Updated April 22, 2000 (first published January 15, 2000) (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368,) - I have often been asked to recommend books on Baptist church history, and the following select bibliography is offered to assist those who desire to do research into this subject. I created this bibliography especially to accompany the electronic publication of old Baptist histories such as A History of the Baptists by Thomas Armitage, A History of the Christian Church by William Jones, and the Concise History of the Baptists by G.H. Orchard. The bibliography contains most of the major works cited by these men. Please note that since this bibliography was not originally part of these histories, it does not necessarily cite the exact editions of the works cited by Orchard, Armitage, and others. This bibliography is based largely on the volumes contained in my personal library and will not necessarily reflect the exact editions cited by 19th century historians. The study of church history is a great challenge and blessing when the history is evaluated on a proper biblical basis. Though no Baptist historian is infallible, I find that many of the Baptist historians have exercised much greater spiritual discernment in the use of historical facts than non-Baptists. Let me hasten to say that is by no means an endorsement of all Baptist historians! Of course, not all of the following histories were written by Baptists, but all of them touch on Baptist history.
Adams, John Quincy. Baptists Thorough Religious Reformers. New York: Sheldon, 1855.
Allix, Pierre (1641-1717). Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821 edition, first published in 1690. 361 p.
÷÷÷. Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of the Albigenses. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821 edition, first published in 1692. 282 p.
Armitage, Thomas (1819-1896). A History of the Baptists. 2 Vol. Watertown, Wi.: Baptist Heritage Press, reprint of the 1890 original by Bryan, Taylor & Co. 1470 p.
Arnaud, DâHenri. Authentic Details of the Valdenses, in Piemont and Other Countries; with abridged translations of "LâHistoire Des Vaudois," [The History of the Vaudois] Par Bresse [by J. Bresse], and La Rentree Glorieuse des Vaudois dans leur Vallees, DâHenri Arnaud, with a Sketch of the Life of Henri Arnaud, a Sketch of the German Valdenses, and the Ancient Valdensian Catechism and Confession. London: John Hatchard and Son, 1827. 464 p.
Backus, Isaac. A History of New England, with Particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians called Baptists. 2 vol. Newton, Mass.: Backus Historical Society. 1871. 1122 p.
Benedict, David (1779-1874). A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, and Other Parts of the World. 2 Vol. Gallatin, Tenn.: Church History Research & Archives reprint of the 1813 edition printed by Lincoln & Edmands for the author. 1266 p.
÷÷÷. History of the Donatists. Pawtucket, RI: Nickerson, 1875. 212 p.
Bennett, James (1774-1862). The Theology of the Early Christian Church: exhibited in quotations from the writers of the first three centuries. London: Jackson and Walford, 1855.
Bingham, Joseph (1668-1723). The Antiquities of the Christian Church, and other works; with the quotations at length, in the original languages, and a biographical account of the author. London: W. Straker, 1843-1834.
Bogue, Robert H. The Dawn of Christianity: The Essene Heritage. New York: Vantage Press, c. 1986.
Booth, Abraham (1734-1806). An Apology for the Baptists: in which they are vindicated from the imputation of laying an unwarrantable stress on the ordination of baptism: aqnd against the charge of bigotry in refusing communion at the Lord's Table to Pedobaptists. London: W. Button, Paternoster-Row, 1812.
Bostick, Curtis V. The Antichrist and the Lollards: apocalypticism in late medieval and Reformation England. Leiden, Boston: Brill, c. 1998.
Brackney, William H. Baptist Life and Thought 1600-1980: A Source Book. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1983. 448 p.
Braght, Thieleman Janszoon van (1625-1664). The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith, and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus, Their Saviour, from the Time of Christ to the Year A.D. 1600. Trans. From Dutch by Joseph F. Sohm. Scottdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 3rd English edition 1886. 1157 p.
Brockett, L. The Bogomils of Bulgaria and Bosnia. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1879.
