The Liturgy and Order of the Mid‐Sixteenth Century English Church in Geneva Some reflections on the life and influence of a Refugee church Robert Jackson Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the MTh degree, Ecclesiology, at the University of Stellenbosch Supervisor: Dr Robert Vosloo March 2012 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously submitted it at any university for a degree. Signature: March 2012 Copyright © 2012 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Summary What are the predominant characteristics of the Refugee churches established in Europe in the mid‐sixteenth century? They are, undoubtedly, those of disputation and argument, dissension and fraction. But there are exceptions, the most notable of which is the English church in Geneva, which was formed in the autumn of 1555 and whose life officially ended when the last English exiles left Geneva in the spring of 1560. The origins of the church lay in the conflicts that had arisen over liturgy in the English church at Frankfurt and these conflicts continued later in Elizabethan England when the Marian exiles, many of them from Geneva, endeavoured to impose their vision of a truly Reformed church on the church of their homeland. For a short period – between the time spent at Frankfurt and the return to England – the English exiles in Geneva were a peaceable community at home with their maker and each other and created there a church that was broad rather than narrow in sympathy. The absence of conflict appears to have enlarged understanding and tolerance of others rather than narrowed it. This had much to do with the liturgy of the church which was one centered on prayer. It was also a liturgy that emphasized practicality, participation and community. The order of the church reflected its liturgy with, in a limited sense, a democratic rather than an authoritarian flavour. The failure of the Marian exiles to impose their view of a truly reformed church on the Elizabethan Church of England reminds us of the alternative approach to ecclesiological arrangements adopted in the Netherlands. While the Dutch Reformed church became the officially established public church of the Netherlands, it was nevertheless accepted, from inception, that only a minority of the population would become communicating members, a situation which has more flavour of the twentieth century than the sixteenth. But the ecclesiological arrangements in the Netherlands were unique and it is sad to record that the effect of the refugee churches was to harden confessional differences between Protestants of the Reformed and Lutheran traditions, making unity between them increasingly unlikely. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………... 1 1.1 Background………………………………………………………………….... 1 1.2 Topic…...…………………………………………………………………….… 2 1.3 Research Problem and Hypothesis ………………………………….……... 2 1.4 Methodology ………………………………………………………………..... 3 1.5 Structure …………………………………………………………………..…... 4 Chapter 2. The pre‐history of the English church in Geneva – the English church at Frankfurt………………………………………………………………….............…... 5 Chapter 3. The life of the English Church in Geneva …...……………………......... 39 3.1 The Geneva Background ……..………………………………………..…..... 39 3.2 The English church in Geneva – Its beginnings and its nature….....…..... 44 3.3 Activities of the English exiles in Geneva……………..………...………..... 51 Chapter 4. The Liturgy and Order of the English church in Geneva .........….......... 63 4.1 ‘Forme of the Common Prayers’ – Confession of Faith – Prayers ….….... 63 4.2 The Order of the church ………………………………………...……...….… 70 4.3 The Discipline ……………………..…………………………....………….…. 73 4.4 The Morning Service – Prayers ……………………………………..….....… 76 4.5 The Sacraments and other rites of the church …………………….......….... 79 4.5.1 The Order of Baptism ………………………………………….......… 79 4.5.2 The manner of the Lord’s Supper …………………………...…........ 85 4.5.3 The forme of Marriage ……………………………………..……........ 88 4.5.4 The visitation of the Sicke …………………………………...…......... 90 4.5.5 Of Buriall ……………………………………………………..........….. 93 4.5.6 ‘Music’ ……...………………………………………………….......…... 94 4.6 Liturgy and Order and the life of the church …………...……………......... 95 4.6.1 Liturgy .………………………………………………...…………......... 95 4.6.2 Order .............................................……………………...……...…......... 99 4.6.3 Liturgy and the Theology of the English exiles in Geneva............... 101 4.6.4 The last days of the English church in Geneva ……….…................. 110 Chapter 5. Some comparisons with other Refugee Churches ………….…........….. 