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English Attitudes Toward Continental Protestants with Particular Reference to Church Briefs C.1680-1740

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English Attitudes Toward Continental Protestants with Particular Reference to Church Briefs C.1680-1740 English Attitudes toward Continental Protestants with Particular Reference to Church Briefs c.1680-1740 By Sugiko Nishikawa A Dissertation for the degree of Ph. D. in the University of London 1998 B CL LO\D0 UNIV Abstract Title: English Attitudes toward Continental Protestants with Particular Reference to Church Briefs c.1680-1740 Author: Sugiko Nishikawa It has long been accepted that the Catholic threat posed by Louis X1V played an important role in English politics from the late seventeenth century onwards. The expansionist politics of Louis and his attempts to eliminate Protestants within his sphere of influence enhanced the sense of a general crisis of Protestantism in Europe. Moreover news of the persecution of foreign Protestants stimulated a great deal of anti-popish sentiment as well as a sense of the need for Protestant solidarity. The purpose of my studies is to explore how the English perceived the persecution of continental Protestants and to analyse what it meant for the English to be involved in various relief programmes for them from c. 1680 to 1740. Accordingly, I have examined the church briefs which were issued to raise contributions for the relief of continental Protestants, and which serve as evidence of Protestant internationalism against the perceived Catholic threat of the day. I have considered the spectrum of views concerning continental Protestants within the Church; in some attitudes evinced by clergymen, there was an element which might be called ecclesiastical imperialism rather than internationalism. At the same time I have examined laymen's attitudes; this investigation of the activities of the SPCK, one of the most influential voluntary societies of the day, which was closely concerned with continental Protestants, fulfills this purpose. In the eighteenth century the Church of England became more reluctant to get involved with the foreign Protestants and applications from them for fund raising tended to fail to obtain support. Nevertheless when an application for a brief was turned down, the SPCK in some cases stepped in, until the time came when its Protestant internationalism, inherited from the age of Louis XIV, also faded away. Contents Page Acknowledgments 1 Abbreviations U Note on Style 111 Introduction 1 1. Church Briefs for Continental Protestants c.1680-1702 15 2. Church Briefs for Continental Protestants after William ifi 64 3. Henry Compton and the European Perspective of High Church 131 4. The SPCK and its European Perspective 178 5. Anglican Supporters on the Continent 238 Conclusion 259 Bibliography 262 Map 281 Acknowledgments In the research for this dissertation, I have been assisted by many institutions and individuals. My research was funded by a Canon foundation fellowship, a research fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists and a scholarship for Huguenot research of the French Protestant Church, London. My greatest academic debt has been to my supervisor, Dr Nicholas Tyacke. I am most grateful for his patience, guidance and criticism. Dr Julian Hoppit firstly suggested the topic and provided me with several valuable suggestions. I am deeply grateful for scholars and staffs who I have met during my work at libraries and archives. I would like especially thank Randolph Vigne of the Huguenot Society for his generous suggestions and help. Gabriella Lazier at the Societa di Studi Valdesi, Mary Gundlach at the Deutsches Hugenotten Museum Bad Karishafen, and A. Maclame Pont, the Comité Vaudois, the Netherlands, greatly assisted me to find documents. I am also grateful to the late Gordon Huelin and other staff at the SPCK who allowed me to consult its records. Throughout the course of this study I have received valuable help and encouragement from friends and colleagues. My oldest friend, Madoka Kinoshita provided me with graphs, tables and a map in this thesis. Eugene Byrne and Carla van Dort helped me in my struggle with foreign languages. My greatest debt is my parents. This dissertation is dedicated to them with love and gratitude. Ii Abbreviations BL British Library Bod Bodleian Library, Oxford BPU Bibliotheque publique et universitaire, Geneva Cal. S. P. Dom. Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series Cal. Tr. Books Calendar of Treasury Books Cal. Tr. Papers Calendar of Treasury Papers CLRO Corporation of London Records Office, London GL Guildhall Library, London GRO Gloucestershi re Record Office, Gloucester LPL Lambeth Palace Library, London PHS Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London (up to 1985), Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland (after 1985) PRO Pubtic Record Office, London S RO Staffordshire Record Office, Stafford ssv Societã di Studi Valdesi, Torre Pellice UA Unitatsarchiv, Herrnhut USPG United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Archives, Oxford III Note on Style Dates are given in Old Style (OS) as to the events in Britain, while dates on the continent are given in New Style (NS), except where indicated. The year is taken as starting on 1 January rather than 25 March, the English New Year in Old Style. Spelling and capitalisation of seventeenth and eighteenth century material are modernised, except the titles of publications. 