Biography
Edmund Hamer Broadbent was born in England in 1861 and belonged to the Brethren movement, a fellowship of believers who met simply to read the Scriptures, break bread and pray. As a young man he felt a deep call to take the gospel to those who had not heard it. He would give the rest of his life to traveling, teaching and encouraging small groups of believers across Europe and the East.
He went first to the Continent and spent years in countries such as Italy, Switzerland and Spain. Later he traveled through eastern and central Europe, and into Russia, where Christians were often poor and under pressure from the authorities. He became a friend of the groups of believers in these lands. He learned several languages and moved from town to town, often living with simple families. He was not interested in building a large organization. He wanted to strengthen the believers he found and to help them hold to the Word of God.
His journeys took him through many places in the Russian Empire and in the Balkans. He visited groups of believers who met in homes and in forests, who were often misunderstood and sometimes persecuted. He preached, taught and prayed with them. He saw how they held to the faith under hard conditions. He was also an observer, and he took notes on the history and the beliefs of these groups.
The experience led him to think about the whole story of those who had followed Christ outside the great institutional churches. He noticed that in every age there had been believers who sought to follow the New Testament pattern, who met in simple ways and were often hunted for their faith. Many of them were called heretics, and their stories were written by their enemies. Broadbent wanted to tell their story as it was.
The result was The Pilgrim Church, published in 1931. It traces a line through church history, beginning with the apostolic churches and continuing through the groups known as the Montanists, the Waldensians, the Albigenses, the Anabaptists, the Moravians and many others. He wrote with sympathy for those who suffered and with careful attention to the sources he could find. He argued that the true church had always been present, and that it was found among people who obeyed Scripture and loved Christ, whether or not they had official standing. The book has been read around the world and translated into many languages. Many have found in it a record of faithful believers that they had not heard before.
The book is not without its limits. Broadbent wrote from the Brethren point of view, and some historians find his selection of groups too narrow and his judgments sometimes one-sided. He admired groups who stood apart from state churches and could be too quick to praise them. Even so, the book did a great service by drawing attention to the lives of many who were overlooked. It reminded readers that God has always had a people.
He lived a simple life, and he never sought wealth or fame. He gave his time to preaching and writing, and he carried the burdens of the believers he served. Those who knew him said he was gentle, humble and devoted to prayer. He was also a man who suffered the loneliness of constant travel and the strain of long separations from those he loved. He kept going because he was convinced that the work was from God.
He died in 1945, at the age of about eighty-three. Few people today know his name, and yet his book remains in print. His life shows that a quiet servant who gives himself to the poor and to the scattered believers of the world can leave a lasting record. He helped the church remember those who paid the cost.