots of people the only solution seemed to flee Europe. To worship God in the way they believed to be correct was the main motivation to leave this old world for what it was. Several enthusiasts supported the efforts of their leaders to create "a city on a hill" or a "holy experiment," whose success would prove that God's plan for His churches could be successfully realised in the American wilderness. Even colonies like Virginia, which were planned as commercial ventures, were led by entrepreneurs who considered themselves "militant Protestants" and who worked diligently to promote the prosperity of the church. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established "as plantations of religion."

Those who wanted to go to the New World, found themselves waiting in towns like Antwerp, Amsterdam, Plymouth. Being stuck for several weeks they started learning the people from the different countries, by the great amount of time spent together.

Exchanging ideas about how it was in their country and why they wanted to go away from it strengthened their belief they took the right decision. Talking about their faith and about their church they came to see how incredibly different the various teachings were by those churches which all claimed to use the same Book as their guide.
The non-uniformity of religion they encountered waiting in the port and in the days sailing to America, made several people coming to question their own faith.

Doomed to sit together in a confined space in the middle of a great ocean for several days together, the travellers to the Americas had to spend time talking to each other and having a lot of time to read.

Limited to their small spaces, there was no room for major disagreement, and so they had to get along. The religious people saw now enough reason why they not only had to cling to the God of love, but also how to had to share that love for those around them.

From England in 1832 the English doctor John Thomas migrated to America and found himself several times in discussion about the Word of God and how the different nationalities all had their way of worshipping, so different than his way of doing.

After a heavy storm Dr. Thomas made a pledge to serve God. When landed on the American soil he was quickly caught into a religious revival, known as the Restoration Movement (also known as the American Restoration Movement or the Stone-Campbell Movement, and pejoratively as Campbellism) . This was centred around a group which was also known as The Disciples. Within a short time of association Dr Thomas was called upon as a speaker. To equip himself, Thomas, in haste, read a Bible Commentary by "Rollins", "knowing little", as he said, "about religion, having spent little time in its study".

In Thomas's time, authors were regularly cited and Thomas was not different to other speakers, using a lot of material that he came across with. For him all the material he got to read was to be used as a helping tool for him as well as for others. But the main Source to come to insight of the Bible, was the Bible itself.

Having found himself in a precarious situation in that great storm, and being a medic, John Thomas had some keen interest in the life of human beings. He also found that fascination with end-time events drew crowds to listen.

Eventually understanding between Thomas and the original founders of The Disciples became tense and Thomas was rejected from the movement. After his rejection by The Disciples he became reactionary against their leaders formulating a series of opposing alternative doctrines. Along with practising medicine Dr. Thomas attracted young people who wanted to learn more about the Bible. One of those students he had, was Charles Taze Russell, who in turn also got some big following.

Thomas wrote magazines and pamphlets which made it clear he is going on an other way than the Campbellites. For him it had become clear that in true faith or true Chrisitanity there was no place for human doctrines, but only for Biblical doctrines with faith in The Only One True God Who is One, and in His only begotten beloved son who gave his life as a ransom for the sins of all. Several people thought Dr. Thomas was preaching a "new gospel" and therefore rejected his teachings. Dr Thomas' new gospel required from those who heard and accepted his message, a new form of baptism. He taught that it was fundamental to the rite of passage of a convert, having to become a "recipient of repentance and remission of sins, or an importation of righteousness through the Name of Jesus Christ".

Thomas continued searching the Scriptures and demanded this also from his students or followers. As such they also became part of a growing movement of Bible Students.

Going from one place to another Dr. John Thomas managed to have several people interested to continue to study the Bible. Some of his pupils were aware of the different views of their teacher and the Campbellites and preferred to follow Dr. Thomas his ideas. After some time Thomas and several of his followers did not want to belong or to be named after a Trinitarian Christian group. They started making themselves known as Bible Students, or made their group named after a name, like Thomasites, or those who followed Charles Taze Russell, under the name of "Bible Students" or "Russellites.

To make sure his baptised students did not have to go to fight in the civil war they had to belong to a registered religion. For that reason Dr. Thomas created the name Christadelphians, so that the believers would be accepted to belong to a pacifist religious organisation of Brothers and sisters in Christ.

By 1848, it can be said, that the movement Dr. Thomas started in America, became international, him going back to England to enlighten other people there who went as missionaries to the continent where they in turn could find other interested Bible Students. Also some pupils from Ch. T. Russell found their way to France and to what is now the South of Belgium where previously the French and Belgian Bible Students belonged to one group of Bible Students who regularly had general meetings or services in Rheims, in the Marne department, Troyes in the Champagne wine region, old Flanders region cities Roubaix, Lille and Cambrai, but became separate after the Belgian revolution in 1830.

See a.o.

John Thomas - Namesake and inspirer

History of the Christadelphians

Thomasites

Who are the Christadelphians

What are Brothers in Christ

Are the Christadelphians a Cult?

History of the Bible Students

History of the Belgian Bible Students

Christadelphian People - who or what

Guide to Christadelphian Ecclesiae

A Latter day corruption of the Truth, so-called from the name of its chief advocate, Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916), of Allegheny, Pa., U.S.A. ("Pastor Russell"). Its adherents have been called "Restitutionists", "Dawnists", "Watch Tower People", etc., as Mr. Russell explains ("Studies in the Scriptures", vol. vi., p. 84). The magazine, "Zion's Watch Tower", was started by Mr. Russell in 1879, and the general title of these "Studies" was originally "Millennial Dawn".

In Britain, "Russellites" are now known as "The International Bible Students' Association", and Mr.Russell's name is not so much obtruded. The outstanding doctrine of Russellism is what it describes as the doctrine of "the Ransom"; that is to say, that "on the lines of commercial transaction" ("Studies", vol. v., p. 439), the Lord Jesus has by his death literally bought "Adam and his race" from God, so that "All must come forth from their graves and be brought to a clear knowledge of the Truth, and to a full opportunity to gain everlasting life through Christ" ("Studies", vol. vii. p. 53). This is associated with many other equally grotesque errors, as the idea of the hybrid progeny of evil angels and mankind, the pre-existence of Christ, the assumption and discarding of bodies by Christ and the angels, the resurrection to "another chance" of the Sodomites and Nero, the presence of Christ upon Earth since 1874, that the resurrection is past already, that Pastor Russell, who died in October, 1916, "has met the dear Lord in the air" ("Watch Tower Obituary"), has "reported in the presence of Christ" ("Studies", vol.vii., p. 420), and is at present carrying on the work from beyond the veil. Almost anybody, "baptised with water or not baptised with water" ("Studies", vol. vi., p. 450), is accepted as member of the ecclesia of Russellism; but it is presumed "the Ransom" is a test.

The late Pastor was prohibited from lecturing in Canada owing to his anti-war proclivities, and "The Finished Mystery" ("Studies", vol. vii.) was condemned to destruction, the penalty for having the work being a fine of Five Thousand Dollars (£1,000), or Five Years' Imprisonment! The book was also suppressed in England.

See "The Christadelphian", 1917, pp. 227, 278, 450.

C. C. Walker

See also

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #4 Steps to the women’s bibles

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #5 Further steps to women’s bibles

Are the Christadelphians a Cult?

Misunderstandings concerning C.T. Russell

Charles Taze Russell not the founder of the Belgian Bible Students

Charles Taze Russell and what he started

Dave Norris and his writings on the Belgian Bible Students

Good or bad preacher

To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers

Using the name Jehovah but not a witness of that name

Different approach in organisation of services #1

Those willing to tarnish