The letters written by those imprisoned and exiled during the reign of Queen Mary served multiple purposes. They connected those physically separated, spoke words of consolation, sought relief for wives and children, discussed theology, and interrogated the relationships among sovereign, subject and God. In particular, the letters written by the imprisoned reveal a resistant, and yet at times, acquiescent response to control and confinement. These letters resonate at multiple registers as the writers seek to shape an understanding of their imprisonment onto the spiritual, mental, and political planes. They borrow themes from the Old Testament, as well as placing themselves in the epistolary tradition of the New Testament. Some of their letters draw the landscape of England as part of the apocalyptic tradition of Revelation, while others map a dual existence of earthly imprisonment and spiritual blessing. This paper will argue that the Marian letters of imprisonment collected and published as Certain Most godly fruitful and comfortable letters of such true Saintes and holy Martyrs of God and those commonly known as the Zurich Letters show that the space of imprisonment and its attendant themes were integral to the theological shaping of those living abroad and in sixteenth-century England. This theological shaping, in turn, contributed to how the reformed community, both at home and abroad, demarcated national boundaries and boundaries of self.
Prison/Exile: Controlled Spaces in Early Modern Europe 