Burnett. J.J. Sketches of Tennesseeâs Pioneer Baptist Preachers: being, incidentally, a history of Baptist beginnings in the several associations in the state. Nashville: Marshall & Bruce Co., 1919; Overmountain Press reprint, 1985. 576 p.
Cathcart, William. The Baptist Encyclopedia. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881.
Christian, John Taylor (1854-1925). Did They Dip? An Examination of Baptism as Practiced by the English and American Baptists Before the Year 1641. Louisville, KY: Baptist Book Concern, 1896.
÷÷÷. A History of the Baptists. 2 Vol. Texarkana, Texas: Bogard Press, 1922, 1926. 877 p.
Clark, Henry William (1869- ). History of English Nonconformity from Wiclif to the Close of the Nineteenth Century. 2 vol. London: Chapman and Hall, 1911-13.
Clark, William Robinson (1829-1912), ed. A History of the Councils of the Church: from the original documents by Karl Joseph von Hefele (1809-1893). 5 vol. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1872-1896.
Clifford, John. The English Baptists, Who They Are, and What They Have Done. London: E. Marlborough, 1881.
Clover, L.L. Baptist History. Lakeland, FL: The Blessed Hope Foundation, 2nd ed. 1962. 435 p.
Comba, Emilio (1839-1904). History of the Waldenses of Italy: from their origin to the Reformation. Trans. By Teofilo E. Comba. London: Truslove and Shirley, 1889. 357 p.
Cook, Richard Briscoe (1838-1916). The Story of the Baptists in All Ages and Countries. New York: Willey Bros., 1886. 416 p.
Cramp, J.M. Baptist History: From the foundation of the Christian church to the close of the eighteenth century. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, c. 1870. 598 p.
Crosby, Thomas (1685-1874). The History of the English Baptists from the Reformation to the Beginning of the Reign of King George I. 4 Vol. London: Printed for the author by John Robinson, 1738,1740. Reprint by Church History Research and Archives, Lafayette, IN. 2168 p.
DâAubigne, J.H. Merle (1794-1872). History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. 5 Vol. New York: Hurst & Company, 1835.
Davis, A.A. The Baptist Story: Sermons on the Trail of Blood. Watertown, Wis.: Baptist Heritage Press, 1989. 242 p.
Davis, Jonathan (1786?-1846). History of the Welsh Baptists from the year sixty-three to the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy. Pittsburgh: D.M. Hogan, 1835. 204 p.
Deanesly, Margaret. A History of the Medieval Church 590-1500. London: Methuen & Co., 1925, 8th ed. 1954. 284 p.
Dowling, John (1807-178). Dowlingâs History of Romanism, from the earliest corruptions of Christianity to the present time. New York: Edward Walker, 2nd ed. 1853. 815 p.
Durant, Will (1885- ). The Story of Civilization. 11 vol. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.
Edwards, Jonathan. History of Redemption. London: Jones and Co., 1835. 390 p.
Edwards, Morgan (1722-1795). Materials Towards a History of the Baptists. Vol. 2. First published between 1770-91. Danielsville, Ga.: Heritage Papers, 1984. 208 p.
Eusebius, of Caesarea (c260-340). Ecclesiastical History. Trans. by Christian Frederick Cruse (1850), with annotations on the life and writings of Eusebius by Valesius, and with an historical view of the Council of Nice by Isaac Boyle. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 14th printing 1990. 539 p.
Evans, Benjamin (1803-1871). The Early English Baptists. 2 vol. London: J. Heaton & Son, 1862. 623 p.
Faber, George Stanley. The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses. London: R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1838. 596 p.
Flecker, W.H. British Church History to A.D. 1000. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1913. 157 p.
Fletcher, Joseph. The History of the Revival and Progress of Independency in England, since the period of the reformation. 4 vol. London: John Snow, 1847.
