Next to the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, the work that most profoundly stirred the souls of Christians in Elizabeth’s reign and for centuries thereafter (it is still in print) was a book called Actes and Monuments by John Foxe (1516–87). Foxe tells in a most interesting and convincing style the stories of men, women and children from apostolic times onward who had suffered and given up their lives for the sake of remaining true to Christ and his gospel. He describes vividly the persecutions of the Wyclifites or Lollards in the fifteenth century and the Reformers during the time of Henry VIII such as William Tyndale, Thomas Bilney and John Frith.
In particular he focuses on the martyrs of Mary’s (and his own) time, both the famous, such as Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer and John Hooper, and also a large number of unknown common people. In these stories the wickedness of such men as Bishop Bonner of London and Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor under Mary, is illustrated by numerous examples.
Foxe himself, in his early years a brilliant fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, was both an historian of note and a Christian of exemplary reputation. He made a hair’s breadth escape to the Continent in 1554 with Mary’s officers in hot pursuit, but returned to London in Elizabeth’s reign after the publication of his book in Latin in 1559. The first English edition came off the press of John Day, London, in 1563. Foxe was recognized by Elizabeth, who called him ‘Our Father Foxe’, and his immensely popular book became an instrument of religious tolerance. During his life he served for a time as vicar of St Giles, Cripplegate, and here he was buried following his death in 1587.