In 1564 Artus de Cossé-Brissac, bishop of Coutances in Normandy, was
a member of a French diplomatic mission to Queen Elizabeth. He
took the opportunity to assert a claim to exercise episcopal jurisdiction
in the Channel Islands. The claim was less preposterous than it might
appear, since Coutances's jurisdiction in the islands had been
acknowledged throughout Henry viii's reign, and again in that of Mary.
Queen and Privy Council took the 1564 claim seriously enough to
demand a response from the islanders. After a good deal of prevarication
on their part, the crown eventually ruled against the bishop's claim, on the
grounds, as argued by the islanders, that they were subject to the bishop
of Winchester. In the event, Winchester was not to enjoy its newly
rediscovered rights for long. The islands were already in the process of
establishing their own churches, using French Calvinist forms of worship
and a fully synodical system of church government. From 1576 the
islanders governed themselves without reference to episcopal authority,
which was not to be re-established, in Jersey, until the reign of James i,
and in Guernsey that of Charles ii. When challenged the islanders
defended their position by claiming that they were indeed part of the
diocese of Coutances, and that they were following the best practice of the
reformed churches in that diocese.
This story is well established in outline, largely through the labours of
island historians, but above all through the work of two impressive
nineteenth-century French historians. A. J. Eagleston made accessible a
good deal of this work, including his own researches, but unfortunately his
book had to be posthumously published and is therefore rather piecemeal.
D. M. Ogier has now published a valuable study of the Reformation in
Guernsey. It traces the internal history in depth, stressing the conservatism
of the bulk of the population and skilfully elucidating the crucial question
of ecclesiastical property, before going on to its main concern, the impact
of the Presbyterian discipline on island society. Although Ogier
acknowledges the significance of relations between the English crown and
various French parties in explaining events, he does little to elucidate
these interactions; nor does he display much interest in the personalities
involved in his story. This article will attempt to explain both the
reluctance of successive English governments to challenge the rights of the
bishop of Coutances, and the apparent inability of the Elizabethan
government to prevent French Protestant refugees moulding the island
churches in their own image. It will also look at some of the leading figures
involved, most notably one John Aster, dean of Guernsey, a prime mover
in the events of the 1560s, whose career in military administration before
his ordination at the age of fifty has not been noticed; and more generally
it will emphasise the link between militant Protestantism and the worlds
of diplomacy and espionage.
