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James I and the Huguenot Synod of Tonneins of 1614

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

W. Brown Patterson
W. Brown Patterson
Affiliation:
Davidson College, Davidson, N.C. 28036
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Extract

That King James I of England was ardently interested in religious ideas is well-known to students of the seventeenth century. Less well-known is the fact that he was specifically interested in the cause of religious reunion and played a leading part in a movement to find a way to reconcile the different national churches of his day and thus significantly to reduce international tensions. His plans did not exclude the possibility of a rapprochement between the Churches of the Reformation and Rome — even though James's own religious and political writings involved him in a series of bitter exchanges with leading Roman Catholic controversialists. From the beginning of his reign in England James had wanted to approach the problem of religious disunity through an international assembly of divines — or an ecumenical council, and he took care to make his intentions clear through diplomatic channels. During the years 1610–1614 he made use of the celebrated classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, then resident in England, in stimulating support for his ideas, especially in learned circles on the continent. Casaubon's death in England in the summer of 1614 deprived James of a zealous ally in the cause of Christian reunion, but it did not bring the campaign to which they had committed themselves to an end. By this time James was involved in the most ambitious reunion plan of his career, the result of his collaboration with Pierre Du Moulin, pastor of the Reformed Church in Paris and one of the leading theologians in France

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 1972 , pp. 241 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1972

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References

1 Willson, D. Harris, King James VI and I (New York: Henry Holt, 1956), 228–42Google Scholar; Mathew, David, James I (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1967), 185–91Google Scholar; McIlwain, Charles H., introduction to The Political Works of James I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1918), esp. xxii–lxxxGoogle Scholar.

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5 For this controversy, see the account in Brodrick, James, Robert Bellarmine, 1542–1621 (London: Longmans, Green, 1950), II, 169–260Google Scholar. It was, says Brodrick, “such a battle of books as the world had never seen before” (p. 224).

6 For James's Premonition to All Most Mightie Monarches, Kings, Free Princes, and States of Christendome, issued to accompany a second edition of his Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance, see Political Works of James I, ed. McIlwain, 110–68. The evidence for Du Moulin's having Received a copy of the Premonition from the king is in De L'Estoile, Pierre, Journal pour le règne de Henri IV, II, ed. Martin, André (Paris: Gallimard, 1958), 471Google Scholar.

7 London: Nathaniel Butter and Martin Clerke, 1610. There were French editions in 1610 and 1612.

8 Du Moulin, Pierre, De monarchia temporali Pontificis Romani (London: Norton, 1614)Google Scholar, dedicated to King James (Sig. A2-Sig. A6).

9 PeterDuMoulin, The Authors Life, Sig. ***2. For DuMoulin's career, see also the Autobiographie de Pierre Du Moulin, d'après le manuscrit autographe, 1564–1658, Bulletin de la Society de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais VII (1858), 170–82Google Scholar, 333–44, 465–77, and Rimbault, Lucien, Pierre du Moulin, 1568–1658: Un pasteur classique à l'age classique (Paris: J. Vrin, 1966)Google Scholar.

10 Mornay's career is described in rich detail in Patry, Raoul, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay: Un Huguenot homme d'état (1549–1623) (Paris: Fischbacher, 1933)Google Scholar. The basic documentary sources are in Mémoires et correspondance de Duplessis-Mornay (Paris: Treuttel and Würtz, 1824–25), 12 volsGoogle Scholar.

11 Patry, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, 375–462.

12 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, IX, 538.

13 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondence, X, 75–78. In a letter to André Rivet, Pastor of Thouars, on May 22, 1605, Mornay commented that he had “written amply and seriously concerning this matter to persons of importance who can be useful in it.” Mémoires et correspondance, X, 92.

14 See the Instructions prepared for David de Licques, August 1, 1608, in Mornay's Mémoires et correspondance, X, 239. Sir Henry Wotton, to whom de Licques was to communicate Mornay's message, had been engaged for some time in the task of furthering Protestantism in Venice. See Smith, Logan Pearsaix, The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907), I, 75–107Google Scholar.

15 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XI, 376.

16 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 420. Jacques de Jaucourt, sieur de Rouvray, Ménétreux, and Saint-Andeux, had been chosen Deputy General by the Queen Regent, Marie de Medici, in 1611. He was the brother of Jean de Jaucourt, seigneur de Villarnoul, who was Mornay's son-in-law. Patry, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, 431, 491 note.

17 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 420.

18 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 421.

19 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 421–22.

20 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 422.

21 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 422.

22 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 423.

23 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 423.

24 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 423.

25 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 423.

26 Mornay, Mémoires et correspondance, XII, 423.

27 Cf. Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 71–73.

28 See Aymon, Jean, ed., Tous les Synodes Nationaux des Églises Réformées de France (The Hague: Charles Delo, 1710), II, 1–77Google Scholar. Also Quick, John, ed., Synodicon in Gallia Reformata: or, The Acts, Decisions, Decrees, and Canons of Those Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France (London: T. Parkhurst and J. Robinson, 1692), I, 390–450Google Scholar. Quotations in this paper from the proceedings of the national synods are my own translations from Aymon. Quick's seventeenth-century translation of the proceedings of the synods is, however, always worth consulting alongside Aymon, as he apparently used other manuscripts than that used by Aymon. I have accordingly given references to both collections in the pages which follow.

29 See Blondel, David, Actes avthentiques des Eglises Reformiés de France, Germanie, Grande Bretaigne, Pologne, Hongrie, Païs Bas, etc.: Touchant la paix et charité fraternelle … (Amsterdam: J. Blaev, 1655), 72–76Google Scholar. The plan is reproduced in an abridged form in Jaques Courvoisier, Forerunners of the World Council: du Moulin, Pierre, The Ecumenical Review I, 1 (Autumn, 1948), 76–82Google Scholar. The same plan, taken from Blondel, is printed in English in Brandt, Gerard, The History of the Reformation and Other Ecclesiastical Transactions in and about the Low-Countries, from the Beginning of the Eighth Century, down to the Famous Synod of Dort (London: John Childe, 1721), II, 153–57Google Scholar, and in Dutch in the original version of Brandt's work, published in 1671. Neither Brandt nor Courvoisier seems aware that the plan was presented to the Synod of Tonneins in 1614; both assume that it was drawn up during DuMoulin's visit to England in 1615.

30 This version, apparently first published in Tilenus, Daniel, Disputationes theologicae (The Hague: Hillebrandt Jacobssz, 1617)Google Scholar [Bibliothèque Nationale no. D2.987], is reprinted in Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 235–38. It is in nineteen points rather than the twenty-one of the other versions.

31 Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 74–75, 235. The version published in 1617 contains a provision for including the Lutherans from the first, which the version published in 1655 omits. This change would be consistent with the advice given by Mornay.

32 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 5; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 395.

33 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 5–6; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 395.

34 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 6; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 395.

35 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 6; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 395.

36 Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 57–59, 71.

37 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 37; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 418.

38 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 37–38; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 418.

39 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 38; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 418.

40 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 63; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 438.

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49 Cf. Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 71–75.

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56 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 57; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 434.

57 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 57–58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 434.

58 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 434.

59 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 434.

60 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

61 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 433.

62 Cf. Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 72.

63 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

64 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 58; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

65 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

66 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

67 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

68 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

69 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

70 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 435.

71 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 59; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436.

72 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436.

73 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436.

74 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436. On this dispute, and its origins in the teachings of Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin, see Polman, Pontien, L'Élément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1932), 35–36Google Scholar, 55–62, 129; Seeberg, Reinhold, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, fourth edition, IV, Part 1 (Leipzig: Werner Scholl, 1933), 457–79Google Scholar; and Ritsch, Otto, Dogmengeschichte des Protestantismus, IV (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1927), 1–32, 70–106Google Scholar.

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77 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436.

78 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436.

79 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436. For a close parallel see Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. McNeill, John T. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961), II, 1380–81Google Scholar.

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82 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 436.

83 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

84 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 60; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

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88 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 61; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

89 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 61–62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

90 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

91 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

92 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

93 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

94 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

95 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 62; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 437.

96 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, I, 131–33; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 120–22.

97 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, I, 170; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 153.

98 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, I, 157, 201, 227; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 143–44, 180, 200. Cf. De Félice, G., Histoire des Synodes Nationaux des Églises Réformées de France (Paris: Grassart, 1864), 107Google Scholar.

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100 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, I, 300; Quick, ed., Synodicon, I, 263–64.

101 Cf. de Félice, Histoire des Synodes Nationaux, 160–63.

102 Autobiographic de Pierre Du Moulin, 342.

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104 Du Moulin to Du Plessis-Mornay, 403.

105 Du Perron's, Jacques DavyHarangue faicte de la part de la Chambre Ecclesiastique, en celle du tier Estat, sur l'Article du Serment (Paris: Antoine Estienne, 1615)Google Scholar was answered by James's, Declaration … pour le droit des rois & independence de leurs couronnes, contre la Harangue de l'illustrissime Cardinal du Perron, prononcée en la chambre du tiers Estat (London: J. Bill, 1615)Google Scholar, an English edition of which was published in the following year as Remonstrance … for the Right of Kings and the Independance of Their Crownes, against an Oration of the Most Illustrious Card, of Perron, Pronounced in the Chamber of the Third Estate. Ian. 15. 1615 (Cambridge: Cantrell Legge, 1616)Google Scholar [translated by Richard Betts] For DuMoulin's part in the composition of the Declaration, see Willson, David Harris, James I and His Literary Assistants, Huntington Library Quarterly VIII (1944–45), 38–51Google Scholar. DuMoulin's arrival in London (ca. March 30, 1613) and departure (June 15) were noted by the indefatigable correspondent JohnChamberlain. See The Letters of John Chamberlain, ed. McClure, Norman Egbert (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1939), I, 591, 602Google Scholar.

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113 Aymon, ed., Tous les Synodes, II, 183; Quick, ed., Synodicon, II, 37.

114 Harrison, Beginnings of Arminianism, 277–99, 385–99.

115 Wedgwood, C. V., The Thirty Years War (London: Jonathan Cape, 1944), 78–135Google Scholar.

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117 See Hinsley, F. H., Power and the Pursuit of Peace: Theory and Practice in the History of Relations between States (Cambridge: University Press, 1963), 17–32Google Scholar ; Ogg, David, Sully's Grand Design of Henry IV, from the Memoirs of Maximilien de Béthune, due de Sully (1559–1641) (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1921Google Scholar; Grotius Society Publications, no. 2) ; Westin, Gunnar, Negotiations about Church Unity, 1628–1634: John Durie, Gustavus Adolphus, Axel Oxenstierna (Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksells, 1932Google Scholar; Uppsala Universitets Årsskrift [1932], Teologi 3), esp. 23–41.