26 Facts About John Foxe

John Foxe resigned from his college in 1545 after becoming a Protestant and thereby subscribing to beliefs condemned by the Church of England under Henry VIII.

John Foxe walked warily as befitted one who had published Protestant books in his own name.

The latter group, led by John Knox, was supported by Foxe; the former was led by Richard Cox.

When John Foxe received reports from England about the ongoing religious persecution there, he wrote a pamphlet urging the English nobility to use their influence with the queen to halt it.

John Foxe feared that the appeal would be useless, and his fears proved correct.

When Knox attacked Mary Stuart in his famous The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, John Foxe apparently criticized Knox's "rude vehemency" although their friendship seems to have remained unimpaired.

John Foxe was so poor that he was unable to travel with his family until money was sent to him.

John Foxe began his Book of Martyrs in 1552, during the reign of Edward VI, with the Marian Persecutions still in the future.

In 1554, while still in exile, John Foxe published in Latin at Strasbourg the first shadow of his great book, emphasising the persecution of the English Lollards during the 15th century.

John Foxe had gained "a substantial reputation" through his Latin work.

John Foxe published a third edition in 1576, but it was virtually a reprint of the second, although printed on inferior paper and in smaller type.

John Foxe based his accounts of martyrs before the early modern period on previous writers, including Eusebius, Bede, Matthew Paris, and many others.

Foxe's own contribution was his compilation of the English martyrs from the period of the Lollards through the persecution of Mary I Here Foxe had primary sources of all kinds to draw on: episcopal registers, reports of trials, and the testimony of eyewitnesses, a remarkable range of sources for English historical writing of the period.

John Foxe's material is more accurate when he deals with his own period, although it is selectively presented, and the book is not an impartial account.

Sometimes John Foxe copied documents verbatim; sometimes he adapted them to his own use.

John Foxe made unambiguous side glosses on his text, such as "Mark the apish pageants of these popelings" and "This answer smelleth of forging and crafty packing", as Foxe's age was one of strong language as well as of cruel deeds.

John Foxe never visited the cathedral or performed any duties associated with the position except to appoint a vicar, William Masters, a highly educated fellow Protestant and former Marian exile.

John Foxe's name was on a list of "godly preachers which have utterly forsaken Antichrist and all his Romish rags" that was presented to Lord Robert Dudley some time between 1561 and 1564.

At some point before 1569, John Foxe left Norfolk's house and moved to his own on Grub Street.

In 1570, at the request of Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London, John Foxe preached the Good Friday sermon at Paul's Cross.

John Foxe replied that he had been misunderstood: he had argued only that if the French king permitted no foreign power to rule over him, the French Protestants would immediately lay down their arms.

In 1571, Foxe edited an edition of the Anglo-Saxon gospels, in parallel with the Bishops' Bible translation, under the patronage of Archbishop Parker, who was interested in Anglo-Saxon and whose chaplain, John Jocelyn was an Anglo-Saxon scholar.

John Foxe's introduction argues that the vernacular scripture was an ancient custom in England.

John Foxe was so bookish that he ruined his health by his persistent study.

John Foxe was so well known as a man of prayer that Francis Drake credited his victory at Cadiz in part to John Foxe's praying.

Certainly, John Foxe had a hatred of cruelty in advance of his age.