Many of those dedicated to the furthering of the English Reformation were forced into exile during the reign of Mary I (1555-1558). Her goal of returning England to Roman Catholicism by force drove many reform-minded figures away from their country in order to escape the storm of persecution. This became one of the most critical providences for the eventual advancement of the English Reformation and the birth of the puritan movement. Many of these exiles fled to major centers of Reformation on the continent and established their own churches. More importantly, the exiles became acquainted with many of the leading Reformers. The Marian exiles became steeped in the theology of the continental Reformation and eventually sought to bring these principles back to England upon the death of the queen.
While the temporary migration of the Marian exiles to the continent is not a new area of study, relatively few have been focused on the impact of this mass migration in the development of the theology and practices of the English Reformation, with Ole Peter Grell’s monograph and Violet Soen’s edited volume being the most recent attempts to address this phenomena of early modern migration across Europe. Moreover, these works are quite broad and are not particularly focused on doctrinal development. Furthermore, the significance of the Marian exiles as a migratory people are not explored in these volumes. This is a surprising research lacuna, as it is impossible to understand the historical circumstances that shaped the English Reformation without studying how the Marian exiles developed their theology on the continent. There is a great need, therefore, for further studies on how migration shaped the theology of the Marian exiles and by extension, the unavoidable impact of migration across the continent and England on the development of Reformation theology in general.
While examining the breadth of theological development among the Marian exiles is beyond the scope of this paper, I attempt to advance the state of the question by exploring the development of catechesis in continental Europe and how it shaped the English Reformation through the Marian persecutions by using John Calvin and Alexander Nowell as examples. Did John Calvin have any influence in Alexander Nowell’s catechesis? In answering this question, I will begin by tracing Alexander Nowell’s journey on the continent during the Marian exile and how he may have become familiar with Calvin and his catechetical writings. Second, I will outline Calvin’s doctrine of God as put forth in his Catechisme. Finally, I will show how elements of Calvin’s doctrine of God can be seen in Alexander Nowell’s Catechisme during the Elizabethan period and the implications of these findings in the study of both the English and continental Reformations. By examining Alexander Nowell’s exile on the continent during the Marian persecutions, I will demonstrate how Nowell was influenced by Calvin’s catechetical works in his own catechisms using the doctrine of God as an example, further highlighting the important contribution of widespread migration to the theological development of the sixteenth century.