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The Marian Exiles-Denizens or Sojourners?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Frederick A. Norwood
Affiliation:
Mantua, Ohio

Extract

The question posed in the title of this article is answered, without further research, by the obvious facts of history. The English refugees from the wrath of Queen Mary did not plan to live long enough in their temporary homes on the Continent to be regarded as inhabitants. A fruitful field for investigation, however, lies in the study of the results of this transitory sojourn in the Swiss Cantons and the valley of the Rhine.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1944

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References

1 The economic aspects of the larger movement have been fully treated in my book, The Reformation Refugees as an Economic Force (Chicago, The American Society of Church History, 1942, ix, 206 pp.)Google Scholar. Briefly, the characteristics—for purposes of comparison with the Marians—are as follows: The refugees from Europe supported themselves by following some trade, such as weaving, dyeing, shoemaking, working in precious metals, etc. By far the larger part were engaged in the textile industries, to which they made great and lasting contributions, both in the introduction of new industries, centered around the new draperies and in the technical advancement of established industries, especially dyeing techniques. Settled in colonies under letters patent or licences from the government, the church communities often engaged extensively in poor relief, amazing the native hosts by the zeal displayed in this work. In the process by which the cloth trades in such cities as London were revolutionized through the rapid rise of silk to a place of primary importance, the refugees were of utmost significance. Everywhere the exiles, industrious middle-class working people, tended to break down the traditional gild system in favor of a more liberal, advanced, and modern economy. Three reasons may be adduced to account for this influence: 1) Since they came largely from the Low Countries, especially southern Flanders, where new industries, methods, and ideas, particularly with reference to the making of cloth, were developing with great rapidity, naturally they took with them this advanced system; (2) as homogeneous minority groups settled in communities in which a large and conservative native majority dominated a traditional economic organization centered in the gild, their interest generally lay in opposition to the restrictive system; and (3) as particularly pure and zealous representatives of Calvinist ascetic Protestantism, cleared of hangers-on and lukewarm adherents by the “natural selection” of persecution, the refugees exhibited those characteristics favorable to the development of economic individualism and the new large-scale industrial enterprises of the age. This meant also an indirect influence on the rise of the capitalist spirit, as interpreted by Max Weber. The refugee movement, never of the greatest magnitude, its participants being numbered in thousands, not millions, had significance for the economic development of Europe, especially England, Switzerland, and the Provinces of Holland, far out of proportion to its size. Taken as a whole, it was one of the most important factors in sixteenth century economic history, to say nothing of politics, sociology, and religion.

2 As, for example, in Frankfurt, where the Council made special regulations for the reception of Englishmen into citizenship: “Als auch weiter verlesen, was der Engellender halben beratschlagt, und dabei abgehort, was irer etliche supplicirt haben: soll man die supplieanten, auch was sonst von gemainen leuten unter inen sindt, zur burgerschafft an- und ufnemen, was aber von hohem stand als vom adel aus Franckreich und dergleichen personen, dieselben on vorwissen des rats nit anzunemen.” Jung, R., Die englische Flüchtlingsgemeinae in Frankfurt am Main, 1554–1559 (Frankfurt a. M., J. Baer, 1910), 11.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Norwood, , Reformation Refugees, 35f., 116, 131.Google Scholar

4 Taken from Christina Garrett, H., The Marian Exiles, 1553–1559. A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism (Cambridge, University Press, 1938), 41.Google Scholar

5 Comprising with others: 2 apothecaries, 1 baker, 1 barber, 1 bookbinder, 1 brewer, 1 carpenter, 1 clerk, 1 cobbler, 1 eordwainer, 1 draper, 1 dyer, 1 hosier, 3 laborers, 1 painter, 8 printers, 3 tailors, 1 tanner, 15 weavers. Figures compiled from “Census” ibid., passim.

6 See on this point especially information in Seouloudi, Irene, “Alien Immigration into and Alien Communities in London, 1558–1640,” Huguenot Society of London Proceedings, XVI (1938), 2750Google Scholar, summarized from statistics in Kirk, Richard E. G. and Kirk, Ernest P. (eds.), Returns of Aliens Dwelling in the City and Suburbs of London from the Reign of Henry VIII to That of James I (Huguenot Society of London Publications, X (19001908, (4 vols.)Google Scholar. I have made tables from returns for 12 other cities.

7 Cf. Norwood, , Reformation Refugees, 90f., 112Google Scholar. “The benefittes receaved in Norwich by havying the strangers there” says the refugees brought the skill and art of making new types of cloth, and employed many Englishmen at the work; they filled the empty houses and paid rent; they were consumers of English products: they paid taxes like the rest; they were diligent in agricultural pursuits; they were no burden on the community, but rather sustained their own poor. “And to conclude, they for the moste parte feare God, and do diligently and loborously attende upon their severall occupations, they obey all magistrates and all good lawes and ordynaunces, they lyve peaceablie amonge themselves and towarde all men, and we thinke our cittie happie to enjoye them.”

8 Mörikofer, Johann K., Histoire des réfugiés de la Réforme en Suisse (Paris, Sandoz et Fischbacher, 1878, trans, by Roux, G.), 53Google Scholar; Garrett, , Marian Exiles, 51f.Google Scholar

9 Garrett, , Marian Exiles, 82.Google Scholar

10 Martin, Charles, Les protestants anglais réfugiés à Genève au temps de Calvin, 1555–1560 (Genève, A. Jullien, 1915), 65f.Google Scholar

11 Heyer, Théophile, “Notice sur la colonie anglaise établie à Genève de 1555 à 1560,” Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Genève, Memoires et documents, IX (1855), 345Google Scholar. He remarks of the situation at Geneva: “Une fois la colonie anglaise établie et constituée, nos registres n'ont guère à s'en occuper, par cela même, comme tout porte à la croire, qu'elle ne donna aucun suget de plaint.”

12 Petition of April 10, 1555, printed in Garrett, , Marian ExilesGoogle Scholar, Appendix, 359.

13 As, for example, John Jewel, who borrowed money from Abel (“ego ab Abelo mutuo sumpsi octo coronatos pueri nomine”). Works (Cambridge, University Press, 18451850, 4 vols. Ed. for the Parker Society by Ayre, John), IV, 1197, No. 7, 01 26, 1559Google Scholar(?), See also the ease of John Fox, who was exceedingly poor when he returned to England. Strype, John, Annals (in his Works, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 18201842Google Scholar, henceforth referred to by the separate titles), I1, 192 f.; I2, 488, 489 (Appendix).

14 Hinds, Allen B., The Making of the England of Elizabeth (New York, Macmillan, 1895), 44.Google Scholar

15 As in the case of Anthony Robson. Garrett, , Marian Exiles, 271Google Scholar. Many refugee families lodged with natives.

16 Jung, , Flüchtlingsgemeinde, 2630Google Scholar; cf. Garrett, , 19, 69Google Scholar, et passim.

17 Quoted in. Cowell, Henry J., “English Protestant Refugees in Strasbourg, 1553–1558,” Huguenot Society of London Proceedings, XV (19331937), 72Google Scholar. Cf. Hinds, , England of Elizabeth, 10Google Scholar; Strype, , Thomas Cranmer, 518.Google Scholar

18 Strype, , Ecclesiastical Memorials, III1, 232.Google Scholar

19 Idem, Annals, III, 349.

20 Calendar of “Protocols of the Council and 21” of Strasbourg, 15541558, Vol. XXXII (1554), f. 311Google Scholar; printed in Garrett, , Marian ExilesGoogle Scholar, Appendix, 364.

21 Strype, , Annals, I2, 151 f.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., I1, 397.

23 Hinds, , England of Elisabeth, 10.Google Scholar

24 Cf. Strype, , Eamund Grindal, 132Google Scholar. Garrett, , Marian, Exiles, pp. 70, 96, 152, 163, 182, 194, 198, 215, 225, 265, 269, 285, 288, 299Google Scholar, refers to specific cases of refugees who participated in the bounty of the Duke. See also Appendix, 364. We do find parallels to these individual benefactions in the refugee communities of Dutch and French in the Rhineland.

25 Quoted in translation from Fox's Latin in Strype, , Annals, I1, 157.Google Scholar

26 Staatsarchiv, Basel, 15571558Google Scholar, f. 17vo. Printed in Garrett, , Marian Exiles, Appendix, 361; cf. also p. 55.Google Scholar

27 See the petition in Jung, , Flüchtlingsgemeinde, 16.Google Scholar

28 Cowell, Henry J., “The Sixteenth-Century English-Speaking Churches at Geneva and Frankfort,” Huguenot Society of London Proceedings, XVI (1938), 212.Google Scholar

29 Eintrittsrodel of the Safronzunftarchiv, 25, p. 221, printed in Garrett, , Marian ExilesGoogle Scholar, Appendix, 361.

30 Garrett, , Marian Exiles, 230.Google Scholar

31 Jung, , Flüchtlingsgemeinde, 17.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., 25.

33 Cowell, , “The Sixteenth-Century English-Speaking Refugee Churches at Strasbourg, Basle, etc.,” Huguenot Society of London Proceedings XV (19331937), 653Google Scholar; Garrett, , 50ff.Google Scholar

34 Garrett, , Marian Exiles, 50Google Scholar, says hostility of gilds and Dudley's Conspiracy entered. Cowell, , loc. cit., 653Google Scholar, says there was trouble over the Augsburg Confession.

35 Calendar of “Protocols of the Council and 21” of Strasbourg, , XXXII (1554)Google Scholar, printed in Garrett, , Marian ExilesGoogle Scholar, Appendix, 366.

36 Garrett, , 289.Google Scholar

37 See Norwood, , Reformation RefugeesGoogle Scholar, Index under Opposition, Riots, Violence.

38 Garrett, , Marian Exiles, 7.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., 15. Political fugitives were looked on with suspicion; therefore it was to the advantage of the Marian exiles to assume the character of persecuted refugees for the sake of religion. Here is one of the places in which Garrett exaggerates too much, even for the emphasis and interpretation she desires.

40 Garrett has information on all these men in her “Census.”