Foxe, John (1516-1587). Acts and Monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church, with an universal Historie of the same; wherein is set forth at large, the whole race and course of the Church, from the privitime age to these later times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, fought and wrought as well as by heathen Emperors, as now lately practised by Romish Prelates, especially in this Realm of England and Scotland. Unabridged. 3 vol. Also contains The Life of John Foxe by his son, Joannis.. London: printed for the Company of Stationers, 1641. 3227 p.
÷÷÷. Book of Martyrs; or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths, of the primitive as well as Protestant Martyrs; from the commencement of Christianity, to the latest periods of pagan and popish persecution. Abridged. Alterations and additions by Charles A. Goodrich. Hartford: Philemon Canfield, 1830. 589 p.
Froude, James Anthony (1818-1894). History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. 12 vol. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1893. 7095 p.
Fuller, Thomas. The Church History of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year MDCXLVIII. 3 vol. London: Thomas Tegg and Son, 1837. 1576 p.
Gavin, D. Antonio. A Master Key to Popery. Gavin was born and educated in Spain, some years secular priest in the church of Rome, and afterwards minister of the church of England. Philadelphia: Samuel Jones, 1854. 359 p.
Geddes, Michael. The Church History of Ethiopia. Albany, OR: Ages Software electronic republication. 298 p.
Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, with notes, by the Rev. H.H. Milman. 6 vol. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1845.
Gilly, William Stephen. Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont in the Year MDCCCXXIII and researches among the Vaudois, or Waldenses, Protestant inhabitants of the Cottian Alps. London: Printed for C. and J. Rivington, 1825. 368 p.
÷÷÷. Waldensian Researches during a second visit to the Vaudois of Piemont. London: C.J.G. & F. Rivington, 1831. 560 p.
Goadby. J.J. Bye-paths in Baptist History. London: Elliot Stock, 1871. 375 p.
Gwatkin, Henry Melvill. Selections from Early Writers Illustrative of Church History to the Time of Constantine. London: Macmillan and Co., 1929. 196 p.
Hassell, Cushing Biggs (1808-1880). History of the Church of God from the Creation to A.D. 1885; including especially the history of the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Association. Revised and completed by Sylvester Hassell (1842-1928). Middletown, NY: Gilbert Beebeâs Sons, 1886. Reprinted by Old School Hymnal Co. of Ellenwood, Georgia, in 1983. 1021 p.
Hatch, Edwin. The Organization of the Early Christian Churches. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901. 222 p.
Heylyn, Peter. Ecclesia Restaurata; or the History of the Reformation of the Church of England. Albany, OR: Ages Software electronic republication of the edition edited by John Craigie Robertson and based on Heylynâs 1670 2nd edition. 2 vol. 956 p.
Horsch, John (1867-1941). Mennonites in Europe. Scottdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1942, 2nd ed. 1950. 427 p.
Houghton, Sidney Maurice. Sketches from Church History: An Illustrated Account of 20 Centuries of Christâs Power. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1980. 256 p.
Ivimey, Joseph (1773-1834). History of the English Baptists. 4 vol. London: Printed for the Author, 1811. 2438 p.
Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. 12 vol. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Com., 1908.
Jones, William (1762-1846). The History of the Christian Church, from the Birth of Christ to the Eighteenth Century; including the very interesting account of the Waldenses and Albigenses. 2 vol. London: Printed for the author by W. Myers, 1819. 1080 p.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Nineteenth Century in Europe. 5 vol. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969 reprint of the 1958 original.
Lea, Henry Charles (1825-1909). Chapters from the Religious History of Spain Connected with the Inquisition. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co., 1890. 522 p.
÷÷÷. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages. 3 vol. New York: Russell & Russell, 1955. 1906 p.
÷÷÷. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages. An abridgment by Margaret Nicholson. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1961. 906 p.
÷÷÷. Studies in Church History. Philadelphia: Henry C. Leaâs Son & Co., 1883. 603 p.
