Valérand Poullain

Valérand Poullain (Pollanus, Pullanus) (1509?–1557) was a French Calvinist minister.[1] In a troubled career as minister, he was pastor to a congregation of Flemish or Walloon weavers brought to Southwest England around 1548.[2]

Life

Poullain was originally from Lille. He was willing to replace the martyred Pierre Brully at the Strasburg church, in 1544–1545. But there was local opposition from other local reformers, who found him unreasonable, notably Johannes Sturm. Poullain failed to gain the position from a short list of five, all of whom were required to preach in front of a committee including Sturm, Immanuel Tremellius, and Peter Martyr, supported by Martin Bucer and others. He shortly left the city for a teaching position at Romberg,[3] being succeeded as pastor by Pierre Alexandre and then shortly by Jean Garnier.[4]

Poullain owed his invitation to England to Jan Utenhove.[5] He was in Canterbury, working with a French refugee congregation, around 1547.[5][6] The weavers he brought occupied the building of the dissolved Glastonbury Abbey from 1551 to 1554, initially under the auspices of Lord Protector Somerset, and using a Protestant liturgy of Poullain's devising.[7] Poullain was probably an influence on the liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer of Edward VI.[8][9][10] After the accession of Mary I of England Poullain left England with some 24 of his weavers, going to Wesel, and then Frankfurt. He became acquainted with John Foxe there; but a move to Basel led to his appearance before a matrimonial court in a case concerning his disputed betrothal.[11][12]

Later, in 1556, Poullain was in charge of a quarrelsome French refugee congregation at Frankfurt. Jean Calvin himself had to intervene: Poullain was cleared of allegations against him, but had to resign his position,[13] and Calvin questioned his judgement.[14]

Notes
  1. http://www.csph.ca/papers/2009%20Dr.%20Whytock%27s%20Paper.pdf%5B%5D
  2. "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer". justus.anglican.org.
  3. Philippe Denis, Les églises d'étrangers en pays rhénans, 1538-1564 (1984), pp. 72-4. On Google Books.
  4. René Bornert, La réforme protestante du culte à Strasbourg au XVIe siècle (1981), p. 194. On Google Books.
  5. "Utenhove, John" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  6. Burn, John Southerden (21 May 2018). "The history of the French, Walloon, Dutch and other foreign Protestant refugees settled in England from the reign of Henry VIII to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; with notices of their trade and commerce, copious extracts from the registers, lists of the early settlers, ministers, &c., and an appendix containing copies of the charter of Edward VI, &c". London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans – via Internet Archive.
  7. "Glastonbury: Town - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  8. Warren, Frederick Edward (1911). "Prayer, Book of Common" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 258–262.
  9. "Evolution of the English Prayer Book". www.lectionarystudies.com.
  10. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Cranmer (1996), pp.505-6.
  11. "John Foxe's Book of Martyrs". Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  12. He is said to have married in 1547 a sister of the wife of John Hooper. Archived 2011-05-19 at the Wayback Machine
  13. Wulfert De Greef, The Writings of John Calvin: an introductory guide (2008), p. 47. On Google Books.
  14. Hugh Young Reyburn (21 May 2018). "John Calvin: His Life, Letters, and Work". Hodder and Stoughton – via Internet Archive.

Further reading
  • Karl Bauer (1927), Valérand Poullain: Ein Kirchengeschichtliches Zeitbild aus der Mitte des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts
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