Journal: Reformed Baptist Theological Review
Volume: RBTR 01:2 (Jul 2004)
Article: John Tombes – 17th Century Antipaedobaptist
Author: Michael T. Renihan

RBTR 1:2 (Jul 2004) p. 47

John Tombes – 17^th Century Antipaedobaptist

Michael T. Renihan*

* Michael T. Renihan, PhD, is pastor of Heritage Baptist Church, Worcester, MA, and Academic Dean at the Reformed Baptist Pastoral Training Institute.

There is an untold chapter from the book of the Westminster Assembly in particular and Puritanism more generally. It is about a Puritan academic and pastor named John Tombes. He was a noted polemicist for the baptism of disciples alone. In this role he was engaged actively with some of the Divines seated at the Assembly. Tombes sought needed reform in the churches of England and beyond. That reform was a return to the apostolic and post-apostolic practice of disciple baptism. This essay will examine the historical background and setting, the engagement with Westminster, and the fallout that followed.1

Biographical Background

John Tombes was born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, England, in or about the year 1603. Not much is known about his early life other than to assume the proper foundational grammar school education was in place for a child who would eventually enter the halls of the University at Oxford at the age of fifteen. Such an education was uncommon and expensive. It was sought for promising children.

Tombes matriculated at Magdelan Hall, Oxford University, in 1618. In the typical three years he finished a Bachelor of Arts (1621). He continued as a student under William Pemble, the well-respected Puritan. Tombes completed the Master of Arts in 1624. Upon the death of his tutor that year, Tombes succeeded Pemble as Catechetical Lecturer at Magdelan Hall. Tombes was but twenty-one years of age at that succession. While teaching at Magdelan Hall, he pursued a Bachelor in Divinity degree. He finished it in 1631. This was a seven-year process to assure one’s mastery of things divine. It was a time full of lectures attended and given, disputes and debates with a life centered in the hubbub of the university.

RBTR 1:2 (Jul 2004) p. 48

Between the years 1624 and 1630, Tombes lectured at St. Martin Carfax, a church whose tower still stands as a tourist attraction in downtown Oxford. In November of 1630 he was made vicar of Leominster, Herefordshire. It was reported that his preaching in “Lemster” was popular with the parishioners. The next year he married Mary Scudder, daughter of Henry Scudder, the much admired author of A Christian’s Daily Walk. “Father” Scudder would later deliver Tombes’ thoughts on baptism to a committee studying the sacraments at the Westminster Assembly.

In 1641 Tombes left Leominster for Bristol as Royalist forces forced him out. Bristol had been...