Reformation · 1563

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

John Foxe (1516-1587)

First published in 1563 as Actes and Monuments, John Foxe's account chronicles the persecution and martyrdom of Christians from the apostolic age through the Protestant Reformation, dwelling at length on those burned under Mary Tudor. This abridged edition, prepared by William Byron Forbush, gathers the lives and sufferings of the martyrs alongside chapters on Wickliffe, Luther, Tyndale, Calvin, Bunyan, and Wesley. Later editors extended Foxe's original sixteenth century work with continuation chapters carrying the account well beyond his lifetime, through the Quakers, the eighteenth century revival, and into the missionary era. The book shaped English Protestant identity for generations, standing second only to the Bible in many households, and fixed the memory of the Marian martyrs in the nation's conscience. Its vivid eyewitness scenes made the cost of faith concrete for ordinary readers.

15 hrs total · 22 chapters