Reformation and Resistance: Authority and Order in England's Foreign Churches, 1550-1585

This thesis discusses relations between the stranger churches in England and their Protestant compatriots on the Continent with specific reference to the Netherlands between 1547 and 1585. It exposes the complex situation in which they found themselves as émigrés in England, first under Edward VI and, after a period of further exile, under Elizabeth I. They were a dispersed group of congregations of several different nationalities, all commonly referred to as 'stranger churches' in their English host communities. While the congregations of London were initially most important and certainly the wealthiest, this diaspora eventually came to spread to parts of Sussex, Kent, and East Anglia, not to mention outposts in the north and the west. The thesis employs sources relating to both London's foreign churches and these provincial congregations and also highlights documents other than the customary consistory records used in previous studies. Hence, there is discussion of the writings of Utenhove, Micronius, and van Haemstede which emphasised the importance of conversion while recognising the need for obedience to secular authorities. The thesis demonstrates the close degree of contact between the stranger churches and the Low Countries throughout this period and also points out how the relationship was placed under strain by the years leading up to the Dutch Revolt. Main findings challenge the assumption that the stranger churches automatically supported resistance in the Low Countries, reveal a number of practical and theological constraints in their thinking, and show how the dilemmas became more acute as open war approached. This thesis offers a refreshed narrative of relations between the stranger churches and the Low Countries, and emphasises the importance of religious thinking throughout rather than politics, and in so doing suggests different important turning points in the chronology.