Biography
John Foxe was born in 1516 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. His father died when he was young, and his mother married again. He was a bright boy and won a place at Oxford, first at Brasenose College and later at Magdalen College, where he became a fellow. He was a scholar of Latin and Greek and was drawn to the teaching of the Reformers. In the 1540s he came to believe that the doctrines of the Church of Rome could not be defended from Scripture, and in 1545 he resigned his place at Oxford rather than keep a position that required him to hold beliefs he rejected.
Those years were hard. He had little money and few friends. He worked for a time as a tutor in the household of a gentleman in Warwickshire and later in the home of the family of the young Duke of Norfolk's relatives. He married Agnes Randall, and they began a family. During the reign of Edward VI, when the English church moved toward reform, he was ordained a deacon and began to write. He believed that the church needed to see its history in light of the Scriptures.
Then in 1553 the young king died and Mary Tudor took the throne. She was determined to bring England back to Rome. Many leading Protestants were arrested, and in 1555 the burnings began. Over the next few years, nearly three hundred men and women were burned at the stake for their faith. Foxe left England and fled to the Continent. He lived as an exile in Strasbourg, Frankfurt and Basel. In Basel he worked as a proofreader at a printing press to earn his living, and the family lived in poverty.
It was in exile that he began to gather the stories of the martyrs. He collected letters, accounts and records from those who had witnessed the trials and deaths of believers. He wrote to friends in England asking for news and listened to those who escaped. He published a first version of his work in Latin in 1554 and then began to expand it. He was determined that the names and last words of these people would not be forgotten. When Mary died in 1558 and Elizabeth took the throne, he went home and continued the work.
In 1563 he published Acts and Monuments in English, a great book of more than a thousand pages that told the story of the suffering of the church from the earliest centuries up to his own day. The central part told of the Protestants who died under Mary. It was widely known as the Book of Martyrs. It was printed again and again, with new material added in 1570 and later editions. Churches were required to display it, often chained next to the Bible. It was read aloud in homes. For generations it shaped how the English people understood their faith, and it stirred a sense that to follow Christ could cost everything.
He was a man of compassion. He did not agree with everything the government did, and he spoke out for the oppressed. In 1575 he wrote to Queen Elizabeth to plead for the lives of a group of Anabaptists who had been condemned to be burned, saying that the fires should be left to rest. He held that the faith should not be forced by the sword. He also refused to wear the clerical vestments that the church required, because he thought they smacked of Rome. Because of that he never rose high in the church. He remained a simple preacher and writer in London.
The book had weaknesses, and they should be stated plainly. Foxe wrote with strong feeling against the Roman Church and sometimes accepted accounts that were exaggerated or that he could not verify. He also viewed many events through the lens of a conflict that had cost him much. Historians have found errors, and they have also found that much of his work was carefully done and that he preserved records that would otherwise have been lost.
He died on April 18, 1587, in London, and was buried at St Giles' Cripplegate. He left behind one of the most widely read books of the English Reformation. The people it described had often been poor and unknown. He made sure that the world would hear their names. He wanted the church to remember that the faith it enjoys was bought by blood, and that those who held it faithfully until the end are counted precious by God.