The Sense of National Identity among the Marian Exiles (1553–1558)

Abstract

Dr Cox and others with him came to Frankfort out of England, who began to break that order that was agreed upon; first in answering aloud after the minister, contrary to the church’s determination; and being admonished thereof by the Seniors of the congregation, he, with the rest that came with him made answer, That they would do as they had done in England; and that they would have the face of an English church….Thanks to the Brieff Discours, a partisan account published for polemical purposes almost twenty years later, the ‘Troubles’ which began with this gesture form one of the best-known aspects of the Marian exile. However, because of the context within which the compilers of that work were operating, it is usually seen simply as a liturgical conflict between the protagonists of the 1552 Prayer Book, and those of the Geneva rite, which had been printed in English as far back as 1550. In fact, the issues which it raised were far wider, embracing the whole conduct of ecclesiastical affairs, and the nature of the English church.