Marian exiles
The Marian exiles were English
Exile communities
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According to English historian John Strype, more than 800 Protestants fled to the continent, mainly to the Low Countries, Germany, and Switzerland, and joined with Reformed Churches there or formed their own congregations. A few exiles went to Scotland, Denmark, and other Scandinavian countries.
Notable English exile communities were located in the cities of Aarau, Basel, Cologne, Duisburg, Emden, Frankfurt, Geneva, Padua, Strasbourg, Venice, Wesel, Worms, and Zürich. The exiles did not plan to remain on the continent any longer than was necessary; there was considerable controversy and anxiety among them and those who remained in England over the legitimacy of fleeing, rather than facing, religious persecution. This concern contributed to the attention and authority given to those who remained in England and were martyred, as in the writings of one of the most famous exiles, John Foxe.
During their continental sojourn, few of the exiles became well integrated economically or politically into their new communities. With the exception of the exile community in Aarau, the majority of exiles were clergy (67) or theological students (119). The next largest group was composed of gentry (166) who, with others back in England such as
The Marian exiles included many important or soon-to-be important English Protestant leaders. Former and future bishops among them included
Strasbourg
The English congregation in
Frankfurt
The first English exile group in Frankfurt arrived on 27 June 1554. With the help of a local magistrate, they secured the use of a vacant church building. They held their first service on 29 July using a reformed liturgy drawn up by William Whittingham. The congregation adopted a semi-Presbyterian system where deacons were expected to preach.
At the request of local authorities in this Lutheran city, the English church order had been made to conform to the newly established French reformed church in Frankfurt. The French church included a number of
Following this continental reformed precedent, the English exiles in Frankfurt offered themselves as the model church for all the English in exile and put out a call for ministers from the other congregations. However, they had gone further than many of their countrymen would follow, particularly those in Strasbourg and Zürich who wanted to retain use of the second (1552) Edwardian Book of Common Prayer. For that reason the English Church at Frankfurt became preoccupied with disputes over the use of the prayer book and church order in general.
The chief members of the Frankfurt congregation during its existence were
All records of the group were destroyed in World War II with the Frankfurt city archives, and only partial transcripts from prior scholarship remain. These records disclose that native Frankfurters distrusted the English and suspected they were being used by members of the nobility to diminish the privileges of the burghers. The English were also accused of unfair commercial practices and of competing with local artisans—accusations which led to detailed censuses of the immigrants.
Troubles at Frankfurt
The organizational and liturgical differences between the English churches in exile soon led to protracted conflicts concentrated in Frankfurt. A particular clash between Richard Cox and John Knox came in time to stand for the general struggle between the Church of England and Presbyterian views.
Geneva
Led mainly by Knox, the largest, most politically and theologically radical concentration of English exiles was at Geneva, reaching a peak of 233 people or about 140 households. (This was approximately 2% of the city's population.) Names, dates of arrival, and other information is preserved in the Livre des Anglais (facsimile edition by Alexander Ferrier Mitchell), a folio manuscript kept at the Hotel de Ville of Geneva. New members admitted to the church numbered 48 in 1555, 50 in 1556, 67 in 1557, ten in 1558, and two in 1559. Seven marriages, four baptisms, and 18 deaths are recorded.[5]
This was the first English congregation to adopt the wholly Presbyterian form of discipline and worship that was resisted in Frankfurt. These forms and standards were printed in 1556 as the Book of Geneva which went through several editions after 1556 in Geneva and was in official use in the Church of Scotland from 1564 to 1645. Sometimes titled Book of Our Common Order, it is the basis for the modern Book of Common Order used by Presbyterian churches.
The English church in Geneva was also the scene of the
John Calvin proposed that the English exiles should hold their own services in the building where he delivered lectures, later known as the Calvin Auditory. This worship in English continues in the building to the present day, under the Church of Scotland.
Members of the English church in Geneva included
, Perceval Wiburne, and Robert Fills.- Ministers: Christopher Goodman (1555–1558), Anthony Gilby (1555), and John Knox (1556–1558)
- Elders: William Williams (1555–1558), Miles Coverdale(1558), and John Bodley (1557–1558)
- Deacons: John Staunton (1555–1556), Christopher Seburne (1555), Francis Withers (1556–1557), William Beauvoir (1556–1558), John Staunton (1556), John Pullein (1557), William Fuller (1557), Francis Willias (1558), Peter Willis (1558), and Whittingham (1558)
See also
- Puritanism
- Anglicanism
- Protestantism
- Vestments controversy
- Elizabethan Religious Settlement
- The Protestant Reformation
References
- ISBN 0-19-505979-4
- ^ George Edwin Horr (1910) "The Marian Exiles", Papers of the American Society of Church History, 2nd series, Vol.2, p.201, Putnam's, New York and London (Digitized by Google Books)
- ^ a b Christina Hallowell Garrett (1938) Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism, Cambridge University Press
- ISBN 0-520-03831-2
- ISBN 0-8204-3884-7
Sources
Primary
- A Briefe Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankeford in Germany (1575)
- John Knox, Of the Proceedings of the English Congregation at Frankfurt, in March 1555.
- John Strype, Annals of the Reformation.
- John Brett, A Narrative of the Pursuit of English Refugees in Germany Under Queen Mary.
Secondary
- William D. Maxwell, The Liturgical Portions of the Genevan Service Book used by John Knox While a Minister of the English Congregation of Marian Exiles at Geneva, 1556–1559. (London: The Faith Press, 1965.) [First published by Oliver and Boyd, 1931.]
- Frederick A. Norwood, "The Marian Exiles—Denizens or Sojourners?" Church History 13:2 (June 1944): 100–110.
- Brett Usher, "The Deanery of Bocking and the Demise of the Vestiarian Controversy," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 52.3 (July 2001): 434–455.
- Ronald J. Vander Molen, "Anglican Against Puritan: Ideological Origins during the Marian Exile," Church History 42.1 (March 1973): 45–57.
- Jonathan Wright, "Marian Exiles and the Legitimacy of Flight From Persecution," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 52.2 (April 2001): 220–43.