The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England during Tudor and Stuart Times / With an Introductory Chapter on the Preceding Period

by K. Rebillon Lambley

THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS REFUGEES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH IN ENGLAND—OPENINGS FOR THEM AS TEACHERS—DEMAND FOR TEXT-BOOKS—FRENCH SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND

Religion, the question of all questions in the sixteenth century, was destined, incidentally, to exercise a great influence on the teaching of French in England. The conflicts resulting from the fierce hatreds aroused by the Reformation compelled many Protestants to seek asylum from the triumphant Catholic reaction abroad, and England was the land to which many of them fled.[289] Among these refugees were many who took upon themselves the task of teaching their native tongue to the English. The second half of the sixteenth century was the time when this influence was most strongly felt, although it is not altogether negligible in the years immediately preceding. In France the Reformation had at first been favourably received at Court, but in the third decade of the century persecution began to drive some Protestants from their native land. They made their way to England with some trepidation at this early date,[290] for Henry VIII., in spite of his breach with Rome, had but little sympathy with the Protestants, although he refused on several occasions to surrender fugitive heretics to the French king.[291] On the accession of Edward VI. in 1547, however, England became FOREIGNERS IN ENGLANDa more hospitable abode for the Protestants, driven from France in increasing numbers by the persecutions sanctioned by Henry II., whose reign coincided with that of Edward. When Mary came to the throne all protection extended to these fugitives was withdrawn, and we find many of their protectors fleeing in their turn "to the Church and Christian congregation, then dispersed in foreine realmes, as to the safest bay."[292]

The return of the English Government to Protestantism in the reign of Elizabeth coincided with the period of increased persecution on the Continent. Refugees arrived in great numbers, not only Huguenots from France, but also subjects of Philip II., Dutch, Flemings, and Walloons, fleeing from the cruelties of Alva.[293] These inhabitants of the Low Countries came to England in greater numbers than the Huguenots.[294] Many of them, such as the Walloons and Burgundians, spoke French; and, while the chief teachers of the time were drawn from the Huguenots, a large group of these French-speaking Netherlanders also joined the profession. To these two classes of French teachers must be added a third, the Roman Catholics, who formed the largest proportion of the foreigners in England.[295]

The number of foreigners, augmented by the arrival of the refugee Dutch and French, created a situation which required serious consideration. These foreigners now formed a large fraction of the general population—probably about one in twenty of the inhabitants of London.[296] It became indispensable to keep some record of them, especially as there was a danger that spies and Roman Catholic emissaries might enter the country under the guise of refugees, and the overcrowding resulting from the arrival of so many aliens was becoming a serious matter. In earlier reigns the names of strangers in London had been registered; but in the time of Elizabeth a census, both numerical and religious, was taken more systematically, and at more and more frequent intervals. In these returns of aliens dwelling in London,[297] the names of many French teachers are preserved. Frequently their profession is stated, and we are told what church they attended and whether or not they were denizens, as well as the part of London in which they dwelt, and, in the lay subsidies, the amount they had to pay towards the heavy taxes levied on strangers.

Other names are preserved in the lists of the grants of letters of denization.[298] This grant made the precarious position of foreigners in England more secure. Denization became almost indispensable to any one wishing to exercise a craft or trade. These letters gave the recipient much the same privileges as a native, except that he was still subject to special taxation.[299] Only those intending to settle in England would trouble to take out letters of denization; and that many of these foreigners' stay in England was only temporary is shown by the fact that, when the number of strangers was greatest, as after the St. Bartholomew massacre, there is no marked increase in the number of denizations granted.

Means for registering the Protestant section of the community of foreigners were provided through the Dutch and French churches in London.[300] In 1550, Edward VI. had granted the dissolved monastery of the Austin Friars to the foreigners as a place of worship; some months later, owing to their increase in numbers, they were allowed the use of another building—St. Antony's Hospital in Threadneedle Street. The congregation was divided, the Dutch part remaining in the original church, while the French and the Walloons and other French-speaking refugees moved to Threadneedle Street. Both churches, each with two pastors,[301] were under the control of a Superintendent. But when, in the time of Elizabeth, the churches rose to new life, after their suppression in the reign of Mary, the Superintendent was replaced by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This change, however, did not RECEPTION OF REFUGEES IN ENGLANDprevent the refugee congregations from enjoying many of their former liberties, for in the time of Elizabeth the Archbishops, who had themselves experienced the hardships of exile in the reign of Mary, took a particular interest in the cause of the refugees. The English, indeed, complained, not entirely without reason, that the foreigners were allowed greater religious freedom than they themselves.

