‘Oliver Cromwell is a Devil!’ Religious Radicalism and Political Turmoil in Geneva during the English Civil Wars

ABSTRACT

When King Charles I was beheaded in 1649 it incited a series of events in the Reformed city of Geneva. The Civil Wars and Regicide uncovered the political and religious tensions within Geneva during the English Civil Wars. In Geneva, two important bodies, the Small Council of civil magistrates and the Company of Pastors jockeyed for an appropriate response from their diverse members. Additionally, the leaders of Geneva had to respond to English and Continental rumours that they were to blame for England’s woes. Utilizing archival research, this article examines the transnational implications of the English Civil Wars and it shows that the Genevans had far from a unified view of the Civil Wars. Ultimately, the primary fear for the leaders in Geneva was not necessarily the death of a king, but instead that they would be associated with the worst aspects of the Radical Reformation: Anabaptism.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The author would like to thank his colleagues and friends in the Medieval and Early Modern Studies group at Pepperdine University. A draft of this article was circulated and scrutinized by my generous colleagues making its argument clearer and more effective. In particular, I want to thank Nicole Gilhuis, Bryan Givens, Rachel Gould, and Jonathan Koch for their constructive comments and excellent friendship.

² In the late-Middle Ages, Geneva was under the Dukes of Savoy, but it had gained independence from Savoy in the early sixteenth century. Since then, the city of Geneva was ruled by a series of legislative bodies, the All-Citizen Assembly, the Council of Two Hundred, the Council of Sixty, and the Small Council. By the seventeenth century, the Small Council was the most powerful and exclusive of the councils of Geneva. See, W. Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Louisville, 2003), pp. 12–52; and P. Benedict, Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (Yale, 2002), pp. 77–82.

³ Jean Diodati was the Chair of Theology at Geneva’s Academy from 1606–1645 and the primary representative of Geneva at the Synod of Dort. He also translated the Bible into Italian first in 1603, with two further editions in 1607 and 1641. For more on his life and works see, W. McComish, The Epigones: A Study of the Theology of the Genevan Academy at the Time of the Synod of Dort, with Special Reference to Giovanni Diodati (Allison Park, Pa, 1989); È. de Budé, Vie de Jean Diodati, theologien genevois (Lausanne, 1869); and E. Campi, ‘Giovanni Diodati (1576-1649), Translator of the Bible into Italian,’ in J. Balserak and J. West (eds) From Zwingli to Amyraut: Exploring the Growth of European Reformed Traditions (Bristol, CT, 2017), pp. 105-21.

⁴ ‘Cromwell est un diable; il dirige ces esprits infernaux, ces fanatiques anabaptistes, cette vermoulure! Ce roi juste et bon est mort au lit d’honneur, non des rois, mais de Dieu! Ce roi est mort martyr!’ Registers of the Small Council of Geneva (RC), Archives d’etat de Genève, 148, f. 124 (14 March 1649). See also: J. Gaberel, Histoire de l’église de Genève depuis le commencement de la réformation jusqu’à nos jours (3 vols., Paris, 1855) III, p. 404.

⁵ Jonathan Scott, England’s Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 27-32. Anthony Milton’s recent article concerning the nature of the Church of England in the middle of the seventeenth century also highlights the complex interactions between English and Continental divines as Royalists and Parliamentarians sought to define the Church of England in this contested period. See, A. Milton, ‘Contesting the Church of England 1640-70: The European Dimension,’ The Seventeenth Century 38:6 (2023), pp. 1079–1122.

⁶ There are, of course, plentiful works on the English Civil Wars, but fewer that detail the wars in European or transnational context. Two examples that do detail the English Civil Wars in the broader European world are: J. Scott, England’s Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context (Cambridge, 2000) and P. H. Wilson, ‘Kingdom Divided: The British and Continental European Conflicts Compared,’ pages 577–595 in M. J. Braddick (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution (Oxford, 2015).

⁷ O. P. Grell, Brethren in Christ: A Calvinist Network in Reformation Europe (Cambridge, 2011).

⁸ There are numerous examples of this, but here is a representative sample: R. Kingdon, Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement, 1564-72 (Geneva, 1967); W. Monter, Calvin’s Geneva (New York, 1967); W. Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Louisville, KY, 1994); S. Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609 (Oxford, 2013); and J. Balserak (ed.), A Companion to the Reformation in Geneva (Leiden, 2021).