1 Introduction It has long been accepted that the Catholic threat posed by Louis X1V played an important role in English politics from the late seventeenth century onwards. The expansionist policies of Louis and his attempts to eliminate Protestants within his sphere of influence enhanced the sense of a general crisis of Protestantism in Europe. Moreover news of the persecution of foreign Protestants, together with a large influx of Huguenot refugees into England, stimulated a great deal of anti-popish sentiment as well as a sense of the need for Protestant solidarity. With the accession of James II, his pro- Catholic policy, though involving also toleration for dissenters, accelerated anxiety about the future of English Protestantism, and contributed to the events of 1688 and 'the Glorious Revolution.' 1 However, insufficient attempts have been made hitherto to analyse in detail the precise nature of the response to the general crisis of Protestantism in Europe. Given the English concern with these continental developments, it is striking how few studies have so far been made of the response to the crisis from the English point of view. 2 As a member of the European-wide 1 For discussion of international developments in the 1680s, see John Carswell, The Descent on England (London, 1969); Andrew Lossky, 'The General European Crisis of the 1680s', European History Review, 10 (1980); Jonathan 1. Israel ed., The Anglo-Dutch Moment Essays on the Glorious Revolution and its World Impact (Cambridge, 1991); J . F. Bosher, 'The Franco-Catholic Danger, 1660-17 15', History, 79 (1994). For the Catholic factor in Restoration England, see John Miller, Popery and Politics in England, 1660- 1688 (Cambridge, 1973). 2 Along with Israel, op. cit., the articles in Ragnhild Hatton and J. S. Bromley eds, William III and Louis XIV: Essays 1680-1 720 by and for Mark A. Thomson (Liverpool, 1968) still provide useful insights into English involvement with continental affairs of the period. As to the ecclesiastical aspect, Norman Sykes noted that developments in the Church of England of the period were very much affected by relations with the foreign Protestant churches. See Norman Sykes,The Church of England and Non-episcopal Churches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: An Essay towards an historical 2 Protestant community England had been engaged in a long battle against Catholicism since the late sixteenth century which, if it cannot necessarily be described as an open war of religion, was at least a cold war. Thus, financial support was regularly offered to the distressed foreign brethren, and plans for Protestant union in Europe, from a military level to an ecclesiastical one, existed throughout the period. When William of Orange ascended the English throne, the conflict with France, into which the English were plunged, was seen by many as a religious war, and the Williamite propagandists willingly exploited this in order to justify English coninutment to the European-wide war against France. 3 Their accounts were couched in strongly Protestant language: free Protestant England was set against popery and the tyranny of France, and the current European situation was interpreted in terms of Protestant countries ranged against Popish ones. The fact that William's alliance included the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain, and moreover that they had the Pope's blessing as well, were often conveniently forgotten. These views were reinforced by the increasing religious polarisation of the allies of Wi ham III, and later Anne, Interpretation of the Anglican Tradition from Whitgift to Wake (London, 1949); do., 'Ecumenical Movements in Great Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries', A History of the Ecumenical Movement, eds Ruth Rouse and S. C. Neill (London, 1954); do., Old Priest and New Presbyter (Cambridge, 1955); do., 'Godly Union and Concord', in do., From Sheldon to Secker: Aspects of English Church History 1660-1 768 (Cambridge, 1959). Although more specialised, two articles of Eamon Duffy, "Correspondence Fraternelle'; The SPCK, the SPG, and the Churches of Switzerland in the War of the Spanish Succession', Studies in Church History, Subsidia, 2 (1979) and 'The Society of [sic] Promoting Christian Knowledge and Europe: The Background to the Founding of the Christentumsgesellschaft', Pietism us und Neuzeit, 7 (1981 provide valuable insights into English efforts to safeguard the Protestant community on the continent in the eighteenth century. 3 For the Protestant aspect of William Ill's propaganda and its link with his foreign policy, see Tony Claydon, William III and the Godly Revolution (Cambridge, 1996), especially chap. 4. 3 on the one side, against the allies of the Jacobite claimants and Louis XIV on the other.4 Protestant internationalism became an official banner.
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