From Wesel to Aarau: a case of a community of English emigrants (1555–1558)

Moroz Timofey Olegovich ORCID: 0009-0007-3779-0690 Postgraduate student; Faculty of History; Lomonosov Moscow State University 119234, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky ave., 27 building 4, office G-402 moroz.timofey.o@gmail.com

introduction

The topic of English Protestant emigration to the continent during the reign of Mary I Tudor (15531558) has long attracted the attention of researchers as an important episode in the history of reformation transformations in England and more broadly in Europe. Thus, the discussions that split the English evangelical movement are connected with the emigrant communities of this time, which include the birth of Puritanism, the compilation of a new translation of the Bible into English (the Geneva Bible of 1560), and the activities of such major reformation leaders as John Knox. When referring to such subjects, two centers of emigration – Frankfurt am Main and Geneva - come into the researcher's field of view first of all. However, this article will focus primarily on the mechanisms of organizing emigration, the role of personal ties between English and European Protestants in the functioning of these mechanisms, the relationship between the social composition of the community and its needs, the relationship between emigrants and their new social environment – both with city magistrates and representatives of the clergy, and with the population of European cities. We will address the above issues based on the material of the British community, which first stayed in Wesel, then in Aarau, but before doing this, it is necessary to determine the place of this community in the English emigrant movement of the era.

It seems advisable to identify three main areas of British emigration to the continent during the reign of Mary Tudor: German-Swiss, French, and Italian. These three streams differ both in scope and in the social composition and behaviors characteristic of the participants in the movement. The first was the largest and most diverse in composition: the leading role in this flow was played by nobles and representatives of the clergy and students, but among the emigrants there were both artisans and merchants. At the same time, France and Italy were chosen mainly by the nobility. But if the Valois possessions became the refuge of adventurers who counted on the continuation of the armed struggle against Mary I, then Italy, on the contrary, attracted those who quite sincerely or demonstratively sought to distance themselves from political and religious upheavals, to move away from a troubled homeland, to get an education in the broadest sense of the word. The communities formed in the cities of Germany and Switzerland were stable, included entire families and households, and the organization of church life played a special role in their formation. One of these communities is the one that settled in Aarau. In total, five significant emigration centers were initially formed in the lands of Germany and Switzerland: Frankfurt, Emden, Wesel, Strasbourg and Zurich, but over time three more appeared: Geneva and Basel, where some of the British moved from Frankfurt (although the first emigrants appeared in these cities already in 1554) and Aarau, where a large part moved part of the community expelled from Wesel.

Speaking about the sources that shed light on the fate and composition of the community that settled in Aarau, we have to state: they are few in number. Valuable information about how the movement of migrants was organized and the search for a new place to house the community is contained in Thomas Lever's correspondence with Heinrich Bullinger and Rudolf Gwalter. The composition of the community becomes known from two lists of emigrants who were in the city: a list compiled by a certain Hans D?r (also Th?r), who probably held a high position in the city, and a list compiled by the city magistrate. The sources originating from Aarau, not counting the Dura list, were first published in the work of K. H. Garrett ^[11]. Among them are two undated documents: permission to use the Stadtkirche church on Sundays, as well as, apparently, a copy of a passport prepared by the Bern authorities intended for the English community.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HISTORIOGRAPHY

For a long time, the English Protestant emigration to the continent during the counter-reformation of Mary I did not become the subject of a separate in-depth study. However, due to the fact that this story was assessed as one of the key ones in the history of the Reformation in England and the development of Puritanism, various aspects of it were highlighted in general works, works on the history of the Puritan movement, biographical works about its leaders. A special group consists of monographs by European authors devoted to individual centers of emigration and written from the middle of the XIX to the beginning of the XX century on the basis of archival materials from these cities (some of these materials were published in the course of this work). In this group, publications by T. Heyer (Geneva) ^{[14, P. 337-390]}, R. Jung (Frankfurt) ^[15], Vetter (Zurich) ^{[24, 25]} and Martin (Geneva) ^[17] can be distinguished.

