Picture a refugee. He is a fugitive and a stranger, far from home in a foreign land. He has fled his country in fear of his life. A new monarch is in power. New politics prevail. Old prejudices demand his imprisonment, perhaps even his death and the confiscation of all his property. Who is this man? What is his crime? He is a minister of the gospel, or a university professor, a student of the Word of God or a merchant-trader. His crime is to have been a Protestant in England during the reign of Mary the Bloody.
He is not alone. His family have left their home too. England is no place for those of reformed faith and practice. There are others also, hundreds, perhaps thousands, seeking refuge at a time of political and religious persecution and intolerance. They have come to Europe and the relative safety of protestant countries such as Switzerland, Holland and Germany. They are seeking asylum in the cities of Geneva, Zurich and Frankfurt.
In this book Dr Ella opens up a period of great importance in the history of the Reformation in the United Kingdom and particularly England. It is often assumed that the Reformation was uniquely or mainly a continental European phenomenon. Some writers have even encouraged this wrong assumption to serve their purpose of tracing reforming zeal and purity of worship to a particular movement or denomination. Yet, this is to misrepresent the testimony of historic evidence and underestimate the fine contribution British churchmen made to the reformation of their own national church and the wider reformation in Europe. Throughout the sixteenth century, British ministers of the gospel were in no degree lagging behind the reforming efforts of Luther in Germany and Calvin and Beza in Switzerland.
It was precisely because of the great reforms of church and state begun in England under Henry VIII and honed by Edward VI that Mary's reign, when it came, had to be so reactionary and brutal if Rome was ever to recover its lost influence and domination in Britain. The Marian exiles were the cream of British evangelicals with reforming ardour and credentials second to none. This made them a thorn in Queen Mary's side and an impediment to her re-Romanising activities. Their flight from England and their presence in Europe demonstrates their dedication to the cause of reformation.
Yet their period of exile was not without controversy as The Troubles at Frankfort shows. The nature of these troubles, the identity of those involved and the role they played have long been discussed and debated. However, there has been too, a tendency for some commentators to use the events in Frankfurt from 1553 to 1560 to support their own interpretation of history, particularly with reference to later church disruptions and schisms.
The existence of this revisionist writing and the practice of backprojecting later controversies onto the Frankfurt troubles has been of special interest to Dr Ella in his research and study of this period. Though a Yorkshireman by birth Dr Ella has lived and worked in Germany for many years and his familiarity with the language, and his librarian and archivist experience have been invaluable to him in his search for source material and relevant city records from the period, including Senate correspondence and minutebooks. This original research alone makes this book a valuable contribution to the subject.
But it is not, perhaps, the most significant contribution. That honour goes to Dr Ella's fine vindication of those English reformers who have too frequently been maligned and vilified by later writers.
Some readers may complain that redressing the balance of responsibility and blame for the troubles that beset the British exiles in Frankfurt casts shadows of reproach upon their heroes. Yet what injustice allows one man's reputation to be sullied for generations while the true perpetrator of strife marches on without criticism?