The Trail of Blood

The Trail of Blood (1931) is a book by the Baptist minister, James Milton Carroll. It is a collection of five lectures he gave on the history of Baptist churches, which he presented as a succession from the first Christians.

The full title is The Trail of Blood -: Following the Christians Down through the Centuries - or, The History of Baptist Churches from the Time of Christ, Their Founder, to the Present Day. Carroll presents modern Baptists as the direct succession of a strain of Christianity dating to apostolic times, which was a Landmarkist view first promoted in the mid-nineteenth century by James Robinson Graves. He started an influential movement in Tennessee and the western states. The Landmark controversy divided many Baptists, and ultimately led to the formation of the American Baptist Association in 1924, as well as Gospel Missions and unaffiliated churches.

Carroll claims a descent by modern Baptists from such earlier groups as the Waldensians, the Cathari, the Paulicians, and the Donatists. Carroll acknowledges a number of other writers, including G.H. Orchard and John T. Christian. The title is taken from James Robinson Graves' The Trilemma. The book was published in the year Carroll died. Today the copyright to Carroll's book is held by Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

James Edward McGoldrick wrote a response to Carroll's work called Baptist Successionism which gave researched opposition to the theory of "Baptist Successionism."

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