John Donne in the Hague and the Hague at the Globe: Performing Reformation England's Religio-Political Doctrine of Perseverance

Abstract

This essay argues that the British delegation's distinctive approach to the Reformed doctrine of perseverance at the Synod of Dort provides necessary context for two international sermons delivered by John Donne in 1619. Donne's rhetoric in these sermons, in turn, is echoed by a striking dramatization of international “current events” performed in the same year by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. Reading John Donne's sermons at Heidelberg and the Hague alongside John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's collaborative The Tragedy of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, this essay demonstrates that James I's delegates at Dort, his European embassy's star preacher, and a popular London play present a richly nuanced yet harmonious public face on an international stage to an often contentious national conversation. King, church, and people speak together on the necessity of persevering in faith (within the established church), in fidelity to God-ordained civil government, and with loyalty to the European Protestant cause held in tension with a “Britain first” national exceptionalism.