The work of K. H. Garrett should be put in the first place in this review ^[11]. The importance of this work for the study of Protestant emigration is difficult to overestimate. Published twice, in 1938 and 1966, the work aimed to create a collective portrait of English emigration, in fact, a prosopographic database, the author relied on a wide range of both English and continental European sources. Special attention to K. H. Garrett also paid attention to the English emigrants in Aarau, determining the social composition of the community and tracing its movement.

Further works devoted to emigration in general, and attracting the material of the English community in Aarau, in particular, touched on a wide range of problems: from the socio-economic integration of English emigrants in Europe ^{[19, 20]} to the peculiarities of their stay in separate emigration centers, the development of religious movements in the emigrant environment and the relations of emigrants with European Protestants ^{[9, 16, 18, 21, 26]}.

GOALS:

To identify and investigate, based on the material of the community of English emigrants in Aarau, the factors that could influence the organization, nature and direction of migration of English Protestants in the 1550s.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Little is known about the presence of the English Protestant community in Wesel. So, for Wesel, there are no lists like those compiled in Aarau. John Stripe, without giving references to sources, reports that "In Friesland, in particular in Wesel, there were up to 100 people: men and women" ^{[22, P. 233]}. He does not provide a complete list of emigrants, limiting himself only to mentioning the most famous. The English community begins to take shape here around Catherine Willoughby, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk and her husband Richard Bertie, who arrived in the city in February 1555 ^{[13, P. 101-103]}.

It is important to note that, as in the case of Emden, Frankfurt and Strasbourg, the arrival of the British was preceded by the appearance of European migrants in the city, who became exiles for the second time. Upon the accession of Mary I to the throne, a proclamation was issued ordering Protestant foreigners, with the exception of a number of established categories, to leave the country ^{[2, P. 1449]}. Protestant communities from the Netherlands, France and Italy who arrived in the kingdom during the reign of Edward VI also left England. The French community, led by Pastor Francois Perucel, moved to Wesel. None other than Francois Perucel received Catherine Willoughby and Richard Bertie in Wesel, sheltered them in his house and helped them settle in, as reported by John Fox ^{[2, P. 2104]}.

Over time, a community of about 100 people formed in Wesel around the figures of Catherine Willoughby and Richard Bertie, as well as with the support of the "pioneer" Perusel. At first, in November 1555, the city authorities allowed the newly formed church to develop its own liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayers of 1552. However, already in 1556, the city council insisted that the British attend Lutheran services, but the English community refused to compromise with the authorities and most of its members left the city ^{[21, P. 65-75]}. This example demonstrates the complexity of interfaith relations in Europe in the middle of the XVI century: conflicts within the evangelical movement itself were an important factor in the development of reformation processes. In this case, such a conflict affected the geography of English emigration, at least the movement of one of the emigrant communities.

Being forced to leave Wesel, British migrants went south, towards the already established "colonies" in the Rhine Valley and in Switzerland. There was no city ready to receive them until Frankfurt itself. However, the migrants did not stay here. According to the description of the "Troubles in Frankfurt", they were prevented from staying in the city by the disputes that broke out here. Probably, the position of the Wesel community and Lever himself, an opponent of ceremonies, who proposed a compromise rank previously rejected by the Frankfurt congregation, did not simplify the situation in the city. Judging by the description mentioned above, some of those who arrived in the city separated from the group, but Lever and the majority of Wesel exiles who followed him continued to search for a place to house the community. Switzerland lay before the wanderers.

Zurich might seem like a good option. Bullinger and his entourage supported the emigrants from the very beginning of the "exile", Lever himself first arrived in the city on March 10, 1554, as is known from an entry in Bullinger's diary ^{[3, S. 46]}. On April 5, a group of English students arrived, the conditions for which, perhaps, were prepared by the future pastor of the Aarau community. Anyway, there was already a group of British in Zurich. What prevented Bullinger, who had wide connections and authority as the primate of the church, and was undoubtedly aware of the troubles of the emigrants, from sheltering them and finding resources to accommodate the immigrants? An important circumstance, although perhaps not the only one, was that on May 12, 1555, more than a hundred emigrants from Italy arrived in Zurich ^{[25, P. 55]}: the "Marian exile" was not the only one in the period under review.

