No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Foxe's Martyrs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
Obviously, the most valuable parts of Foxe's Acts and Monuments are the accounts which he gives of the disciplinary measures by means of which the ecclesiastical authorities of England endeavored to make good their claim to supreme jurisdiction over the faith and morals of their subjects, particularly during the reign of Henry VIII and that of Mary. Although Foxe repeatedly stated that he “professed no such title to write of martyrs,” it was as a history of ecclesiastical persecution primarily, that the work was hailed with delight by all factions of English Protestants. The public lost no time dubbing it “Foxe's Book of Martyrs,” the title by which it has ever since been popularly known. Those who had safely lived through the dreadful tempora Mariana, either as exiles abroad or as heretics at home, eagerly scanned its pages for some mention of relatives or acquaintances who had perished in the flames rekindled by Mary and her councillors. Many of its readers, not looking for it, were no doubt gratified as well as surprised to find their own names woven into the story of religious and patriotic heroism, a factor which contributed not a little to the enormous popularity of the work. It was not, then, for the history of the Waldenses or the Turks or the Husites that people turned to the Acts and Monuments, at least not primarily; their chief interest lay in Foxe's history of the English martyrs —Lollard, Henrician, and Marian.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1934
References
1 This monumental work was published first in Latin at Strassburg (1554), then, also in Latin but enlarged to bring the story down to the death of Mary, at Basle (1559), and finally, upon his return from exile, in an English translation with much additional material tracing the history of the church from the days of the twelve apostles, at London (1563). During the remainder of the author's life three new editions were called for (1570, 1576, and 1583). There have been numerous editions, translations, abridgments, and adaptations since. In the later editions prepared by Foxe the work assumed tremendous proportions, being, it has been estimated, about twice the sire of Gibbon's Decline and Fail of the Roman Empire.
2 III, p. 705. The references to the Acts and Monuments in this paper are to the eight volume edition (1843–9) prepared by S. R. Cattley.
3 Next to the Bible and the Prayer Book, perhaps no other work of a religious character was so widely known and read in Elizabethan and early Stuart times, both in England and New England. Cf. Ed. Ed. Fueter, Geschichte der neueren Historiographie, p. 257.Google Scholar
4 When the publishers of the ill-fated edition of 1837–41 declared in a prospectus of the forthcoming work that Foxe must be regarded as an authority on the history of the church, S. R. Maitland, in a series of six letters to the editor of The British Magazine, proved that at least for the earlier periods of the church Foxe was altogether unreliable. Cf. The British Magazine, XI (1836), p. 620 and XII (1837), pp. 7, 137, 253, 376, 496, and 620.Google Scholar
5 p. 92, (edition of 1660).
6 Stone, J. M., Studies from Cloister and Court, p. 254 sqGoogle Scholar. Cf. also Month, XCV, p. 352.
7 p. 586.
8 Cf. Dictionary of National Biography, s. v. “Foxe.”
9 The research for this paper was done principally in the library of Cornell University, which possesses excellent collections of materials for the period of the Reformation.
10 III, p. 283f.
11 E. g., martyrdom of William Gardner, VII, p. 282, and death of Richard Hun, IV, p. 198, 205.
12 E. g., martyrdom of Christopher Wade, VI, p. 321.
13 E. g., martyrdom of Richard Hook, VII, p. 339; Robert Silkeb, IV, p. 558; Seven Godly Martyrs, IV, p. 557.
14 IV, p. 225.
15 The Remains of Archbishop Grindal (published by the Parker Society), p. 237.Google Scholar
16 “Jam quod ad historiam Martyrum attinet, Sampsonus et ego existimamus optimum fore, ut ad aliquod tempus premeretur, donec ex Anglia et certiora and plura comparemus … Levis erit jactura temporis, si rerum copia et certitudine compensetur.”
17 E. g., Tewkesbury, (IV, p. 688 sq.) and Bainham, (IV, p. 697 sq.)
18 Cf.Tyndale's, , Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, The Supper of the Lord (published by Parker Society), p. 97, note 6.Google Scholar
19 Cf. Townsend's, CanonLife of Foxe prefixed to the first volume of the 1843–1849 edition, p. 204.Google Scholar
20 History of England, V. p. 486, (edition of 1849).
21 This is Nichols' own finding. See his introductory remarks.
22 IIV, pp. 174–246.
23 Cf. Summers, W. H., The Lollards of the Chiltern Hills, p. 104 sq.Google Scholar
24 III, p. 107.
25 III, p. 131.
26 E. g., “Examination of Nicholas Hereford, Philip Reppyngdon, and John Ashton,” Acts and Monuments, III, p. 31Google Scholar and Wilkins', Concilia, III, p. 160.Google Scholar
27 Quoted by Strype, , Annals of the Reformation, I, i. p. 376.Google Scholar
28 Ibid., loc. cit.
29 E. g., IV, p. 174.
30 V, p. 321.
31 Ibid.
32 III, p. 249 sq.
33 III, p. 705. Bale's works are reprinted in the first volume of the publications of the Parker Society.
34 V. pp. 537–50.
35 IV, pp. 183–198; 205.
36 E. G., Bale made some serious mistakes in his account of Cobham's death. Cf. Dictionary of National Biography, s. v. “John Oldcastle.”
37 Select Poetry, I, xix and pp. 161–174.
38 p. 59.
39 Arber's edition, I, p. 101.
40 Compare, e. g., the sequence and spelling in the first two stanzas of the poem with the sequence and spelling in the Acts and Monuments.
41 Cf. the title-page of the English translation by Martin A. Sharpe Hume.
42 Chap. XI; Acts and Monuments, V, p. 439.Google Scholar
43 Chap. XXIII; Acts and Monuments, V, p. 180.Google Scholar
44 Chap. LXXXIV; Acts and Monuments, V, pp. 414–438.Google Scholar
45 Published by the Camden Society in two volumes. (New Series, XI and XX).
46 Published by the Camden Society (XLII). Cf., e. g., pp. 59, 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, 340, 341, 344, 346.
47 Cf. Pollard, A. F., The History of England from the Accession of Edward VI to the Death of Elizabeth, p. 153, note 5.Google Scholar
48 Quoted by Townsend, op cit., p. 177 sq. A copy of Harpsfield's now exceedingly rare Dialogi sex contra Summi Pontificatus oppugnatores may be seen in the McAlpin collection in the library of Union Theological Seminary.
49 V, p. 497, note 1.
50 V, p. 498, note 2.
51 V, p. 496f. Printed for the first time in the 1570 edition.
52 p. 858 sq. (edition of 1809).
53 Lollardy and the Reformation in England, I, p. 359.Google Scholar
54 Townsend, op. cit., p. 199.
55 Quoted by Nichols, op. cit., p. 69.
56 Ibid.
57 Ecclesiastical Memorials, III, pt. ii, p. 137.Google Scholar
58 Op. cit., p. 261.
59 VII, p. 226 sq.
60 Smith, op. cit., p. 299.
61 I, p. 3.
62 IV. p. 201.
63 For a study of some of Foxe's martyrs, see S. R. Maitland's Essays on Subjects Connected with the Reformation.