Preface

Thos. J. Kipliart—
C I * C I M H ATI, O.
Presented to the
LIBRARIES of the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
Nancy Kiphart Logan
In memory of Her grandfather Thomas J. Kiphart
FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS
[From a Contemporary Print.]
FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS
AN EDITION FOR THE PEOPLE
Prepared fay
W. GRINTON BERRY, M.A.
9
EATON & MAINS: NEW YORK JENNINGS & GRAHAM: CINCINNATI 1907
EDITORS PREFACE
Only a very few words of explanation are neces- sary to introduce this edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, a work which used to hold a place in thousands of households by the side of The Pilgrim's Progress and the Bible, and which is well fitted, at the present hour, to do great service for Evangelical and Protestant truth.
Foxe is undoubtedly a vivid, powerful, truly interesting writer with a style whose simplicity covers elements both of tenderness and indignation; and some of his narratives are among the finest in the English language ; but in his book, as he left it, he did not always arrange his materials in the way most likely to attract the reader of the present day. His literary craftsmanship in the making of phrase, sentence, and paragraph is noticeable ; but he was markedly deficient in literary architectonics. He did not always build up his hewn stones into a simple structure, the lines of which could at once be taken in by the observer. An endeavour has been made in this edition to remedy that defect. The modern reader is won by clear and simple arrange- ment of what is placed before him ; accordingly the Editor has striven hard to merit the commendation of having secured that.
The Editor believes that nothing essential has been omitted in this edition, that he has conserved everything in The Book of Martyrs that most
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EDITORS PREFACE
obviously makes for edification. Foxe, when he had the material, narrated at great length the examina- tions of the martyrs before their judges. Inevitably the same points of controversy emerge, the same questions are asked and the same answers given — again and again. The Editor of this edition has thought it necessary to avoid these repetitions, while having an anxious care that in the cases of the more illustrious martyrs — to each of whom a chapter is devoted — the truths for which they offered up their lives are fully and explicitly stated.
Further, the biographical part of Foxe's immortal work has in this edition been disentangled from the very lengthy dissertations on general religious history in which the illustrious author delighted. Foxe's plan was to tell his story under each reign, then when he came to the hour in which his hero struck upon the scene he pulled up, began to relate the biography of his subject from the beginning of his career, and, that done, returned to his main narrative. National history and personal biography were more mixed up than they need have been, and repetitions were frequent. These saltatory methods led to confusion, the biography did not stand out in sharp relief, the reader was not clearly pointed to it, and the general impression of the whole on his mind was blurred. The discursiveness of Foxe's work, in its original form, is also a bar to its hearty acceptance by the modern reader, for of all characteristics discursiveness is that of which the latter is most impatient. He likes narratives that are clean-cut, swift, full of movement, making straight for the point.
The Editor has kept these last-mentioned essential
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EDITORS PREFACE
points in mind all the time of his preparation of this volume. The result, it is hoped, proves that Foxe's narratives, judged merely on literary grounds, are among the most graphic and the most readable in our literature. Add to that, that the great theme with which this famous book deals — the falsehood, aggressiveness, and intolerance of Romanism and its cruelty, which always merely waits its opportunity — are topics full of living significance at this hour, and it becomes reasonable to entertain hope that this volume may receive a great popular welcome and again nobly serve the cause for which it was written.
Perhaps it ought to be added that the Editor is quite aware that the Emperor Constantine, Wickliff, and Luther, whose lives are narrated in this book, were not martyrs in the current acceptation of the word. But the original meaning of martyr is witness, and these were assuredly witnesses whose testimony to the Gospel was of great value. Besides, every reader would have felt that the volume was imperfect without these sketches.
W. GRINTON BERRY.
JOHN FOXE THE MARTYROLOGIST 1
John Foxe was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1 516. He was a studious youth, and, aided by his friends, was sent to Oxford when he was sixteen years old. He became B.A. in 1537, probationer Fellow of Magdalen College 1538, full Fellow 1539, lecturer in Logic 1539- 1540, and M.A. in 1543. His intimate friends at Oxford included Hugh Latimer and William Tyndale, and like them he strongly favoured Protestantism. It was this fact which led in 1545 to the resignation of Foxe and five other Fellows of Magdalen.
On leaving Oxford he received temporary employ- ment as tutor in the Lucy family at Charlecote, Warwickshire. Early in 1547 he married at Charlecote Church Agnes Randall, the daughter of an old Coventry friend, and came up to London to seek a livelihood. Before the end of 1548 Foxe was appointed tutor to the orphan children of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who had been executed in 1547. There were two boys, Thomas, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, and Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton, together with three girls. Foxe joined his pupils at the castle of Reigate, a manor belonging to their grandfather, the Duke of Norfolk.
1 This notice is a condensation of the account given in the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xx., by S. L. Lee.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Foxe was ordained deacon by Ridley, Bishop of London, in St Paul's Cathedral, in 1550. Sub- sequently he preached at Reigate (though he had no pastoral charge there), being the first to preach Protestantism there. Meanwhile he was publishing theological tracts and reading much in church history.
When Queen Mary came to the throne in July 1553 an anxious time for Foxe began. The old Duke of Norfolk, a Catholic, was released from prison, and immediately dismissed Foxe from the tutorship of his grandchildren. The majority of Foxe's friends left England for the Continent at the first outbreak of persecution, and Foxe determined to follow them. He sailed from Ipswich to Nieuport, whence he proceeded to Strasburg, where he met his friend Edmund Grindal. He had brought with him in manuscript the first part of a Latin treatise on the persecution of Reformers in Europe from the time of WyclifFe to his own day. This volume, dealing mainly with WyclifFe and Huss, forms the earliest draft of The Acts and Monuments (so generally known as The Book of Martyrs), and was published
in J554-
After a stay of about a year at Frankfort, where Foxe came into intimate contact with the Scottish reformer, John Knox, he removed to Basle, where he suffered acutely from poverty. He found em- ployment, however, as a reader of the press in the printing-office of Johann Herbst or Oporinus, an enthusiastic Protestant and publisher of Protestant books, who allowed Foxe adequate leisure for his own books.
Meanwhile Foxe was receiving through Grindal reports of the persecutions in England. Bradford's
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
case was one of the earliest he obtained. When reports of Cranmer's examination arrived Foxe prepared then for publication. Grindal urged Foxe to complete at once his account of the persecutions of reformers in England as far as the end of Henry