A more prominent community of Englishmen existed in another Swiss city that lay on the way of Lever and his flock to the south – in Basel. The settlers had high hopes for the hospitality of its authorities and residents. However, they failed here. Lever himself mentions it, without going into details, in a letter to Rudolf Gualter, an associate of Heinrich Bullinger, dated May 27, 1557 (in the publication the letters are mistakenly dated 1556) ^{[4, P. 163]}. Johann Jung described the situation in a little more detail in a letter dated May 17, 1557, addressed to Bullinger ^{[4, P. 164]}. From this letter, it becomes known that citizens who sympathized with the British tried to convince the city council to grant migrants the right to settle in the city, but the council did not heed these appeals. Jung, arriving in the city, personally appealed to the council with a request to accept at least those who were already on the way, but the magistrate did not agree to this either. According to F.'s remark. Denis ^{[10, P. 241-242]}, with regard to immigrants, the Basel authorities followed a policy based on simple principles: the city authorities willingly accepted educated people (for example, English students created a small community at the University of Basel) or well-off, as demonstrated by the case of Dorothy Stafford, who left Geneva. Most of the people Lever cared for–artisans and poor nobles–did not fall into these categories. An aggravating circumstance was that local artisans did not want to see competitors in the city. Thus, using the example of Basel, one can once again see that the interests of figures of the evangelical movement and other actors: sovereigns, city magistrates, various groups of the urban population in the period under review and in the context we are considering do not always coincide. Emigrant communities become hostages of this mosaic of interests, fears, and prejudices.

It is necessary to pay attention to the role of Johann Jung in the events described above. The Swiss preacher, who keeps in touch with Bullinger, sends the latter a kind of report on negotiations with the city council. Judging by the contents of the letter, Lever's problem has already been raised earlier, and Jung himself acts as a kind of "agent" of Bullinger on the spot, a trusted person, an organizer, who was asked to obtain consent from the city authorities to receive immigrants. Johann Haller would later perform in the same role, but with great success.

When choosing a city to stay in, Thomas Lever and his companions, even though they had less and less room for maneuver over time, were guided by two criteria, in addition to the obvious – whether residents and authorities of a particular city had the physical ability and desire to accommodate migrants. He cited these two criteria, as he himself writes in a letter to Bullinger dated May 12, 1557 ^{[4, P. 162-163]}, in negotiations with the magistrates of Bern: the first is the opportunity to "freely use the word of God and the sacraments", the second is the opportunity to "produce English cloth". When the issue of weaving was raised, the magistrates admitted that "they would like us [the British – T.M.] to engage in this particular craft with them," and therefore, according to the assurances of the city authorities, it would not be difficult to obtain permission. Thus, the lands of Bern, against the background of the failures that befell Lever and his companions, turned out to be promising.

It should be emphasized that Bullinger and other representatives of the Swiss evangelical movement once again played an important role in the negotiations between the British and the local authorities. Thus, in the same letter dated May 12 ^{[4, P. 162-163]} Lever reports that Mr. Haller (we are talking about Johann Haller the Younger (15231575)), having received a letter from the primate of the Zurich Church, began active preparatory work, negotiating with members of the city council, both individually and at meetings of the council itself. The result of this activity at the time of writing was the council's agreement to grant the British the right to settle in the canton. Thus, Thomas Lever and his companions had only to choose a suitable place. Haller recommended that they return to Bern after completing the "reconnaissance" in order to receive a letter of recommendation from the magistrates for the authorities and residents of their chosen city.

According to the results of the study of the Bern lands, Lever and his companions, noting that the locals everywhere greeted them warmly, selected two cities most favorable for the placement of immigrants: Vevey "in the Savoy part" and Aarau in the "German part" of the Bern lands ^{[4, P. 167]}. Both cities met the criteria described above. However, Vevey was assessed as "too remote", apparently, from Zurich and Basel and other centers of emigration, except, of course, Geneva. Here we should focus on the nature of the movement of the analyzed community. Thomas Lever and a group of companions arrived in Bern in advance, while most of his flock, according to sources, were still either in the vicinity of Basel or stopped in the city itself. In this context, the remoteness of Vevey, which was located on the opposite tip of the Berne lands from Aarau, seems to be a disadvantage not in the long term, but precisely in the current situation: it would simply be more difficult for the flock to get to this settlement. At the same time, Aarau, on the contrary, lies between Basel and Zurich at a distance of about fifty kilometers from both cities. But even here Lever faced a problem: at first there were only enough houses in the city to accommodate seven families. As a result, the choice was made in favor of Aarau. Johann Jung again acted as an intermediary in relations with local authorities, informing Bullinger that it was possible to obtain a residence permit here without difficulty ^{[4, P. 167]}.

