Thomas Helwys

Who was Thomas Helwys?

Thomas Helwys, an Englishman, was one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the General Baptist denomination.

In the early seventeenth century, Helwys was principal formulator of that distinctively Baptist request: that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. Thomas Helwys was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant dissenters under King James I.