John Foxe
born 1516, Boston, Lincolnshire, Eng.
died April 18, 1587, Cripplegate, London
English Puritan preacher and author of The
Book of Martyrs, a graphic and polemic account
of those who suffered for the cause of
Protestantism. Widely read, often the most
valued book beside the Bible in the households
of English Puritans, it helped shape popular
opinion about Roman Catholicism for at least a
century. The feeling of the English populace
against Spain, important in the politics of the
age, was fanned by the book’s description of the
Inquisition. It dealt chiefly, however, with the
martyrdom of English Protestants from the 14th
century through the reign of Queen Mary I in
Foxe’s own time.
After studying at the University of Oxford and
holding a fellowship for seven years, Foxe fell
under suspicion of harbouring Protestant views
more extreme than the authorities of his college
would allow. He resigned and in 1547 moved to
London, where he became tutor to the
grandchildren of the duke of Norfolk. He was
ordained a deacon of the Church of England. Foxe
worked for the Reformation, writing several
tracts. He also began his account of martyrs but
had carried it no further than 1500 when the
accession of the Roman Catholic queen Mary I in
1553 forced him to flee overseas. In Strasbourg,
France, he published his partly completed
martyrology in Latin as Commentarii rerum in
ecclesia gestarum (1554; “Commentaries on
Affairs Within the Church”). He then went to
Frankfurt, where he lent a moderating support to
the Calvinistic party of John Knox, and thence
to Basel, Switz., where he wrote a burning
appeal to the English nobility to restrain the
queen from persecuting Protestants: Ad inclytos
ac praepotentes Angliae proceres (“To the
Renowned and Powerful Nobles of England,” 1557).
With the aid of manuscripts sent to him from
England, he carried his account of the martyrs
up to 1556 and had it printed in 1559, the year
following the accession to the throne of the
Protestant queen, Elizabeth I.
Foxe returned to London and devoted himself
to the completion of his great work. Perusing
official registers and using the memories of
eyewitnesses, he enlarged his story. His English
translation was printed in March 1563 under the
title Actes and Monuments of these Latter and
Perillous Dayes. It immediately acquired the
popular name The Book of Martyrs. In 1570 he
produced his greatly improved second edition.
This was the crown of his achievement; he made
few changes in his third (1576) and fourth
(1583) editions.
Foxe was ordained an Anglican priest in 1560,
but having Puritan scruples he refused all
offices, obtaining two church stipends that
required no duties. He often preached, however,
and a sermon delivered at Paul’s Cross (A
Sermon, Of Christ Crucified [1570]) had a wide
sale. In the plague of 1563 he ministered to the
victims and wrote a moving tract of consolation.
When Anabaptists in 1575 and Jesuits in 1581
were condemned to death, Foxe wrote vehement
letters to Queen Elizabeth and her councilors,
begging reprieves.
Foxe’s monument is his book. It has been
criticized as prolix, carelessly edited,
one-sided, sometimes credulous, but it is
factually detailed and preserves much firsthand
material on the English Reformation unobtainable
elsewhere.
