"Exactly," said Sterling. "You say that the Baptist historians claim that these Christian sects who in every century protested against Catholicism and stood up for Christianity were Baptists. Of course Baptist historians claim that these Christians were Baptists. Suppose, however, you had read Presbyterian histories; who knows but that you would have read that there were in every century Presbyterian churches?" "But how could this be? I read in two or three places that the Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians and many of the other denominations were the fruit of the Reformation, and came after the sixteenth century." "Daughter, you seem to have these histories at your finger ends." "I do not know very much about them, but I have read everything in the library that would throw light upon the matters that we have been discussing, and I have made full notes from my reading." "Your statements sound strange, Miss Dorothy," said Mr. Sterling, "for the Baptists evidently were one of those numerous sects that sprang out of and were a part of the Protestant Reformation." "Two or three of the books that I examined said that the Baptists existed before the Reformation and helped to bring about the Reformation, and that they did much to shape the Reformation both in Holland and in England and in other places." "Miss Dorothy," said Mr. Sterling, "the idea seems preposterous to me that the Baptists existed before the Reformation." "Here is a statement that I read in 'Mosheim's History of Antiquity', in which he says 'the origin of the Baptists is lost in the depths of antiquity'." "Does Mosheim say that?" asked Mr. Sterling. "Why, he was a noted writer." "I found that three or four hundred years ago the Baptists were called Anabaptists, and that they gradually dropped the first part of their name." "What does the word Anabaptist mean?" "It means a rebaptizer. It seems that they insisted when a person who had been baptized in infancy was converted in later life that he should be baptized on profession of faith. They claimed that his infant baptism was not Bible baptism, and so the people called them rebaptizers or Anabaptists. And here is one statement that I read: 'It is said that two of the presidents of Harvard College were Anabaptists'." "What is that!" exclaimed the father, almost bouncing out of his chair. "Two of Harvard's presidents Baptists? Where did you find that statement?" "On page 338 of Gregory's 'Puritanism in the Old World and the New'." "And you say the Baptists and the Anabaptists are the same?" "Yes, indeed. I find that the names are used interchangeably in the histories, and gradually the shorter name took the place of the longer." "Two presidents of Harvard? Well! Well! If that Gregory knows what he is talking about, then that is a stunner. I would never have thought it. But go ahead and give us some more."