117 5.1 The Stranger Churches in London ……………………………….......……... 117 5.2 The English church at Emden ………………………………….....….….…... 127 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za 5.3 The English Church at Frankfurt 1555‐1558 ……………………….............. 132 5.4 The Refugee Churches in Wesel …………………………………........….... 137 5.5 The English Aftermath – Aarau …………………………………....…........... 141 5.6 The Flemish and Walloon Refugee churches in Frankfurt ……....….…..... 143 5.7 The Stranger churches in London – The aftermath ……………..…..…...... 149 5.7.1 Doctrinal and other disputes ……………………………….…...…... 151 5.7.2 Political and economic regulation ……………………………........... 154 5.7.3 The social and welfare work of the consistories ……………..…..... 155 Chapter 6. Conclusions …………………………………………....…….…………….. 157 Bibliography …………………………………………………………....…………......... 162 Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 164 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background: The Refugee churches in mid XVI century Europe were the product of persecution, undertaken by defenders of the traditional church, against supporters of the Reformed faith. It has been said that in the Netherlands, more martyrs suffered for the Christian faith than in any other country, “Charles V’s determination to root out heresy might be frustrated in Germany, but in his hereditary Netherlands the evangelicals had no powerful patrons to intercede for them.”1 It was thus from the Netherlands that Walloon (French speaking) and Dutch (Low German speaking) refugees, fleeing persecution, became the shock troops of the Refugee churches established in Germany. At the period we are considering, Germany was part of the Empire, which in the sixteenth century encompassed most of Western Europe outside of France and England. But the Empire was wide and fissiparous. There were parts of it where traditional rights of local princes or city authorities resulted in a certain tolerance of the Reformed faith ‐ a fact of vital importance to Protestant refugees ‐ that would not otherwise have been accepted by the Emperor Charles V. France also produced its own Protestant refugees and, though far less numerous than their French speaking Walloon counterparts, they were large enough to constitute the basis of the first refugee church, founded in Strasbourg as early as 1538. These same refugees also fled beyond the lands of Charles V and in England became the basis of the Stranger Churches founded in London in England during the reign of the very protestant Edward VI (1547‐53).This movement of peoples, however, became a two way trade when the death of this young king in 1553 saw a reversal of the flight of religious refugees across the English channel. Protestants, fleeing the persecution of Mary Tudor, a vigorous defender of the traditional church, then established refugee churches in various parts of the Empire. The life of the churches formed by English Protestant refugees was, however, short, their members returning to England on the accession of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth in 1558. In contrast, the lives of the Walloon and Dutch refugee churches were, in some cases, somewhat more long lasting; only towards the end of the century was Protestantism established in the Netherlands and then only in the northern part of the country. The churches formed of this diaspora occasionally lived on beyond the early ‐ modern period. Indeed, the Dutch church in London exists to the present day.2 1.2 Topic: This thesis examines the liturgy and order of the mid‐XVIth century English church in Geneva, and compares it to that of the major refugee churches elsewhere. The events mentioned above, as well as the Edict of Nantes (1598) in France, act as a sort of time boundary to our study. It is not the intention of this thesis to examine in any detail the lives of the refugee churches ‐ where they continued to exist ‐ into the late XVIth century and beyond. 1 Carter Lindberg, The European Reformations, p.283. 2 Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton, eds, From Strangers to Citizens, p.1 Introduction. 1 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za The phrase refugee church perhaps requires definition. As defined here a refugee church is understood as a church founded outside the country of origin of its members for their own use. Thus, in Strasbourg in the mid sixteenth century there was a Reformed church, but there was also a Reformed refugee church in the city for French speakers. In Geneva in the 1550’s there was also a Reformed church. But the French Protestant refugees who overran the city at this time worshipped with the