both to matters peculiar to Geneva (that is, Calvin’s triumph over the
Perrinists following the Servetus affair) and to Geneva’s status among
many of the exiles.^92 It should be recalled that the Knoxians in Frankfurt
had appealed to Geneva, and that Knox, Whittingham, Goodman and
others from Frankfurt had repaired to Geneva after the controversy. But
Geneva had been blackened in Elizabeth’s mind due to the impolitic
splenetics of John Knox in his 1558 diatribe The First Blast of the
Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. Aimed at the
Catholic monarch of England, Mary Tudor and the Catholic Regent of
Scotland, Mary of Guise, Knox’s screed against female rule provided his
status as persona non gratain England upon Elizabeth’s accession.
Elizabeth could not have countenanced Knox’s republicanism either. The
First Blastwas published in Geneva, so even in 1558 the city and all it
comprehended became odious to Elizabeth, and seemingly for this
reason alone. It later would become hateful in that it was the source both
intellectually and morally of Puritanism and Presbyterianism. In the
event, Elizabeth implicated Calvin since Knox published the book in
Geneva. Calvin had dedicated his Commentary on Isaiah to Elizabeth,
but the courier by whom he had sent the tome returned with the news
that Elizabeth did not desire Calvin’s homage, and all because of ‘certain
books lately published here’. Calvin attempted a defense of himself to
Cecil, that he held Elizabeth’s rule licit despite her sex, and that even
were her extraordinary abilities not evident, it was no reason to cavil
against her reign. Calvin held female rule to be exceptional, he confessed
to Cecil, but not unwarranted. Further, though he told Cecil that he had
said the same to Knox, he did not think that Knox was going to argue
what he did, being quite unaware, for a whole year he claimed, that
Knox had written the book. None of this was of any avail, at least as far
as Elizabeth was concerned, though what Cecil’s sentiments were toward
Geneva in 1559 are not clear, as he was someone who supported the
more austere forms of Protestantism as evidenced by his support of the
puritanically inclined Henry ‘silver-tongued’ Smith.^93
180 JOHN JEWEL AND THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CHURCH
p92MacCulloch,Boy King, p. 173–74. MacCulloch sees the Servetus affair as a catalyst
which propelled Calvin and Geneva into prominence in the Protestant world, though this
seems a facile conclusion, for the action was effected with the consent of many other
Protestants, including Melanchthon. Calvin’s own ascendancy even in Geneva was only
subsequent to the affair, albeit predicated upon it in that the Perrinists had hoped to use
Servetus to embarrass Calvin, and the stunt blew up in their faces. MacCulloch is correct,
nonetheless in his assertion that Edward’s Reformation was more influenced by Zurich
than by Geneva, though in truth, it seems even more influenced by Strasbourg with Bucer
and Martyr than by Zurich.
(^93) Smith was lecturer at St Clement Danes without Temple Bar in 1587, having been
elected by the congregation. He held this post till 1589 or 1590, just prior to his death. The
parish was under the patronage of William Cecil, who shielded him from Aylmer when the
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