1 EDUCATION AND THE EARLY MODERN ENGLISH SEPARATISTS submitted by DAVID WILLIAM GURNEY, BD, BA, MA for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION 1998 2 ABSTRACT This study reassesses the significance of education in the lives and thinking of the early modern English Separatists. For this purpose, 'early modern' is construed as the period from the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558 to the outbreak of the First Civil War in 1642. ,The thesis first describes the origins, nature and development of Separatism during this period, and then sets the study in context by delineating the nature of education in those eight or so decades. In order to facilitate the handling of the material germane to the study, the leading original proponents of the distinctive Separatist ideology are considered in chapters three and four. Chapter three deals with the three men who in the late Tudor years set the parameters for the subsequent groVV'ch of a comprehensive and self-consistent Separatist philosophy. Chapter four examines the contributions of the 1 7 most prominent men who built on their work in the early Stuart period. The very fact of their prominence, however, entails the likelihood that they were better-educated than the majority of their fellow­ believers, and perhaps to that extent unrepresentative of them. The resulting possible distortion is therefore corrected by investigating the educational levels of 52 Separatist prisoners in London gaols at the turn of the ninth and tenth decades of the sixteenth century. Past work in this field has tended to a minimalist interpretation of the available evidence. This thesis concludes that both the 3 educational achievements of the first early modern English religious Separatists, and their attitudes to education, have been under­ estimated. It seeks to correct this misrepresentation with a judgement more closely corresponding to the evidence yielded by an objective review of the facts. 4 The expert guidance, constant support and unfailing courtesy of Professor Richard Aldrich, MA, MPhil, PhD, FRHistS of the University of London Institute of Education has been the single most significant factor in this undertaking. I place on record my deepest appreciation of all his help and encouragement throughout the whole course of my research, from its conception to its completion. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 6 Chapter 1 The Nature of Separatism in the period 37 1558-1642 Chapter 2 The Nature of Education in the period 78 1558-1642 Chapter 3 Case Studies of Leading Figures - 166 I: The First Wave - Browne, Harrison and Barrow Chapter 4 Case Studies of Leading Figures - 220 II: The Second Wave - From Greenwood to Owen Chapter 5 Case Studies of Individual Prisoners 282 Conclusion 331 Bibliography 345 T ABLES AND ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL Analysis from the Educational Perspective of Leading 21 9 First Wave Separatists Analysis from the Educational Perspective of Leading 269 Second Wave Separatists Names, Occupations and Occupational Groupings of 122 322 Separatists imprisoned in London between 1587 and 1593 Map of Locations mentioned in this Thesis of Separatist 329 Activity in England between 1560 and 1640 6 INTRODUCTION Consideration of the attitude of the early modern English Separatists to education requires prior establishment of their viability as a distinct, identifiable component of late 16th and early 17th century English society. The requirement highlights the difficulties facing the historian of a tiny, outlawed minority; their minute size and their illegality combined to make it likely that they would be of sufficient interest to attract the attention of only a few contemporary commentators. Indeed, it could be politically dangerous to show undue interest in them or their views, unless it were with the intention of denigrating them. Thus it is that such evidence as is still available 400 years later has been preserved largely in the context of the desire of hostile witnesses to present their protagonists in as unfavourable a light as possible. Assessment of the significance of these people is therefore constrained by the random accident of whether or not they came to the notice of the authorities. Some were considered to be more worthy of persecution than others; but persecution was obviously dependent on detection. It must also be borne in mind that the first Separatists were originally obscure individuals of whom very little is known. At the same time, the religious thought and politics of the century or so before the outbreak of the English Civil Wars in 1642 has been the subject of extensive investigation in recent decades. The fruits of this work have been accessed in the comprehensive 7 holdings of Dr. Williams's Library, the Public Record Office, Lambeth Palace Library, the Guildhall Library, the Greater London Record Office and Canterbury Cathedral Library. However, the great majority of the manuscript