Foxe, John (1516–87)
Foxe, John (1516–87), “What storms and tempests it [the church] hath overpast, wondrous it is to behold.” The works of church historians rarely influence history itself, but John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments of Matters Happening to the Church—commonly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs—is the exception that proves the rule. “It is hard to overemphasize the impact his Acts and Monuments had the 20 years following its 1563 publication,” writes historian David Loades. “By the second edition (1570), it was part of the national myth.… Foxe provided both a history and theology for the triumph of the Reformation.” Wonders to behold Foxe’s life itself was shaped by trials. He lost his father as a youth, and his relationship with his stepfather remained cool. At Oxford his brilliance and “indefatigable zeal and industry” earned him a master’s degree and a fellowship, but when he cast his lot p 352 with emerging Protestantism, he lost his fellowship, his family disown...