Abstract
This essay examines the culture and power of epistolarity among the Protestant communities ‘under the Cross’ in France from 1547 to 1559, and in England from 1553 to 1558. It is based on research undertaken in the British Academy John Foxe Project. In the case of the English martyrologist, John Foxe, we have surviving manuscript materials and scribal copies from the print-shop of John Day, which enable us to reconstruct the epistolary culture and circulatory practices from which the letters of the martyrs were derived. A comparison of these extant manuscript materials with what was published reveals how Foxe and his collaborator, John Bull, edited and altered the texts for publication and the article suggests reasons for these alterations. For his French counterpart, Jean Crespin, no such evidence now survives, although it is clear from the published editions of his martyrology that such communities and networks also existed, and probably such editorial practices too. The ‘letters of the martyrs’ published by Crespin and Foxe give us a correspondence corpus that reveals the significance of the letter as a way of creating a vicarious faith-community. They reveal how letters cemented relationships and communities in the face of persecution by the authorities, even when their authors were in prison. Although their impact on the formation of a distinctive Protestant epistolary culture cannot be determined, it may have helped to put in place some tonalities and points of reference.
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Notes
- 1.
For the project, see the published edition of ‘The Acts and Monuments Online’ (TAMO), published on 30 June 2011 at http://www.johnfoxe.org. I acknowledge the financial assistance of the Pilgrim Trust, UK and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for the research undertaken in connection with this paper. An enlarged version of this paper was published in collaboration with the project officer, Thomas Freeman, as ‘Scribal Communication and Scribal Publication in early Calvinism: the evidence of the letters of the martyrs’ in Irene Dingel and Hermann J. Selderhuis (eds), Calvin und Calvinismus . Europäische Perspektiven. Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Beihefte, Band 84 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2011), pp. 394–418. Parts of the material are reworked here with the permission of that publisher. Dr Thomas Freeman undertook some of the transcriptions from Emmanuel College Cambridge manuscripts referred to; Dr Thomas Leng typed them up. Their assistance is also gratefully acknowledged.
- 2.
Miles Coverdale, The Letters of the Martyrs: Collected and Published in 1564, ed. Edward Bickersteth (London: John F. Shaw, 1837), xxv, thereafter LM; see also Miles Coverdale [viz: John Bull], ‘The Preface to the Reader’, Certain Most Godly, Fruitful and Comfortable Letters of Such True Saintes and holy Martyrs of God… (1564), Aiij, thereafter Bull.
- 3.
Edict of Châteaubriant, June 1551, in Recueil des anciennes lois françaises, ed. F.A. Isambert, 29 vols (Paris, 1821–1823), 13: 203–4.
- 4.
Jean Calvin, Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. G. Baum, E. Cunitz et al., 59 vols (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1964) 14: n° 1631, thereafter CO.
- 5.
Jean Calvin, Ioannis Calvini Epistolae et Responsa… (Geneva, 1575).
- 6.
CO, 14, n° 1825 (12 Oct. 1553); 15, n° 1977 (19 June 1554).
- 7.
John Foxe, Rerum in Ecclesia gestarum… (Basel, 1559).
- 8.
[Nicholas Ridley], A frendly farewel which Master Doctor Ridley, late Bishop of London did write beinge prisoner in Oxeforde, vnto all his true louers and frendes in God (1559), Short Title Catalogue n° 21051, thereafter STC.
- 9.
John Foxe, Acts and Monuments… (1563), 1450, thereafter A&M followed by date of the relevant edition.
- 10.
[John Hooper], An Apologye Made by the Reuerende Father and Constante Martyr of Christe Iohn Hooper Late Bishop of Gloceter and Worceter Againste the Vntrue and Sclaunderous Report… (1562), STC 13742.
- 11.
A&M (1563), B6r–v.
- 12.
British Library Additional Manuscript 19,400, thereafter BL Add. MS; Emmanuel College, Cambridge MSS 260–2, thereafter ECC. The college library’s special collections are closed for extensive refurbishment (2009–2011). I have worked from microfilm copies of them.
- 13.
This article contains a more extensive analysis of those letters which Foxe did not publish and constitutes an earlier recension of this current piece. I am grateful to the editors for permission to reconstitute the main argument here.
- 14.
ECC MS 260, fols 45r–46r; 59r–62v; see also, 66r–67r; 83r–84v.
- 15.
Printed in Bull, 280 et seq [LM, 215–9]. This is an example of a letter printed initially by Bull but then followed by Foxe (1570), 1817 et seq.
- 16.
ECC MS 260, fols 45r–46r: ‘Verbum domini manet in eternum’.
- 17.
ECC MS 260, fols 59r–62v—the copy includes an important note added by Tims, not included in any of the published version of the letter.
- 18.
ECC MS 260, fol. 48r.
- 19.
ECC MS 260, fols 144r–145v for Punt; ECC MS 260, fol. 261v for the Careless reference: ‘it was ye wont off one to convey my letters unto you for I had forgot where he dwelled that was sent from yo[u]r ladyship unto me., And agayne he told me, yt he had been here to have spoken w[i]t[h] me: but ye keper wold not let hym to speake w[i]t[h] me, so that we bothe have our excuses…’.
- 20.
For the removal of names, see for instance BL Add MS 19,400, fols 69r–70r; ECC MS 260, fols 65r–v.
- 21.
ECC MS 260, fols 80r–81v.
- 22.
ECC MS 260, fol. 57r.
- 23.
ECC MS 260, fols 236r–v.
- 24.
For instance, ECC MS 260, fols 73r–74v (John Bradford to Joyce Hales); fols 49r–50r (Anne Knyvet to John Careless).
- 25.
ECC MS 260, fols 34r–37r.
- 26.
ECC MS 260, fols 47r–48v [John Simpson to a scattered congregation].
- 27.
For instance, ECC MS 260, fols 49r–50r [Anne Knyvet to John Careless]; 130r–131v [John Careless to protestant prisoners in Newgate]; 132r–133v [John Careless to Magery Cooke]; BL Add MS 19,400, fols 76r–77v [Joyce Hales to John Careless].
- 28.
ECC MS 260, fols 87r–v.
- 29.
CO 16, n° 2118 (Feb. 1555); see also Lettres de Jean Calvin, recueillies pour la première fois et publiées d’après les manuscrits originaux par Jules Bonnet. Lettres françaises, 3 vols, ed. Jules Bonnet (Paris: Meyrueis, 1854) 2: 14–6. On Jean Vertunien de Lavau’s connections with Basel, Castellio and Servetus, see E. Droz, ‘Les étudiants français de Bâle’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et de la Renaissance 20 (1958): 108–42.
- 30.
CO 16, n° 2118 (Feb. 1555).
- 31.
Bull, 73 [LM, 54].
- 32.
Bull, 195 [LM, 148].
- 33.
LM, 207; see also, 225.
- 34.
Jean Crespin, Histoire des vrays tesmoins de la verité de l’Evangile… (1570; Liège: Centre National de Recherches d’Histoire Religieuse, 1964), Book 7, fol. 611v, thereafter Crespin.
- 35.
Crespin, Book 3, fol. 182.
- 36.
Bull, 229; LM, 176.
- 37.
A&M (1563), 1418.
- 38.
A&M (1570), 1696.
- 39.
Bull, 374; LM, 287.
- 40.
See especially, Thomas S. Freeman, ‘The Rise of Prison Literature’, 133–46.
- 41.
Crespin, fol. 182.
- 42.
Bull, 70 [LM, 51].
- 43.
Bull, 115 [LM, 86].
- 44.
Crespin, fol. 214v.
- 45.
Bull, 80–111 [LM, 59–84].
- 46.
Bull, 204–5 [LM, 156–7].
- 47.
Bull, 453 [LM, 347].
- 48.
For instance, ECC MS 260 fols 11r, 40r, 72r; BL Add MSS 19,400, fols 66r, 76r, 78r, 84r.
- 49.
Crespin, fols 201–2r.
- 50.
Bull, 197 [LM, 89].
- 51.
Bull, 205 [LM, 157].
- 52.
Bull, 282 [LM, 217].
- 53.
Crespin, fols 198r–v.
- 54.
Bull, 287 [LM, 221].
- 55.
Bull, 311 [LM, 238].
- 56.
Bull, 319 [LM, 245].
- 57.
Crespin, fol. 202v.
- 58.
Bull, 119 [LM, 89].
- 59.
Bull, 126 [LM, 95].
- 60.
Bull, 184 [LM, 140].
- 61.
Bull, 381 [LM, 293].
- 62.
Crespin, fol. 247v.
- 63.
Crespin, fols 236r–v.
- 64.
LM, 112–20.
- 65.
Crespin, fols 250r–v.
- 66.
LM, 149–50.
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Greengrass, M. (2013). Scribal Networks and Sustainers in Protestant Martyrology. In: Dunan-Page, A., Prunier, C. (eds) Debating the Faith: Religion and Letter Writing in Great Britain, 1550-1800. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 209. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5216-0_2
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