Busher, Leonard (ca. 1573-ca. 1651)
Leonard Busher, a refugee from London, living in Amsterdam about 1610. He was the head of a party of Teleiobaptists (i.e., of people who practiced adult baptism). He was a friend of Thomas Helwys, a Brownist leader. Busher is also the author of a treatise, Religious Peace or a Plea for Liberty of Conscience, which was printed anonymously in England several times, and also of Persecution for Religion Judg’d and Condemn’d . . . Proving That no Man Ought to be Persecuted for His Religion (n.p., 1662, reprint), likewise anonymous. The group mentioned above was not Mennonite, as is stated in Prophane Schism (p. 65) by Christian Lawne, but a separated group of Brownists, who later probably joined the Baptists in England; Busher himself also returned to England about 1614.
Bibliography
Catalogus der werken over de Doopsgezinden en hunne geschiedenis aanwezig in de bibliotheek der Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam. Amsterdam: J.H. de Bussy, 1919: 158.
Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de and William Elliott Griffis. History of the Free churchmen called the Brownists, Pilgrim fathers and Baptists in the Dutch republic, 1581-1701. Ithaca, NY: Andrus & Church, 1922: 171, 176, 177.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 480. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.
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MLA style: van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Busher, Leonard (ca. 1573-ca. 1651)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 25 May 2013. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B8596.html.
APA style: van der Zijpp, Nanne. (1953). Busher, Leonard (ca. 1573-ca. 1651). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 May 2013, from http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B8596.html.
