The Family of Love and the diocese of Ely

Felicity Heal

doi:10.1017/S0424208400005830

The Family of Love and the diocese of Ely

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016

Felicity Heal

Show author details

Felicity Heal*: Affiliation:
Newnham College, Cambridge

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

Few of the major heretical movements of continental Europe have found permanent homes in England. One of the periods when it seemed most likely that they might do so was the years between the Henrician reformation and the growth of native separatism towards the end of the sixteenth century. The persecution of continental anabaptists, sectaries and spiritualists in their native lands forced many of them into exile in England; an exile which they often used to continue their evangelistic work, as well as to maintain their own versions of the radical reformation. They found a ready reception for their beliefs among certain sections of the population of south-east England; notably, but not exclusively, the artisans. Devout but ill-disciplined study of the Bible, the lack of protestant preachers, and the social dislocation of Tudor England, all facilitated the missionary work of the radicals. A majority of the preachers were Netherlandish by origin, and continued to look to the Low Countries as the source of their inspiration; none more so than one of the most interesting of the spiritualist sects, the Family of Love.

Type: Research Article
Information: Studies in Church History , Volume 9: Schism, Heresy and Religious Protest , 1972 , pp. 213 - 222

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400005830 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page no 213 note 1} Williams, [G. H.], [The Radical Reformation] (London 1962) pp 401-3Google Scholar; pp 778-90. Mennonite Encyclopaedia, 11, pp 215-20.

^{page no 213 note 2} The basic account of Niclaes and his sect is still Nippold, [F.], [‘Heinrich Niclaes und das Haus der Liebe’,] Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie, XXXII (Gotha 1862)Google Scholar. I would like to thank Mr Tom Scott for his help in translating this article. Other accounts are in Jones, R. M., Studies in Mystical Religion (London 1909)Google Scholar; DNB, under Nicholas and Vitels; Ebel, [J.], [‘The Family of Love: Sources of its History’,] Huntington Library Quarterly, XXX (California 1967)Google Scholar.

^{page no 213 note 3} Nippold located twenty-six works that can be attributed positively to Niclaes. Of the works translated into English in the sixteenth century the Evangelium Regni (Amsterdam? 1574?) was most widely known and distributed.

^{page no 214 note 1} Williams, pp 778-80.

^{page no 214 note 2} Nippold, p 379.

^{page no 214 note 3} Ebel, p 340.

^{page no 214 note 4} The evidence for Niclaes’s visit under Edward is that many dissensions rent the strangers’ church at this period, and that Martin Micronius, pastor of the church, had personal knowledge of the work of H.N., and attacked it briefly in his work on ceremonies, written several years after his return to the continent. Fuller, T., The Church History of Britain, IV (London 1837) pp 409-10Google Scholar.

^{page no 215 note 1} Williams, p 402.

^{page no 215 note 2} Micronius to Bullinger: Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, 11, ed Robinson, H. G., Parker Society (Cambridge 1847) pp 574-5Google Scholar.

^{page no 215 note 3} Rogers, [J.], An Answere [unto a Wicked and Infamous Libel made by Christopher Vitel...] (London 1579)Google Scholar.

^{page no 215 note 4} Wilkinson, [W.], A Confutation [of Certaine Articles Delivered by (H. Niklaes) unto the Family of Love] (London 1579)Google Scholar.

^{page no 215 note 5} Ibid fol 30.

^{page no 215 note 6} Rogers, [J.], The Displayinge [of an Horrible Secte...naming themselves the Family of Love] (London 1578)Google Scholar.

^{page no 216 note 1} Ibid appendix.

^{page no 216 note 2} Thomas Chandler married a bride from the Isle of Ely, but divorced her a year later because they proved incompatible.

^{page no 216 note 3} Rogers, , The Displayinge (2 ed London 1579)Google Scholar, Rogers, An Answere.

^{page no 216 note 4} Williams, pp 778-9.

^{page no 217 note 1} A Brief Rehearsal of the Belief of the Good-Willing in England...set forth in 1575; An Apology for the Service of Love (both published London 1656).

^{page no 217 note 2} Wilkinson, A Confutation, fol 31.

^{page no 217 note 3} Rogers, An Answere; Wilkinson, A Confutation, fol 61v. It is difficult to be sure that these two Allens can be identified. Roger’s Allen seems to have been the leader of the Surrey sect, and if it can be proved that they were not closely linked with the Family we may merely have two sectaries with the same name.

^{page no 218 note 1} [London, Inner Temple], Petyt MS 538/47, fol 492.

^{page no 218 note 2} [Cambridge] Gon[ville] and Caius Coll[ege] MS 53/30, 2nd pt, fol 73.

^{page no 218 note 3} Wilkinson, A Confutation, fol 56V.

^{page no 218 note 4} Camb[ridge] Univ[ersity] Arch[ives], Ely Cons[istory] Court Will Reg[isters] R, fols 196-7; T, fols 289V-90.

^{page no 219 note 1} The wills of John Diss, Leonard Durgeon and William Cornell are all witnessed by one of the Lawrences or Edmund Rule. Camb Univ Arch, Ely Cons Court Will Reg T, fol 268; V, fols 154, 329.

^{page no 219 note 2} Strype, J., Annals of the Reformation... (Oxford 1824-40) 11, ii p 266 Google Scholar. BM Lansdowne MS XXIX, 39; XXXIII, 20, 22. APC nos XI, pp 138-9.

^{page no 219 note 3} Petyt MS 538/47, fol 493.

^{page no 219 note 4} Wilkinson was given some encouragement with his book by Cox, who added a recommendation at the beginning of the volume. Wilkinson, A Confutation. Gon and Caius Coll MS 53/30, fol 52V.

^{page no 219 note 5} APC nos XII, pp 211-12.

^{page no 219 note 6} Gon and Caius Coll MS 53/30, fols 126V-9.

^{page no 220 note 1} PRO SP 12 CXXXIII, 55. The document is undated, and is filed under 1579, but this is almost certainly a mistake, since Romsey mentioned the events of 1580.

^{page no 220 note 2} Gon and Caius Coll MS 53/30, 2nd pt, fol 73.

^{page no 221 note 1} Ely Diocesan Records, D/2/10a, fol 145V. The case was referred to the bishop.

^{page no 221 note 2} A Supplication of the Family of Loue...examined and found to be Dangerous (Cambridge 1606) p 29.

^{page no 221 note 3} PRO SP 12 CXXXIII, 55.

^{page no 221 note 4} The author of A Supplication claimed that the book still existed and that if it were examined it would disprove the Family’s claims to be few in number and very poor.

^{page no 222 note 1} Camb Univ Arch, Ely Cons Court Will Reg S, fol 259; T, fols 83V-4V; V, fol 224r/v.

^{page no 222 note 2} PCC 86 Woodhall.

^{page no 222 note 3} APC nos XII, p 317.

^{page no 222 note 4} Thomas, A.C., “The Family of Love or the Familists’, Haverford College Studies, XII (Fifth Month 1893) p 25 Google Scholar.

Article contents

The Family of Love and the diocese of Ely

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests