Abstract
Land surfaces divide, seas unite — this paradoxical truth, borne out by history at so many points, also finds its substantiation in the relations between England and the Continent. The sea pre-eminently creates opportunities for large scale intercourse and transport. Presently, the particular occasions, which lead to the realization of these possibilities, arise, the mutual economic needs, the commercial spirit of adjacent peoples, their more or less aggressive imperialism, the striving after religious liberty, furthered — be it unintentionally — as well as thwarted, by intolerant governments. All these factors have contributed, now separately, now combined, towards the establishment, during the centuries, of active relations between England and the near part of the Continent, France and the Low Countries. They also led to settlement in the country overseas, the generally higher cultural standards on the Continent making for a larger influx of pioneers into England than in the reverse direction. We may pass over the developments in this respect in the Middle Ages1. That they were already significant at the beginning of the period with which this history deals, may be gathered from the preamble of a law of 1540: “the King, our most dread Sovereign Lord, calling unto his blessed remembrance the infinite number of strangers and aliens of foreign countries and nations which daily do increase and multiply, etc.”2
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References
A short survey in W. J. C. Moens, The marriage, baptismal and burial Registers, 1571–1874, and Monumental Inscriptions of the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars, London, Lymington 1884, p. IX fl.
John Southerden Bum, The history of the French, Walloon, Dutch and other Foreign Protestant Refugees, settled in England, from the reign of Henry VIII to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, etc., London 1846, p. 2. — An account of the commercial relations between England and the Low Countries in Ruytinck, Gheschiede-nissen, pp. 1-7.
See M. E. Kronenberg, Verboden boeken en opstandige drukkers in de Hervormings-tijd, Amsterdam 1948, p. 97–110.
Burn, History of the Refugees, p. 2.
Ibid., p. 253-263.
See for a description of à Lasco’s life the article à Lasco in Biographisch Woorden-bork van Protestantsche Godgeleerden in Nederland, Volume V, The Hague 1943, p. 592-615, with extensive references to sources.
German was a term which was applied to the inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands, Brabant and Flanders, and to all Low German speaking peoples.
We must not attach to this transition to the state of “denison” the significance attached to our term “naturalization”.
What follows has mainly been based on the very plausible reconstruction by Dr A. A. van Schelven, De Nederduitsche vluchtelingenkerken der XVIe eeuw in Enge-land en Duitschland en hunne beteekenis voor de Reformatie in de Nederlanden,’ s Gravenhage, 1909, pp. 59-64.
On the subject of these figures see F. Pijper, Jan Utenhove, His life and works, Leiden 1883, page 57 et seq. The figure 600-800 given there appears to me to be more acceptable than van Schelven’s estimate of over 500 (p. 69).
Archivum, II, p. 514.
Pijper, Utenhove, Appendix, p. LXVIII (letter from Utenhove to Bullinger).
Ibid., p. 62.
Ruytinck, Gheschiedenissen, p. 12.
Burn, History of the Refugees, p. 186. There is in the possession of the English Presbyterian Church a large painting representing King Edward VI handing over the Charter. The King is surrounded by a number of contemporary figures of the Reformation. According to an article in The Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England, May 1914, this painting dates, according to the unanimous and independent judgment of a number of experts, from the first half of the 17th century. The portrait of the King appears to have been copied from an older painting by Will. Stretes, a Dutch painter in the service of Edward VI which represented the bestowal of a similar royal favour. The likenesses of à Lasco and Knox (his inclusion in the picture is not correct) are taken from Icones by Theod. Baza.
See the work already mentioned, by F. Pijper, Jan Utenhove, etc.
It has often been reproduced in print, in the original Latin, and in translation. In Latin, amongst other publications in Archivum, III1, pages 4-7, in a translation in Ruytinck, Gheschiedenissen, pp. 12-16.
In Calvini Opera, Vol. XIII (Corp. Reform., Vol. XLI), Brunsv. 1875, col. 628 et seq.
In the stained glass window in what became the deacons’ room, the name “templum Jesu” remained preserved up to the time of the destruction in 1940.
That is the French-Walloon and the Dutch.
They had both been monks.
Viz. Gualterus Delenus (Wouter Delen).
See Van Schelven, De Vluchtelingenkerken, p. 69 et seq.
M. Woudstra. De Hollandsche Vreemdelingengemeente te Londen gedurende de eerste jaren van haar bestaan, Groningen 1908, p. 20.
See Burn, History of the refugees, pp. 24 et seq. The church in Threadneedle Street was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. For a picture of the rebuilt church see p. 24. Since then the French Community has moved twice, in 1841 to St. Martin-le-Grand, E.C., and in 1893 to Soho Square, W.
For what follows see W. A. Cater, The priory of Austin Friars, London, 1253–1538. Reprint from the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, March and June, 1912.
John Stow, Survey of London, edition Clarendon Press, London 1908, Vol. I, p. 177.
The legend in connection with this figure of ghostly apparitions, was still connected with the Church in the beginning of the 20 th century.
See Burn, History of the Refugees, p. 186 (based on Stow, Annals, ed. 1615, p. 288).
