‘Companions in sufferings both in our owne & a strange land’: Norfolk Exiles in the Low Countries and the Formation of East Anglian Nonconformity

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of a group of Norfolk puritans who, seeking religious freedom, fled to the Low Countries in the late 1630s, were exposed to congregationalism in the English Reformed Church in Rotterdam, and then returned to their former homes at the start of the English civil wars to oversee the foundation of the congregational church movement in East Anglia. The experience of exile formed a strong bond among these Norfolk puritans, one attached to their newfound congregationalism. The cultures of dispute resolution and toleration of adult baptism found in the Rotterdam church would have a profound effect on the later churches of East Anglia.