David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ Save them, O merciful Lord, who are as sheep appointed to the slaughter, and by hearty prayers do call and cry unto thee for thy help and defence. Hear their cry, O Lord, and our prayers for them and for ourselves. Deliver those that be oppressed; defend those that be in fear of cruelty; relieve them that be in misery, and comfort all that be in sorrow and heaviness, that by thy aid and strength, they and we may obtain surety from our enemies, without shedding of Christian and innocent blood. ”

“ The law of God is next, which in infinite places commendeth unto us the good usage and entertainment of strangers; in Deuteronomy, God loveth the stranger, giving him food and raiment. Therefore love ye the stranger. In Leviticus, If a stranger sojourn with you in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger which dwelleth with you shall be as one of yourselves, and ye shall love him as yourselves. For ye were strangers. ”

“ During all these years, until 1588, plots were hatching for the overthrow of Protestant England and the dethronement of Queen Elizabeth. The Armada of 1588 was the Royal Spaniard’s discomfited attempt to destroy England both as a Protestant nation, and as a sanctuary for Protestant refugees. Wrath and revenge were specially due to the kingdom in its latter function. In a bull, dated 5th born, being neither denizens nor having served as apprentices by the space of seven years, should sell any wares by retail. ”

“ The residence or continuance of one nation in one place is not of the law of nature, which (being in itself immutable) would admit no transmigration of people or transplantations of nations. But I will propound unto you two grounds of nature, as more proper to this purpose. ”

“ The persecution in France waxed fiercer; and many Huguenots fled into England. On the 13th August of that year, writing from Lambeth, the well-known foreign exiles Bucer, Martyr, Alexander, and Fagius, for the information of the Protector, pled with Cecil in behalf of some poor French Protestant refugees, certifying as to them that, having been compelled to forsake their own country for no other cause but that of religion, they had come to this kingdom as to Christ’s place of shelter ”

“ It seems we are much straitened for arguments, when we are driven to accuse them for their virtues.
From the defeat of the bill, in opposition to which the above speech was delivered, Strype justly infers, “the hearty love and hospitable spirit which the nation had for these afflicted people of the same religion with ourselves.” Not only was this bill refused a second reading, but the same fate happened to another, which proposed that the children of strangers should pay strangers' customs. ”

“ ENGLAND AND THE REFUGEES IN THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI. AND ELIZABETH.
In the reign of Edward VI., which, like the rule of Henry II. and the Guises over France, began in 1547, the potentates of Europe, by their persecution of Protestants, doomed their best subjects to death or flight. Exiles for the pure Gospel’s sake were scattered abroad in all directions. A Polish nobleman, John a Lasco, fled to Embden in East Friesland, and his talents and learning, superadded to his courageous piety, made his fellow-exiles invite him to take the office of pastor over them. ”

“ The French Court wished it to be believed (as appears by Walsingham’s despatch of Sept. 13) that the French Protestants having been detected in a secret conspiracy, the massacre had been designed to remove the ringleaders; but now, “the heads being taken away, the meaner sort should enjoy (by virtue of the edicts) both lives and goods and liberty of their consciences.” “The very truth” was first heard in England from the mouths of the refugees; our Queen rebuked the French Ambassador, La Motte, for his self-contradictory tales, in the most solemn strain. ”

“ This was esteemed such considerable news in England that Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, in his correspondence with the divines of Helvetia, wrote it to Gualter his friend, one of the chief ministers of Zurich, and added that he was persuaded, and so were others, that this blessing from God happened by reason of the godly exiles, who were hither fled for their religion, and here kindly harboured; whereby, in their strait circumstances, they might provide at a cheaper rate for themselves and their families. ”

“ Forsooth (it is said generally) by impoverishing the natural subject and enriching the stranger; by nourishing a scorpion in our bosoms; by taking the children’s bread and casting it to dogs; and (more particularly) , first, by multitude of retailers (for the more men exercise one trade, the less is every one his gain) , and secondly, by the strangers’ policy, which consisteth either in providing their wares in such sort that they may sell better cheap than the natural subject, or else by persuading our people that they do so. ”

