Pierre Jurieu and the Creation of a Protestant Imagined Community in England, 1680–1705

Abstract

This article discusses how Pierre Jurieu's (1637–1713) political journalism advanced the cause of pan-Protestantism in the later seventeenth century. It examines how Jurieu portrayed his Huguenot subjects as worthy of sympathy, as well as spelling out how that sympathy could manifest itself politically, by reinterpreting the Glorious Revolution as an event that enabled England to carry out a pan-Protestant foreign policy. This discussion demonstrates how Jurieu was characteristic of three trends that have attracted historiographical attention. Firstly, Jurieu's works were part of the later seventeenth century speeding up of time and closing in of space: he informed his readers of events in faraway regions in unprecedentedly quick time spans. Secondly, the reconstruction of Jurieu's patronage networks in the English print market casts aspersions on the idea of a pristine public sphere. Thirdly, his blending of religious and political ideas problematizes the divide between the two: his apocalyptic writings complemented his works on political economy, and vice versa. With these themes in mind, Jurieu is presented as a provider of one of the richest defences of pan-Protestantism, as well as a representative actor of the broader forces that were shaping English discourse in the later seventeenth century.