According to the list of Hans Dure ^{[8, S. LXIII-LXV]}, 93 people arrived in the city: 30 men (one is a lonely old man), of whom 16 are with their wives, 4 unaccompanied women (one with a child and two are "elderly" widows), 2 maids – a total of 22 women and the children. The list also shows the composition of families. So, 5 couples arrived without children, in other families, with the exception of two, the number of children varies from one to three. But there are notable exceptions: For example, the family of Richard Langhorn (Langhorn, in the Dura list – Lochern, in the official - Laughernus) consisted of a wife and seven children, with the Langhorn couple there was a maid, which, I believe, was a great boon for such a richly gifted married couple. Another notable family is the Robsons couple: husband (brewer Anthony Robson (in the source – Rabson)), wife and six children ^{[1, P. 355]}. Thus, the sex and age composition of the colony can be called motley.

Significant diversity is also observed in the social composition. It is better reflected in the list of Hans Dure, as the latter tried, where he could, to give a brief information about the origin of the British who arrived. The structure of the list is also noteworthy, the position of a person in which reflects his social status. So, Miles Coverdale and his family are in the first place, the brothers Thomas and John Lever are in the second, and one John Pretty (a notable but still unidentified figure) is in the third place, about whom the author of the list reports: "this served in London at the court of King Edward" ^{[8, S. LXIII]}. By the middle of the list, the details are reduced to a simple indication of origin, with the exception of certain reservations. For example, Anthony Woolmer is described as a nobleman who was forced to serve because his property was confiscated ^{[8, S. LXIII-LXV]}. At the end of the list are the elderly and a single woman with a child, a certain "Alice Roo".

The fact that the Dur tries to record the origin of immigrants is especially important when compiling their social portrait. So, among 30 men, 5 are from Calais (if not at the place of birth, then at the place of residence before emigration). Among these five, representatives of the gentry can be distinguished – Thomas Turpin, who probably emigrated from Calais to Wesel with his brother John, and then stayed with him at the "court" of the Duchess of Suffolk in Weinheim ^{[11, P. 315-316]}. The figure of Richard Langhorne is also noteworthy, obviously a well-off man (in 1555 he became a citizen of Frankfurt, paying the burgergeld), and in 1560 he was ordained a priest by Grindal ^{[23, P. 58-59]}. John Audley, who was probably Henry Dudley's father-in-law, was probably also associated with Calais ^{[11, P. 75]}. This makes Garrett's suspicions that the community left Wesel not only because of religious contradictions, but also because of connections with Dudley's projects (including in Calais, which was supposed to become one of the centers of the conspiracy), well-founded.

If we characterize the social composition as a whole, then it looks ambiguous. Most of the men (12) are represented by "weavers and spinners", varying in degree of wealth and status: from "poor" Richard Unsworth from Lancashire, to Richard Hopkins, Esquire, Sheriff of Coventry, described as a "draper". There were also five gentry representatives and two yeomen in the community, one of whom was Robert Hurlstone, possibly the brother–in-law of the future Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker ^{[11, P. 180]}. Among the members of the community of various positions were 8 "students", including those from the gentry, and former clerics. Of the actual clerics (4), of course, it is impossible not to single out Miles Coverdale and Thomas Lever, but they will be discussed below. Deacon Roger Hart, according to Dura, lived in the house of Lorenz Weierman, an old preacher, but due to illness he went to Basel, where he died. The overall picture is complemented by two more people – Richard Plaisto, a doctor, about whom nothing is known except that he came to Aarau with his wife and lived in the monastery building, and Richard Langhorn, a brewer.