Leger, Par Jean. General History of the Evangelical Churches of the Piedmontese Valleys. 1669.
Lightfoot, Joseph Barber (1829-1889) and John Reginald Harmer (1857- ). The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations of Their Writings. London: MacMillan and Company, 1891. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1956, 2nd ed. 1992. 609 p.
Luyken, Jan (1649-1712). The Drama of the Martyrs. Lancaster, PA: Mennonite Historical Associates, 1975. 141 p.
Miller, Andrew (1810-1883). Millerâs Church History. Addison, Il.: Bible Truth Publishers, 1980 reprint. 1204 p.
Luzzi, Giovanni. The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1913. 330 p.
McBeth, H. Leon. The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987. 850 p.
McCrie, Thomas (1772-1835). History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy in the Sixteenth Century: including a sketch of the history of the Reformation in the Grisons. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1856. 266 p.
÷÷÷. History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain in the Sixteenth Century. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1829. 424 p.
÷÷÷. Sketches of Scottish Church History: Embracing the Period from the Reformation to the Revolution. Edinburgh: John Johnstone, 1843. 592 p.
Milner, Joseph. The History of the Church of Christ. 5 vol. London: Luke Hansard & Sons, 1819.
Mitchell, A.W. The Waldenses: Sketches of the Evangelical Christians of the Valleys of Piedmont. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1853. 392 p.
Morland, Samuel. History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont: containing a most exact Geographical Description of the place, and a faithful Account of the Doctrine, Life, and Persecutions of the ancient Inhabitants, together with a most naked and punctual Relation of the late bloody Massacre, 1655, and a narrative of all the following transactions, to the year of our Lord, 1658. London: Printed by Henry Hills for Adoniram Byfield, 1658, Church History Research & Archives reprint, 1982. 709 p.
Mosheim, Johann Lorenz (1694-1755). An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century. Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1840. 794 p.
Motley, John Lothrop. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. London: George Bell and Sons, 1896, 1900 edition. 3 vol. 1622 p.
Neal, Daniel (1678-1743). The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists; from the reformation in 1517, to the revolution in 1688; comprising an account of their principles; their attempts for a farther reformation in the church; their sufferings; and the lives and characters of their most considerable divines. Reprinted from the text of Dr. Toulmin's edition: with his life of the author and account of his writings. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1855.
Neander, Augustus (1789-1850). General History of the Christian Religion and Church. Trans. by Joseph Torrey from German from the second and improved edition. 9 vol. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1847.
Newman, Albert Henry. A History of Anti-Pedobaptism. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1897. 414 p.
÷÷÷. A Manual of Church History. 2 vol. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publishing Society, 1899, revised and enlarged 1933. 1475 p.
Ockley, Simon (1678-1720). The History of the Saracens; comprising the lives of Mohammed and his successors, to the death of Abdalmelik, the eleventh caliph. London: H.G. Bohn, 5th ed. 1848.
Orchard, G.H. A Concise History of Baptists from the Time of Christ their Founder to the 18th Century. Texarkana: Bogard Press, reprint of the 1855 edition. 382 p.
Paschal, George Washington. History of North Carolina Baptists. Raleigh, NC: The General Board of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, 1930, reprinted in 1990, Galatin, TN: Church History Researech & Archives. 2 vol. 1179 p.
Perrin, Jean Paul. History of the Ancient Christians. Philadelphia: Griffith & Simon, 1846. 475 p.
Porter, John William. The Worldâs Debt to the Baptists. Louisville: The Baptist Book Concern, 1914. Baptist Heritage Press reprint, 1991. 199 p.
Price, Thomas. The History of Protestant Noncomformity in England, from the Reformation under Henry VIII [to the Death of Oliver Cromwell]. 2 vol. London: William Ball, 1838.
Rippon, John (1751-1836). The Baptist Annual Register, including Sketches of the State of Religion among Different Denominations of Good Men at Home and Abroad. 4 vol. London: 1793-1802.