sources, primary texts and secondary material available for consultation concentrate on the political, theological or social aspects of the religious controversies of the period. Specific educational interests are mostly though not solely, of peripheral concern. Establishment of the viability of the first English Separatists as a coherent element in the life of their times depends on the delineation of the late Elizabethan and early Stuart religious movements in which they first emerged. Elizabeth I faced a very delicate situation on her accession to the throne in 1558. The persecution of Protestants during the preceding reign of her half­ sister Mary I had run into gross excesses. Expectations for the new reign were accordingly pitched at similarly overblown levels; they were as dangerous for Elizabeth to ignore as they were impossible for her to meet. Her over-riding needs were first, the preservation of her throne for herself and then, running that a close second, the establishment of a secure dynasty for the safety of the nation. The combined pressure of these two imperatives meant that it would be courting almost certain disaster to appear to favour either the Roman Catholic or the Protestant side in the titanic struggle then engulfing the European mainland. This struggle had already taken England from Henry VIII's English Catholicism, first 8 to the left-of-centre Protestantism of Edward VI's reign, and then to the far-right Romanism of Mary I's rule. Elizabeth and her advisers were therefore driven by circumstances to seek, and if necessary impose by force, a political solution to a religious problem. The result was the establishment of a church co­ terminous with the nation, to which all were deemed to belong. Its ceremonial looked to Rome, and its doctrine derived from Geneva but - and this was crucial - as many as possible of the issues likely to generate divisive controversy were couched in ambivalent terminology which allowed interpretations to suit as wide a range of tastes as possible. The survival in recognisable form of this Church of England for more than four centuries must be acknowledged as a measure of the success of Elizabeth's policy - though its surprisingly easy initial acceptance by the great majority of the population probably betokens a combination of religious indifference and theological ignorance. Inevitably, however, there were two wings of disaffection, the Protestant and the Roman Catholic. In general terms, the Protestant party made the best of the running for the first three decades of the reign, starting with the restoration in 1559 of Edward VI's 1549 Prayer Book and the passing, also in 1559, of the Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy. Then in 1571 royal authority was given to the Thirty-Nine Articles (reduced by Convocation in 1563 from Edward VI's Forty Two), and in 1575 the Protestant-sympathising Edmund Grindal was appointed Archbishop 9 of Canterbury. This ascendancy of the Protestant interest was greatly aided by developments on the political front, and notably in the realm of foreign affairs. The interlocking influences of the Counter­ Reformation and the Hapsburg drive for hegemony in Europe converged to present Englishmen and women with a renewed threat of the Spanish domination from which they had only so recently escaped when Mary I died in 1558. Patriotic feeling appears to have played fully as great a part as, if not a greater part than, Protestant fervour in the unexpected acquiescence of the nation at large in the Elizabethan settlement of religion. Voices were, however, raised against it. Roman Catholics, convinced of Elizabeth's illegitimacy, looked for an unaltered continuation of the full-blooded papalism of the previous reign. They were not mollified by such minor concessions as some modifications to the 1549 Prayer Book, the queen's assumption of the title 'Supreme Governor' instead of 'Head' of the church, the selective administration of the Oath of Supremacy, or the retention of vestments in worship. No fewer than 13 bishops refused to accept the compromise. Roman Catholic discontent took concrete form in the rising of the northern earls in 1569; but its collapse in defeat must have encouraged the enthusiasts at the other end of the religious spectrum. Under the influence of the Marian exiles returned from the continent, they confidently, but ultimately unsuccessfully, pressed for completion of the reformation of the 10 church, which they regarded as but half-begun. The effectiveness of their campaign was diluted by successive splits into Puritans, willing to stay in the Church of England in the hope of being able to forward further reform from within: Presbyterians, intent on replacing episcopacy with the synodical form of church government favoured by the continental reformers and John Knox in Scotland: and the Separatists, convinced that the issues at stake were of such over-riding importance that they would brook neither half­ measures nor delay.