The official list sheds light on the occupation of individual representatives of the community ^{[1, P. 355-356.]}. In it, one can also trace the settlement of the British in the city. For the most part, all of them, some – one family per house, some – in groups settled in the houses of local residents. So, the brothers Thomas and John Lever settled in the house of Hans Dure himself, which is confirmed by both lists, Dure himself reports that they lived with him for "40 weeks", and John Pretty – "30 weeks". Let me say here that Hans Dure probably held a fairly high position in the city. Of course, the very fact that he was engaged in compiling the list already indirectly testifies to this, but he also received in his house the elite of this small English community – its pastor (Thomas Lever) and one of the few nobles.

Two large families also found shelter in private homes: Richard Langhorn with his wife, seven children and a maid – in the house of a certain Heinrich Baer (Heinrich B? r), a weaver, and Anthony Robson with his wife and six children – in the house of bricklayer (or brickmaker) Hans Trintler "in the suburbs". A group of "weavers and spinners" ^{[1, P. 355]}, probably united precisely on a professional basis, found shelter in the house of a certain Joachim Schmutzinger. Unfortunately, the list does not provide more details than the names of residents and owners of houses, and sometimes relatively abstract indications of the position of buildings, but this is already a lot.

It also becomes known from the source that Miles Coverdale (in the official list, his name, it is worth noting, follows the Levers, but in the list only the names of the Lever and Coverdale brothers are accompanied by the clarifications "gentlemen" (herre) and "mister" (herr)) I stayed with my family not in a private house, but in the premises of a monastery. The doctor Richard Playsto and his wife also stayed there. It is important to note that after the closure of the monastery in 1528, its buildings housed a Latin school with rooms for teachers. Perhaps Coverdale lived in the monastery not only as a respected gentleman, scholar and preacher, but also as a teacher. A few words should definitely be said about him and his stay in Aarau.

To see Aarau Miles Coverdale, one of the former bishops who went into exile (Bishop of Exeter 1551-1553), the author of the Bible translation, in a quiet, secondary place for the British, who visited two "exiles" in Europe even before the "Marian", and in the early years of emigration visited a number of cities from Denmark to Switzerland, who had extremely wide connections, somewhat surprisingly. Practically nothing is known about the period of his life in Aarau. Perhaps, after the tumultuous events of the first years of emigration, the former bishop, who, it is worth noting, was already 69 years old in 1557, sought peace, but, one way or another, it did not last long. In 1558 Coverdale had already gone to Geneva to participate in the preparation of a new translation of the Bible.

The leader of this community, Thomas Lever ^{[11, P. 353-354]}, one of the founders of the Puritan movement, deserves no less attention. An analysis of his activities as a leader may help to understand the reason why the community was able to find shelter only in Aarau. While still in college, he participated in debates on transubstantiation, and in 1550 preached before Edward VI. From 1551 to 1553 he was the head of St. John's College (Cambridge), where he had previously studied. He quickly left England after the death of Edward VI, taking with him a group of Oxford and Cambridge students, and arrived in Zurich (March 10, 1554) ahead of them to prepare the reception. In April, he was already in Geneva. In winter, he went to Frankfurt, where he was already on February 12, 1555. Here he found a deadlocked dispute between supporters and opponents of the adoption of the Book of Common Prayers, and tried to bring the community out of it by developing a new order. But the entire congregation (including Knox, which marked the beginning of the feud between Lever and the Scottish reformer) rejected him. Knox later spoke of Lever's "subversion" as the reason for the destruction of the church. After Knox's exile, Lever stayed in the city for some time. But then he went to Geneva, where he stayed until winter, and in winter he went to Wesel to replace Coverdale as pastor ^{[11, P. 220.]}. Thus, the redistribution of leadership in the community occurred even when she was in Wesel. Perhaps it was Lever's ambiguous reputation that was the reason why the Wesel community wandered after exile in search of a new haven. But on the other hand, the community itself was probably quite radical. Thus, some of its representatives may have been associated with the congregation of Rowland Taylor ^{[11, P. 52]}, a Protestant martyr (1555), an ardent opponent of all "idolatry", who denied transubstantiation. The center of his activity was the town of Hadleigh, Suffolk. In addition to having connections with Taylor, the assumption that this community was radical enough is supported by the fact that Thomas Lever was specially invited to take the place of pastor ^{[11, P. 220-221.]} Thus, the radical community had a corresponding leader. Probably, the personality of the pastor and the nature of the group itself were important factors in the complex that prevented them from settling down, but Thomas Lever managed to lead the flock to a new haven.