÷÷÷. An Account of the Baptist Churches in Ireland, with letters which passed between the Irish, English and Welsh churches in 1653. London, 1656?.
Robertson, Alexander, and James Donaldson, ed. The Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325. Albany, OR: Ages Software electronic republication of the Edinburgh edition of 1867. 10 vol. 11,011 p.
Robinson, Robert. Ecclesiastical Researches. Cambridge: Francis Hodson, 1792. 643 p.
Schaff, Philip (1819-1893). History of the Christian Church. 8 Vol. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1910.
Semple, Robert B. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia. Richmond, VA: by the author, 1810. 447 p.
Shelton, Henry C. History of the Christian Church. 5 Vol. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1895. Reprinted by Hendrickson Publishers, 1988, 1994. 2683 p.
Smedley, Edward. History of the Reformed Religion in France. 3 Vol. London, 1834.
Smiles, Samuel. The Huguenots Their Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in England and Ireland. London: John Murray, 1876. 440 p.
Smith, William, and Samuel Cheetham. A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. 2 vol. London: John Murray, 1876. 2060 p.
÷÷÷, and Henry Wace. A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines; being a continuation of "The Dictionary of the Bible." 4 vol. London: John Murray, 1900.
Stokes. History of the Baptists and Their Principles, Century by Century, to the Present Time. London: Elliot Stock, 2nd ed. 1866.
Stoughton, John (1807-1897). History of Religion in England from the Opening of the Long Parliament to 1850. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1901. 447 p.
Stringer, Phil. The Faith Baptist Witness. Haines City, FL: Landmark Baptist Press, 1998. 288 p.
Strype, John. Annals of the Reformation, and establishment of religion and other various occurances in the Church of England during Queen Elizabethâs happy reign. 6 vol. Albany, OR: Ages Software 1997 electronic republication of the 1822 Oxford original. 4019 p.
Thompson, John Henderson. A Cloud of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ; being the last speeches and testimonies of those who have suffered for the truth in Scotland since the year 1680. Edinburgh: Schenck & MâFarlane, 1871. 612 p.
Taylor, Adam. The History of the English General Baptists. 2 vol. London: Printed for the author by T. Bore, 1818.
Taylor, James B. Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers. Richmond, VA: Yale & Wyatt, 1838. 492 p.
Torbet, Robert George (1912- ). A History of the Baptists. 3rd ed. with foreword by Kenneth Scott Latourette. Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 14th printing 1993. 585 p.
Vasiliev, Alexander Alexandrovich (1867-1953). History of the Byzantine Empire 324-1453. 2 vol. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, First Russian edition 1917-25. 2nd English edition, 1952. 1220 p.
Vedder, Henry Clay (1853-1935). A Short History of the Baptists. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1907, 21st printing 1993. 431 p.
Verduin, Leonard. The Reformers and Their Stepchildren. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1964. 292 p.
Wace, Henry, and William C. Piercy, ed. A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography. Hendrickson Publishers reprint of the 1911 edition by John Murray of London. 1028 p.
Waddington, George. A History of the Church from the Earliest Ages to the Reformation. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1834. 578 p.
Wall, William (1647-1728). A Defence of the History of Infant Baptism against the Reflections of Mr. Gale and Others. 1705. 2nd edition ed. by Henry Cotton (1789-1889). Oxford: University Press, 1844.
Williams, William R. Lectures on Baptist History. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1877.
Wilson, Walter. The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting Houses in London. 4 vol. London: Printed for the author, 1808. 2331 p.
Witard, Doris. Bibles in Barrels: A History of Essex Baptists. Essex: The Essex Baptist Association, 1962. 213 p.
Wylie, James Aitken (1808-1890). History of Protestantism. 3 vol. London: Cassell and Co., 1899. 1896 p.
÷÷÷. History of the Waldenses. London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 4th ed., c1860. 212 p.