Erasmus to Andreas Ammonius, 11 Nov. 1511, from Cambridge, enquiring after a place where he could stay in London: “Fortassis apud Augustinienses aliquod est?” Compare P. S. Allen, Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Rotterod., Tom. I, Oxoniae 1906, p. 483.
Acta VII, f° 206 r°, VIII, f° 185 v°.
See for this description and. for a picture of contemporary life, amongst other works: M. St. Clare Byrne, Elizabethan life in town and country, London 1925; L. F. Salzman, England in Tudor Times, London 1926; Erich Marcks, Königin Elizabeth und ihre Zeit, Leipzig 1897 (Monographieën zur Weltgeschichte, II).
See concerning him Dr J. H. Gerretsen, Micronius, Nijmegen 1895.
It has been printed in the edition published by Dr. A. Kuyper of Johannis à Lasco Opera tarn edita quam inedita, Amstelod. 1866, Tom. II, p. 285–339.
Compare the writer’s article: Daniël Gerdes en zijn onderwijs in de Kerkgeschie-denis aan de Groninger Hoogeschool, in Historische Avonden, III, Groningen 1916, pp. 109–112, 118.
Van Schelven, De Vluchtehngenkerken, p. 73.
Pijper, Utenhove, p. 75, with the references.
The title (old Dutch) has been arrived at by reconstruction, as there is no copy extent of the 1551 edition. Later editions are from 1553 and 1565; compare Pijper, Utenhove, pp. 73 et seq.
Ibid., pp. 76 et seq. Included in à Lasco, Opera, ed. Kuyper, Tom. II, pp. 341-475.
M. Woudstra, De Hollandsche Vreemdelingengemeente te Londen, etc., pp. 74 et seq.
Included in à Lasco, Opera, ed. Kuyper, Vol. II, pp. 477–492.
Ruytinck, Gheschiedenissen, p. 85.
Kerkeraads-protocollen 1569–1571, pp. 277, 302, 306, 311. For extensive references to this procedure see Pijper, Utenhove, pp. 251-254; for the preceding tale of woe, pp. 213-234.
Van Schelven, De Vluchtelingenkerken, p. 104.
Ibid., pp. 74 et seq.
Pijper, Utenhove, p. 67.
The extent to wich the question of ceremonial occupied the minds of those inside the State Church, is evident from the so-called Garment Struggle. When in 1550 John Hoper, who inclined towards the Puritans, was appointed to the see of Gloucester, he objected to being installed wearing the vestments of an English bishop, which he held to be reminiscent of Rome. He thought that this was superstitious and this regulation, imposed by the State, to be an encroachment upon the liberty of the Church, which should be guided only by apostolic precept. This notorious struggle ended by Hoper giving in, after he had allowed the case to go to the length of his being incarcerated for opposing established authority. It is probable that the first manifestation of a fundamental difference, which would disturb the English State Church for centuries to come, contributed to the decision to debar the foreigners from the free exercise of their liturgy. Compare Pijper, Utenhove, p. 93-99.
Amongst other sources, the attack on their Communion teaching by the opponent Joachim Westphal, whom we will meet later.
The work has been republished, with an extensive introduction, by Dr. F. Pijper in Bibliotheca Reformatoria Neerlandica, Vol. IX, the Hague 1912, pp. 1-186. — Dr. Kuyper’s thesis that the “Narratio” was largely the work of à Lasco, is refuted by Pijper, Utenhove, pp. 175 et seq.
See J. H. Wessel, De leerstellige strijd tusschen Nederlandsche Gereformeerden en Doopsgezinden in de zestiende eeuw, Assen 1945, p. 169 et pass.
Pijper in Bibl. Ref. Neerl., IX, pp. 21 et seq. — Moreover: the Narratio is surely not only intended as a report on the happenings, but also as a piece of polemics.
Full title in Woudstra, De Holl. Vreemdelingengemeente, pp. 38 et seq. Compare pp. 90 et seq. The library of the Amsterdam University possesses a copy of the first edition; Van Schelven, De Vluchtelingenkerken, p. 81.
In à Lasco, Opera, ed. Kuyper, Vol. II, pp. 1–283.
Also the exposition by Woudstra, De Holl. Vreemdelingengemeente, pp. 85–89, offers no solution.
Pijper, Utenhove, p. 84.
Van Schelven, De Vluchtelingenkerken, pp. 81–101, deals with this extensively.
à Lasco, Opera, Vol. II, p. 50.
Indicated by Pijper, Utenhove, pp. 39–42.
Compare Woudstra, De Holt. Vreemdelingengemeentc, pp. 47 et seq.
See T. J. van Griethuysen, De ontzegging van het Avondmaal, aan de afsnijding voorafgaande, bij de Gereformeerde Kerken niet van den aanvang af in gebruik, tnaar eerst later in hare tucht-oefening opgenomen, in Studiën en Bijdragen, T. III (1876), pp. 294–340. — The refutation by Van Schelven, De Vluchtelingenkerken, pp. 100 seq. is not convincing in ray opinion.
See for Utenhove’s translation of the New Testament the extensive account by Pijper, Utenhove, pp. 114–142.
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© 1950 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Lindeboom, J. (1950). Founding and Subsequent Difficulties the First Years of the Community. In: Austin Friars. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8860-9_1
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