This volume is a synthesis of the research articles of one of Europe’s leading scholars of 16th-century exile communities. It will be invaluable to the growing number of historians interested in the religious, intellectual, social and economic impact of stranger communities on the rapidly changing nation that was Elizabethan and early Stuart England. Southern England in general, and London in particular, played a unique part in offering refuge to Calvinist exiles for more than a century. For the English government, the attraction of exiles was not so much their Reformed religion and discipline as their economic potential - the exiles were in the main skilled craftsmen and well-connected merchants who could benefit the English economy.

In the Early Modern period, the religious refugee became a constant presence in the European landscape, a presence which was felt, in the wake of processes of globalization, on other continents as well. During the religious wars, which raged in Europe at the time of the Reformation, and as a result of the persecution of religious minorities, hundreds of thousands of men and women were forced to go into exile and to restore their lives in new settings. In this collection of articles, an international group of historians focus on several of the significant groups of minorities who were driven into exile from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The contributions here discuss a broad range of topics, including the ways in which these communities of belief retained their identity in foreign climes, the religious meaning they accorded to the experience of exile, and the connection between ethnic attachment and religious belief, among others.

This edited collection examines different aspects of the experience and significance of childhood, youth and family relations in minority religious groups in north-west Europe in the late medieval, Reformation and post-Reformation era. It aims to take a comparative approach, including chapters on Protestant, Catholic and Jewish communities. The chapters are organised into themed sections, on 'Childhood, religious practice and minority status', 'Family and responses to persecution', and 'Religious division and the family: co-operation and conflict'. Contributors to the volume consider issues such as religious conversion, the impact of persecution on childhood and family life, emotion and affectivity, the role of childhood and memory, state intervention in children's religious upbringing, the impact of confessionally mixed marriages, persecution and co-existence. Some chapters focus on one confessional group, whilst others make comparisons between them.

This is the first book to examine one of Europe's largest Protestant communities in Hungary and Transylvania. It highlights the place of the Hungarian Reformed church in the international Calvinist world, and reveals the impact of Calvinism on Hungarian politics and society. Calvinism attracted strong support in Hungary and Transylvania, where one of the largest Reformed churches was established by the early seventeenth century. Understanding of this Hungarian Reformed church remains the most significant missing element in the analysis of European Calvinism. The Hungarian Reformed church survived on narrow ground between the Habsburgs and Turks, thanks to support from Transylvanias princes and local nobles. They worked with Reformed clergy to maintain contact with western co-religionists, to combat confessional rivals, to improve standards of education and to impose moral discipline. However, there were also tensions within the church over further reforms of public worship and church government, and over the impact of puritanism. This book examines the development of the Hungarian church within the international Calvinist community, and the impact of Calvinism on Hungarian politics and society.

In The Dutch Language in Britain (1550-1702) Christopher Joby offers an account of the knowledge and use of Dutch in early modern Britain. Using extensive archive material from Britain and the Low Countries, Chris Joby demonstrates that Dutch was both written and spoken in a range of social domains including the church, work, learning, the home, diplomacy, the military and navy, and the court. Those who used the language included artisans and their families fleeing religious and economic turmoil on the continent; the Anglo-Dutch King, William III; and Englishmen such as the scientist Robert Hooke. Joby’s account adds both to our knowledge of the use of Dutch in the early modern period and multilingualism in Britain at this time.

Blackfriars: Theater, Church, and Neighborhood in Early Modern London is a cultural history of an urban enclave best known in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the incongruous juxtaposition of playing and godly preaching. As the former site of one of London's great religious houses, the post-Reformation Blackfriars was a Liberty free from mayoral control. The legal exemptions and privileges enjoyed by its residents helped attract an unusual mix of groups and activities. Zealous preachers and puritan parishioners mingled with playhouse workers and playgoers, as well as with the immigrant 'strangers' who settled here. The book focuses on local playhouse-church relations and asks how a theatrical culture was able to flourish in a parish dominated by committed puritans. Physically, the church of St Anne's and the playhouse were virtually next-door, but ideologically they seemed poles apart. Yet despite the occasional efforts of some residents to close the playhouse, godly religion and commercial playing managed to coexist. In explanation, the book examines the conflicting economic and ideological priorities of residents and the overriding desire to promote order and neighborliness. More provocatively, I argue that the Blackfriars pulpit and stage could be mutually reinforcing sites of performance. Preachers as well as playwrights exploited the Liberty's vexed relations with authority to air satirical and dissident views of the established church and state. By examining Blackfriars sermons and plays side-by-side, the book reveals a synergy between two institutions usually considered implacable enemies.

England's response to the Revolt of the Netherlands (1568–1648) has been studied hitherto mainly in terms of government policy, yet the Dutch struggle with Habsburg Spain affected a much wider community than just the English political elite. It attracted attention across Britain and drew not just statesmen and diplomats but also soldiers, merchants, religious refugees, journalists, travellers and students into the conflict. Hugh Dunthorne draws on pamphlet literature to reveal how British contemporaries viewed the progress of their near neighbours' rebellion, and assesses the lasting impact which the Revolt and the rise of the Dutch Republic had on Britain's domestic history. The book explores affinities between the Dutch Revolt and the British civil wars of the seventeenth century - the first major challenges to royal authority in modern times - showing how much Britain's changing commercial, religious and political culture owed to the country's involvement with events across the North Sea.

This groundbreaking book explores the migration of European Calvinist refugees and the strong network they forged through marriage and enterprise.