⁹ R. M. Kingdon, Reforming Geneva: Discipline, Faith, and Anger in Calvin’s Geneva (Droz, 2012). For works on consistories more broadly in the Early Modern period, see R. Mentzer and F. Moreil, ‘Introduction,’ pp. 1-9 in Dire l’Interdit: The Vocabulary of Censure and Exclusion in the Early Modern Reformed Tradition, R. Mentzer, F. Moreil, and P. Chareyre (eds) (Leiden, 2010).

¹⁰ J. Watt, The Consistory and Social Discipline in Calvin’s Geneva (Rochester, MI, 2022). The works of Esther Chung-Kim have expanded the reach of this research, examining poor relief amongst early modern Reformed communities of faith. See, E. Chung-Kim, ‘Aid for Refugees: Religion, Migration, and Poor Relief in Sixteenth-century Geneva,’ in Reformation and Renaissance Review 20:1, pp. 4-17 and Economics of Faith: Reforming Poor Relief in Early Modern Europe (Oxford, 2021).

¹¹ Some exceptions are: R. Stauffeneger, Église et Société: Genève au XVIIe siècle, 2 vols. (Travaux d’histoire éthico-politique, 41; Geneva, 1983-84); W. McComish, The Epigones; J. Powell McNutt, Calvin Meets Voltaire: The Clergy of Geneva in the Age of Enlightenment, 1685-1798 (Burlington, VT, 2013); and N. Cumming, Francis Turretin (1623-87) and the Reformed Tradition (Leiden, 2020).

¹² The primary examples of this are the works of Richard Muller. Again, they are numerous, but as a sampling see: Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, 1520-1725 (4 vols.; Grand Rapids, MI, 2003); After Calvin: Studies in the Development of a Theological Tradition (Oxford, 2003).

¹³ For instance, even major works like Manetsch’s excellent study on the clergy of Geneva in the sixteenth century has little on its relationship with the greater Reformed, or even Christian, world. See, Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors.

¹⁴ Richard Whatmore’s scholarship reflects this well as he charts Geneva’s difficult position throughout the eighteenth century and into the era of the French Revolution. R. Whatmore, Against War and Empire: Geneva, Britain, and France in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven and London, 2012).

¹⁵ Jennifer Powell McNutt illustrates the careful considerations the leaders, both political and religious, had to make in the late-seventeenth century as they debated the changes from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar. It was not a simple decision as Geneva needed support for its protection and its agricultural resources and needed to be careful on how they proceeded so as to keep their connections with Protestant Germany, Switzerland, and England, while also maintaining peace with Catholic France. See, J. Powell McNutt, ‘Hesitant Steps: Acceptance of the Gregorian Calendar in Eighteenth-Century Geneva,’ in Church History 75:3 (2006), pp. 557-559.

¹⁶ Whatmore, Against War and Empire, p. xiii.

¹⁷ Whatmore gives several examples of Protestant and Catholic states influencing Geneva’s future in substantial ways in ‘Geneva, an English Enclave? A Contextual Introduction,’ in V. Cossy, B. Kapossy, and R. Whatmore (eds), Genève, lieu d’Angleterre, 1725-1814 (Geneva, 2009), pp. 11-35.

¹⁸ The sources for this research are the Registers of the Company of Pastors of Geneva (abbreviated RCP) and the Registers of the Small Council of Geneva (abbreviated RC). Both registers have numerous volumes, but for the period of the English Civil Wars, volume 9 of RCP and volumes 143-148 of RC were used. All volumes are housed by the Archives d’Etat de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland, and have been digitized and are available through the Archive’s website: https://www.ge.ch/.

¹⁹ Hervé Genton refers to Beza as, ‘Calvin’s right-hand man and, then, his successor at the head of the Church of Geneva.’ H. Genton, ‘Théodore de Bèze and Geneva’, pp. 93-117 in J. Balserak (ed.), A Companion to the Reformation in Geneva (Leiden, 2021), p. 117.

²⁰ Jonathan Scott views the Thirty Years War and the English Civil Wars as a part of the same European phenomenon. This paper will support Scott’s assessment of the larger implications of the English Civil Wars throughout the Continent. See, Scott, England’s Troubles, pp. 89-112.

²¹ The most famous example of this, of course, is the transnational movement of the Scottish Protestant John Knox (1514–72) to-and-from Geneva during the reigns of Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I.

²² According to Scott Manetsch, though Diodati was a leader after Beza’s death, he did not produce the same level of influence or fame as Beza and Calvin before him. See, Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors, p. 61.