“ He is eulogized in this Patent [3] as a man very eminent for integrity, of unblemished life, and of singular erudition. In the preamble the King, as Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Head under Christ of the English and Irish Church, declared it to be his duty to provide for religion, and for unfortunate persons afflicted and banished on account of religion. His Majesty represented himself as “pitying the condition of those refugees, who for a considerable time have dwelt in our kingdom, and of those who daily enter it.” ”

“ For if the first be true that they do indeed sell better pennyworths, then we have no cause to punish but to cherish them as good members of our commonwealth, which by no means can be better enriched than by keeping down the prices of foreign commodities, and enhancing the value of our own. Besides, the benefit of cheapness of foreign commodities by so much exceedeth the benefit of dear prices, by how much the number of buyers of them exceedeth the number of sellers, which is infinite. ”

“ One is that we should give to others the same measure that we would receive from them, which is the golden rule of justice, and the other is that we ought by all good means to strengthen the links of society between man and man (turn artibus, turn opera, turn facultatibus, devincire hominum inter homines societatem) , and that they wrench in sunder the joint society of mankind who maintain that the cause of a citizen should have that attention which is denied to the foreigner (qui civium rationem dicunt esse habendam, externorum negant, hi dirimunt communem humani generis societatem) . ”

“ On 15th March 1574, the Mayor (Mr Rose) , Alderman Alcock, and Mr John Boys signed the “Articles agreed by the Worshipful Magistrates of the City of Canterbury unto the Strangers under their protection, to pursue the confirmation under the patent of her Majesty.” The trading and other working articles may be studied in Burn's History (p. 274) , prefaced by, “In primis, they shall have full and free exercise of theire religion, as all other congregations of this realme have, with competent church for their assemblies.” ”

“ On 15th July 1567 the Canterbury refugees presented a petition to the authorities of that city, asking to be formed into an industrial fraternity. In 1568 there was a great influx of refugees and an extensive founding of settlements for them throughout England. Strype assures us (Ibid. p. 555) , “This year flesh, fish, wheat and other provisions bore a very cheap price; and that which gave a greater remark to this favourable providence of God to the nation was, that this happened contrary to all men’s expectations ”

“ I will not detain you with mathematical or philosophical discourses concerning the earth and man and man’s residence thereon. The whole earth, being but a point in the centre of the world, will admit no division of dominions ”

“ But if the second be true, that it is but our error to believe that they sell their wares better cheap than our nation doth, then surely I cannot but think it very great injustice to punish them for a fault committed by us. ”

“ Thus the late Archbishop Parker’s maxim (he died in 1575) was still adhered to, “profitable and gentle strangers ought to be welcome and not to be grudged at.” (See Strype’s “Life of Parker,” p. 139.)
It will be observed that all that the refugees sought and obtained was the opportunity of earning their own livelihood. They suffered none of their people to solicit alms. They maintained their own poor, a large portion of their congregational funds being devoted to this purpose. ”

“ Strype in 1711 says, “This Walloon congregation and manufacture continued a great while in Stamford, but now is in effect vanished. In the Hall, where they used to meet for their business, the town feasts are now kept; the place where they exercised their religion is not known. Yet their last minister, a long-lived man, was known to many now alive.” ”

“ Archbishop Cranmer, the Duke of Somerset, and Secretary Cecil gave him encouragement. He took his departure in March 1549 to resume his charge in Embden, and to prepare his congregation for their probable expulsion thence.
Bishop Latimer gave utterance to the true English sentiment in a sermon preached before King Edward at this very time. His words were — “Johannes Alasco was here, a great learned man, and, as they say, a nobleman in his country, and is gone his way again; if it be for lack of entertainment, the more pity. ”

“ Strype’s best documentary information is from the papers of Queen Elizabeth’s great minister, Sir William Cecil, known as Mr Secretary Cecil, after 1570 as Lord Burghley, and after 1572 as the Lord High Treasurer of England.
In 1562 the Queen was prevailed upon to send succour to the French Protestants. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton had interviews in France with Theodore Beza, and conveyed to Cecil a letter from that famous divine, dated at Caen, 16 March 1562, (signed) T. de Belze. This letter is printed in Strype’s “Annals of Queen Elizabeth,” Second Appendix, B., vol. i. ”

“ Their commendable endeavours, to make themselves not quite a burden to those who entertained them, were suitably rewarded. The several towns of Germany and Holland, finding their advantage in these strangers, showed them all imaginable civility; many private persons likewise contributed to their aid ”