The way I have heard it put concerns those independent churches which broke away from the attempted hegemony of Rome, starting perhaps with the church in Milan, and eventually becoming what were known as the Waldenses (or Vaudois) and Albigenses, whose godly communities in the mountains of Italy and France were relentlessly persecuted by Rome for centuries. There was a claim that they were baptistic, which is not clearly documented to my thinking. And if they were at all, it may well have been in opposition to the flagrant perversion of the Biblical doctrine of infant baptism by Rome. This is how I have heard the "we are not protestants" by my baptist friends -- those who were of that mind, meaning they were descended from the Waldenses, not the Reformers who broke from Rome.

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Steve Rafalsky
Elder, International Evangelical Church (Reformed)
Limassol, Cyprus

"I am set for the defense of the gospel" (Philippians 1:17)

"Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious
power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness..." (Colossians 1:11)