Foxe's Book of Martyrs
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The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe (first published by John Day in 1563, with many subsequent editions, also by Day), is an apocalyptically oriented English Protestant account of the persecutions of Protestants, mainly in England, and other groups from former centuries who were deemed by Foxe and others of his contemporaries, such as John Bale, to be forerunners of the Protestant Reformation through whom the lineage of the church of England could be traced. Though the work is commonly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the full title is Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, touching Matters of the Church. The work was lavishly produced and illustrated with a large number of woodcuts.
The first part of the book covered early Christian martyrs, a brief history of the medieval church, including the Inquisitions, and a history of the Wycliffite of Lollard movement, as Wycliffe was deemed by men such as Foxe to be "the morning star" of the Reformation. The second part dealt with the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and the third with the reign of Mary.
Foxe's account of Mary's reign and the martyrdoms that took place during it became extremely influential in the formation of an English and Protestant national identity. Foxe's intention was to attack the Roman Catholic Church, centred primarily on the persecution under Mary Tudor, and to establish a historical justification for the foundation of the Church of England as the contemporary embodiment of the true and faithful catholic church rather than a newly invented religion or sect.
Foxe's account of the Marian years is based on Robert Crowley's 1559 extension of a 1549 chronicle history by Thomas Cooper, itself an extension of a work begun by Thomas Lanquet. (Cooper, who became a bishop under Elizabeth, stridently objected to Crowley's appropriation of his history and soon issued two new "correct" editions. It is interesting to note that Cooper, Crowley and Foxe were all students and fellows at the same time at Magdalen College in Oxford University; prior to his and Crowley's apparently pressured resignation for the college, Foxe objected in a letter to college president that all three were persecuted by some masters of the college for their evangelical beliefs.)
Foxe continued to collect material and to expand the work throughout his life, producing three revised editions. After the completion of the second edition (1570), the Convocation ordered that every cathedral church should own a copy.
Foxe's work was enormous (the second edition filling two heavy folio volumes with a total of 2300 pages – estimated to be twice as long as Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) and its production by the printer John Day (who worked closely with Foxe) was the largest publishing project undertaken in England up to that time.
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Martyrology
- Martyrs Mirror (1660), by Thieleman J. van Braght
[edit] External links
- John Foxe. Acts and Monuments. The Variorum Edition. (hriOnline, Sheffield 2004).
- Foxe Digital Project (Ohio State University) Images of selected woodcuts and sections of text on the Book of Martyrs.
- Catholic Encyclopedia entry
- Text of the Book of martyrs (unabridged, but not yet complete) [1]