²³ RCP 9, f. 23 (6 Oct. 1643). The Company of Pastors was a body comprised of the pastors of the city and the surrounding countryside, and the theology faculty of the Academy. The Company met once a week, usually on Fridays, to discuss and ameliorate issues within the Reformed churches of Geneva and Reformed churches of early modern Europe. However, it was not officially designated by Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Ordinances, but was a more organic group. This gave the Company very little legal power in the city of Geneva. See, Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors, pp. 24–31.

²⁴ Robert Browne was a Puritan separatist in England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He argued that episcopacy was ‘anti-Christian’ and a holdover from the Catholic past. Browne’s works, alongside other separatists, soon were lumped together by their opponents and labeled ‘Brownisme’. See, D. Hall, The Puritans: A Transatlantic History (Princeton, 2019), pp. 69–75.

²⁵ RCP 9, f. 23 (6 Oct. 1643).

²⁶ RCP 9, f. 36 (8 March 1644).

²⁷ RCP 9, f. 36 (8 March 1644).

²⁸ ‘Et sur tout les aider par nos prières envers Dieu, recommandons à sa grace et eux et toutes les églises de ce royaume.’ RCP 9, f. 36 (8 March 1644).

²⁹ RCP 9, ff. 36-37. Milton notes that this was a common complication for the English Divines during the interregnum as both Parliamentarians and Royalists found uses for Geneva’s divided response. Milton, ‘Contesting the Church of England,’ p. 1088.

³⁰ RCP 9, ff. 36–37.

³¹ RC 143, f. 37, 9 March 1644.

³² Milton refers to Diodati as being ‘universally respected’ in England due to his influence at the Synod of Dort and his annotations on the Bible that were translated by order of the House of Commons in 1641. Milton, ‘Contesting the Church of England,’ p. 1088.

³³ Theodore Tronchin (1582–1657) was a Genevan theologian and pastor who was sent with Diodati to the Synod of Dort as Geneva’s representatives. Alexandre Morus (1616-70) was a French theologian who taught at the Geneva Academy in the mid-seventeenth century. He was eventually forced to leave Geneva due to his disagreements with the Genevan pastors and politicians on predestination. Both Tronchin and Morus served as rector of the Geneva Academy. S. Stelling-Michaud, Le Livre du Recteur de l’Académie de Genève (1559-1878) (Geneva, 1959), pp. 78–79.

³⁴ RCP 9, ff. 37. The Company also noted a week later that the letter from Westminster was translated out of Latin and into French by Theodore Tronchin so that all the ministers and magistrates could better advise Diodati on the proper response: RCP 9, f. 37 (15 March 1644).

³⁵ RCP 9, f. 42 (26 April 1644).

³⁶ RCP 9, f. 44 (17 May 1644).

³⁷ The Registers of the Company of Pastors does not include what these small changes were. RCP 9, f. 44 (17 May 1644).

³⁸ RC 143, f. 59 (27 May 1644).

³⁹ RCP 9, f. 44 (17 May 1644).

⁴⁰ Gaberel, Histoire de l’Église, p. 403.

⁴¹ RCP 9, f. 44 (10 May 1644).

⁴² RCP 9, f. 78 (25 July 1645).

⁴³ RCP 9, f. 79 (1 August 1645). This is most likely in regards to the continued fighting in the Thirty Years War. The War was almost at end, but the cost, in both blood and treasure, was significant for Europe and Germany in particular.

⁴⁴ RCP 9, f. 81 (15 August 1645).

⁴⁵ RCP 9, f. 85 (17 October 1645).

⁴⁶ RCP 9, f. 85 (17 October 1645).

⁴⁷ The Registers of the Company of Pastors do not mention the affaire d’Angleterre again until Charles’s beheading.

⁴⁸ Literally ‘le Royaume de la Grande Bretagne.’ RCP 9, f. 209 (23 February 1649).

⁴⁹ RCP 9, f. 209 (23 February 1649).

⁵⁰ The Company of Pastors approved the general prayers for the King of Great Britain on 23 February 1649: RCP 9, f. 209.

⁵¹ ‘On dit qu’il faut se taire; je ne le puis; nous devrions faire des manifestes pour montrer que nous condamnons cette action, d’autant plus qu’on a voulu dire que des étincelles de ceci viennent de Genève.’ Gaberel, Histoire, p. 404.

⁵² RCP 9, ff. 210–211 (2 March 1649).

⁵³ J. Calvin, La Forme des Prières et Chants Ecclésiastiques Genève, 1542 (Kassel, 1959).

⁵⁴ The animosity between pastoral councils and government magistrates is, of course, not unique to Geneva. As a close comparison, Amy Nelson Burnett chronicled the various issues between the pastors and politicians of Basel in the years following the Reformation. See, A. Burnett, Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and their Message in Basel, 1529–1629 (Oxford, 2006), pp. 68–77.

