“Baptism is not washing with water: but it is the baptism of the Spirit, the confession of the mouth, and the washing with water.” When he was exiled to Amsterdam from his native England, John Smyth gathered three dozen of his followers around him. The former Anglican preacher and Cambridge fellow recited a confession of faith; then he baptized himself. The brazen act scandalized even those who, with Smyth, despised England’s state church.