As French and Dutch refugees settled in different parts of the country, similar churches arose in these settlements. By the end of the reign of Elizabeth there were French-Walloon churches in existence at Canterbury, Glastonbury, Sandwich, Southampton, Rye, and Norwich. In 1552 all strangers were ordered to repair either to their own church or to the English parish church. These injunctions were renewed in the time of Elizabeth and became a useful means of checking the number of refugees in London. From time to time, during this reign, the Archbishop requested the ministers of the foreign churches to send him a list of their communicants. Foreigners who did not attend any church were not allowed to apply for the privilege of letters of denization.

Thus the aliens who arrived in England in such large numbers in the second part of the sixteenth century had many restrictions placed upon them, especially if they were engaged in any craft or trade which might arouse the commercial jealousy of the English. In the teaching profession such rivalry would not be felt to the same extent, though it did actually exist. In any circumstance, however, all the exiles had to endure the hatred and insults of the common people, from which, nearly two centuries later, Voltaire only escaped without injury thanks to his ready wit. Riots such as those of Evil May Day (1517) were directed mainly against foreign traders, but all foreigners, especially Frenchmen, were a continual butt for the insults of the mob. Nicander Nucius remarks that the common people in England do not entertain one kindly sentiment towards the French. "Ennemis du françois" is one of the epithets applied to the English by De la Porte in his collection of epithets (Paris, 1571) on the different nations. The French priest, Étienne Perlin, who was in England during the last two years of the reign of Edward VI., and thoroughly hated the country, calling it "la peste d'un pays et ruine," speaks bitterly of the contrast between the courteous reception the English receive in France, and the greeting of the French in England with the cry, "French dogue": "it pleaseth me not that these churls being in their own country spit in our faces, and they being in France are treated with honour, as if they were little gods."[302] All foreign visitors to England are at one in their complaints of the lack of courtesy among the people. The great scholar Casaubon says he was more insulted in London than he ever was in Paris; stones were thrown at his window day and night, and once he was wounded in the street on his way to pay his respects at Court.[303]

All these visitors, nevertheless, recognize that the English nobility and gentry and those in authority are "replete with benevolence and good order," and as courteous and affable as the people are uncivil.[304] And thus we find foreigners, especially refugees, welcomed to chairs at the English universities, and foreign students having their fees refunded on showing they had suffered "for religion," and receiving ecclesiastical preferment.[305] Most of the chief families in the realm, we are told, received refugees into their midst. Laurence Humphrey[306] exhorts these noble families to fulfil the sacred duty of hospitality towards strangers, especially religious exiles, whose sufferings many of them had themselves experienced in the reign of Mary, and to provide them with necessary livings, admit them to fellowships, and allow them yearly stipends. "Which well I wot, the noblest Prince Edward of happy memory most liberally did both in London and either university, whom some Dukes, Nobles, and Bishops imitated, chiefly the reverend Father and late Primate of England ... Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.... Amongst the Nobles not the least praise earned Henry Gray, Marquis of Dorset, and Duke of Suffolk now a noble citizen of Heaven, who liberally relieved many learned exiles. The like may be said of many others."

Cranmer had entertained at Lambeth Pierre Alexandre and "diverse other pious Frenchmen," including Antony TUTORS IN PRIVATE FAMILIESRudolph Chevallier, who was tutor to Elizabeth for a short time. Matthew Parker, his successor to the see in the time of Elizabeth, followed his example and declared it to be a Christian duty to befriend "these gentle and profitable strangers." Cecil, Walsingham, and other dignitaries of the time also became their protectors, and, recognizing the advantages, both intellectual and commercial, which accrued to the country, sought by all means to ward off the hostile measures demanded from time to time by the English bourgeoisie.