We often assume that religious conversion through baptism involved the transformation of an individual from one state to another. This paper examines the structure, contexts and language of a number of ‘stranger’ baptisms in early modern England to demonstrate that  this process was rarely (if ever) characterised in such terms. The problems the Anglican church appears to have had with ‘transformation’ in baptism stem, I suggest, from the prominence of a Calvinist-influenced conception of religious and cultural difference. The paper concludes with a close examination of the circumstance of the baptising of a ‘Turk’ (initially named Chinano, then William) in London in 1586, considering the unique structure created for this specific occasion, and arguing that the occasion depends upon Chinano’s articulation of the reasons for his conversion before the community of believers to which he seeks access. This articulation depends, in turn, on repeated reference to Biblical paradigms that deny any transformation – or indeed any conversion at all – and suggest instead a process of ‘conversation’ and rediscovery.

—Dr Matthew Dimmock, University of Sussex