An undated message has reached us, according to which Thomas Lever received the right to preach in the local church on Sundays ^{[1, P. 354]}, thus, the community received a core around which it was grouped. It is worth noting that in Aarau, the authorities and residents were quite hospitable towards the British. In turn, there is no mention of conflicts not only between the English community and the townspeople, but also within the former. Evidence of a relatively warm relationship is also a passport (more precisely, its draft or unsigned copy) intended for the British of Aarau and prepared by the authorities of Bern. It contains the following phrase: "... our subjects in the aforementioned city [Aarau M.T.] sincerely assured us that each of them [Englishmen M.T.] lived, behaved and behaved like an honest and peaceful Christian" [5 P. 359-360.].

What was the appearance of the community at the time of Queen Mary's death? According to the "Official List", the congregation is estimated at 87 people – men, women and children. It is also important that both lists indicate the British who died in Aarau: 8 people died in the community, but, according to the "Official List", 6 children were born (there is nothing unusual in naming: Thomas (Turpin), Daniel, Susanna, Nathaniel, and two John). It is worth noting: the source indicates that the Langhorns had a daughter named Susan (Susanna from the list above), but Langhorn still has seven children on the list. Probably, the family could have lost a child, and this could well not have been included in official documents. Among the deceased are listed ^{[7, S. LXV.]}: Rowland Wilkinson (there are no known relatives for certain), Elizar (Eleazar) Wood, son of Henry Wood, the "student", Thomas Turpin, son of Thomas Turpin of Calais, Thomas Hopkins, son of "Richard Hopkins of Basel" ^{[1, P. 356]}.

CONCLUSIONS AND CONCLUSION

The case of the English community in Aarau is of interest for several reasons. So, if we follow a biographical approach to the study of the Reformation, this plot is an important element in the biographies of such figures as Miles Coverdale and Thomas Lever, which allows us to analyze their role in the emigrant movement on the example of a particular community. On the other hand, the picture presented by the English community in Aarau is part of a collective portrait of English emigration. This story allows you to see how emigration was organized: what groups the migrants moved in, how their interaction with local authorities and representatives of the European evangelical movement was built.

This group, especially the artisans who make up it, is characterized by resettlement by families, small households, which generally corresponds to one of the behavioral patterns characteristic of migrants who resettled in the Rhine Valley and Switzerland. The significant role of the emigrants' connections with the figures of the European evangelical movement was also revealed: the latter often acted as patrons of the British, intermediaries in their relations with the city authorities, which can be traced throughout the entire journey of the community from Wesel to Aarau. The material of this community allows us to see the role of key actors, "nodes of the network" in the process of organizing emigration. The community has formed around an influential secular figure who is an active participant in the evangelical movement, Catherine Willoughby, but in the future, clerics will play a decisive role in the development of the community and its displacement. Thus, clerics act as organizers of migration within the community itself, primarily Thomas Lever, who took over the leadership from Miles Coverdale. Relations with European Protestants also played an important role in the life of this community. Thus, the tolerance of Wesel Lutherans initially gave emigrants the opportunity to settle in the north of Germany, but conflict with the city authorities and stricter demands on their part forced the community to migrate again. During this migration, Heinrich Bullinger and his entourage provided significant assistance to the British, acting as intermediaries in the relations of migrants with the authorities of Swiss cities.

Although the sources are stingy with details, this case also provides an opportunity to analyze the conditions of accommodation of emigrants, their stay in their host cities: poor nobles and artisans of this group were characterized by accommodation in small groups, families in the homes of local residents. In addition, this case allows us to see how the needs of the community, depending, among other things, on its social composition, external circumstances determined by the political and even economic conjuncture, personal connections of the participants in the events, the religious map of Europe in the 1550s, affect the geography of emigration. Thus, the city of Aarau, unexpected at first glance, turns out to be a logical choice of English emigrants when analyzing the circumstances of migration sequentially.