⁵⁵ Manetsch, Calvin’s Company, p. 64. Calvin himself took time from some of his earliest sermons to admonish the magistrates of Geneva to their faces during the early years of the Reformation: Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation, p. 12.

⁵⁶ Manetsch gives a detailed explanation of these quarrels, particularly over who has the power to establish the moderator of the Company of Pastors and for how long. See, Manetsch, Calvin’s Company, pp. 61–67.

⁵⁷ The minutes explicitly refer to these people as ‘les Independants.’ RC 148, f. 332 (23 June 1649). Referring to this faction as ‘Independents’ is complicated, but probably acknowledges the extreme wing of the English Civil Wars and those in England who wanted to prioritize ‘liberty of conscience’ in religious matters. The Small Council seems to be indicating that, in their opinion, Oliver Cromwell was in the Independent camp. See, B. Worden, The English Civil Wars (London, 2009), pp. 83–85.

⁵⁸ RC 148, f. 332.

⁵⁹ RC 148, f. 613.

⁶⁰ Grell, Brethren in Christ, pp. 101–107.

⁶¹ Grell, Brethren in Christ, p. 104.

⁶² Grell, Brethren in Christ, pp.104–5.

⁶³ V. Larminie, ‘John Davenant (bap. 1572, d. 1641),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008).

⁶⁴ Larminie, ‘John Davenant’.

⁶⁵ M. Todd, ‘Samuel Ward (1572–1643),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008).

⁶⁶ Todd, ‘Samuel Ward.’

⁶⁷ Todd, ‘Samuel Ward.’

⁶⁸ J. Coffey, ‘Walter Balcanquhall (c. 1586 – 1645),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008).

⁶⁹ Coffey, ‘Walter Balcanquhall’.

⁷⁰ Coffey, ‘Walter Balcanquhall’.

⁷¹ Grell, Brethren in Christ, pp. 16, 297.

⁷² Grell, Brethren in Christ, p. 14.

⁷³ Grell, Brethren in Christ, p. 94.

⁷⁴ Grell, Brethren in Christ, pp. 95–96.

⁷⁵ G. Campbell, ‘Charles Diodati (1609/10 - 1638),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).

⁷⁶ Campbell, ‘Charles Diodati’.

⁷⁷ This is in reference to the execution of the Spanish doctor Michael Servetus in 1553 in Geneva.

⁷⁸ RC 148, ff. 127–128.

⁷⁹ RC 148, f. 166 (4 April 1649).

⁸⁰ ‘Erastianism’ is the belief that civil authorities are superior to church authorities even in issues related to church doctrine and practice. In particular, Erastianism espouses that the right of excommunication and execution belong to the civil magistrates alone. For more on Prynne see, W. Lamont, ‘William Prynne (1600-1669)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).

⁸¹ Lamont, ‘William Prynne’.

⁸² Basel held significant influence over Geneva since the early years of the Reformation due to their co-financing with Berne of Geneva’s fights for independence against the Duke of Savoy. However, it was also commonplace for the Reformed cities of Switzerland to interact on important decisions throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

⁸³ The Latin title was, Fulcimentum gladii Christianorum Regum, Principuum & Magistratuum … contra hodiernos Ecclesiae Anglicae turbatores, veterum Donatistarum & Monasteriensium Anabaptistarum aemulos, solidissime vindicator. See: G. Bonnant, Le livre genevois sous l’Ancien Regime (Geneva, 1999), p. 282.

⁸⁴ RCP 9, f. 244 (9 November 1649).

⁸⁵ National Archives UK, SP 96/6/1, f. 127-128 (6 June 1660).

⁸⁶ National Archives UK, SP 96/6/2, f. 139rv (1 July 1662).

⁸⁷ F. Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology (3 vols., trans. G. Giger; ed. J. T. Dennison; Phillipsburg, Pa, 1997), III pp. 199–210; 293–306; 332–336 (XVIII.xxi.1-27; XVIII.xxxii.1–28; XVIII.xxxiv.44–51).

⁸⁸ RCP 9, f. 242 (5 October 1649).

⁸⁹ Again, Whatmore’s research illustrates Geneva’s reliance on both England and France into the period of the French Revolution and the dangers of Geneva being considered ‘revolutionary’ during the late-eighteenth century. Whatmore, Against War and Empire, pp. 98–103.

⁹⁰ Whatmore, Against War and Empire, p. 101.