18 April 1587 A.D. Author of Acts and Monuments, John Foxe, Passes
18
April 1587 A.D. Author of Acts and Monuments, John
Foxe, Passes.
Before proceeding we offer this
Collect (h/t to Charles Baker)
ALMIGHTY and most gracious Father, who didst raise up John Foxe to chronicle the many martyrs who paid for the true faith with their lives; we beseech thee to move us in these days to true catechesis, that learning what the true faith is, we may, with them, sing "Holy, Holy, Holy" through Jesus Christ our Lord, and to Him, who with the Father and the Spirit liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.
Varied Authors. “John Foxe.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Nov. 7,
2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/215429/John-Foxe.
Accessed Apr 18, 2014.
ALMIGHTY and most gracious Father, who didst raise up John Foxe to chronicle the many martyrs who paid for the true faith with their lives; we beseech thee to move us in these days to true catechesis, that learning what the true faith is, we may, with them, sing "Holy, Holy, Holy" through Jesus Christ our Lord, and to Him, who with the Father and the Spirit liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.
John Foxe, (born
1516, Boston, Lincolnshire,
Eng.—died April 18, 1587, Cripplegate, London), English Puritan
preacher and author of The
Book of Martyrs, a graphic and polemic account of those who
suffered for the cause of Protestantism.
Widely read, often the most valued book beside the Bible in the households of
English Puritans, it helped shape popular opinion about Roman Catholicism for at least a century. The feeling of the English
populace against Spain, important in the politics of the age, was fanned by the
book’s description of the Inquisition. It dealt chiefly, however, with the
martyrdom of English Protestants from the 14th century through the reign of
Queen Mary I in Foxe’s
own time.
After studying at the University of Oxford and holding a fellowship for
seven years, Foxe fell under suspicion of harbouring Protestant views more
extreme than the authorities of his college would allow. He resigned and in
1547 moved to London, where
he became tutor to the grandchildren of the duke of Norfolk. He was ordained a
deacon of the Church of England. Foxe worked for the Reformation, writing several tracts. He also began
his account of martyrs but had carried it no further than 1500 when the
accession of the Roman Catholic queen Mary I in 1553 forced him to flee
overseas. In Strasbourg, France, he published his partly
completed martyrology in Latin as Commentarii
rerum in ecclesia gestarum (1554; “Commentaries on Affairs Within
the Church”). He then went to Frankfurt, where he lent a moderating support to
the Calvinistic party of John Knox, and thence to Basel, Switz., where he wrote a burning appeal to the English nobility to
restrain the queen from persecuting Protestants: Ad inclytos ac praepotentes Angliae proceres (“To the Renowned and
Powerful Nobles of England,” 1557). With the aid of manuscripts sent to him from England, he carried
his account of the martyrs up to 1556 and had it printed in 1559, the year
following the accession to the throne of the Protestant queen, Elizabeth I.
Foxe
returned to London and devoted himself to the completion of his great work.
Perusing official registers and using the memories of eyewitnesses, he enlarged
his story. His English translation was printed in March 1563 under the title Actes and Monuments of these Latter and
Perillous Dayes. It immediately acquired the popular name The Book of Martyrs. In 1570
he produced his greatly improved second edition. This was the crown of his
achievement; he made few changes in his third (1576) and fourth (1583)
editions.
Foxe was ordained an Anglican priest in 1560, but having Puritan scruples
he refused all offices, obtaining two church stipends that required no duties.
He often preached, however, and a sermon delivered at Paul’s Cross (A Sermon, Of Christ Crucified
[1570]) had a wide sale. In the plague of 1563 he ministered to the victims and
wrote a moving tract of consolation. When Anabaptists in 1575 and Jesuits in
1581 were condemned to death, Foxe wrote vehement letters to Queen Elizabeth
and her councilors, begging reprieves.
Foxe’s monument is his book. It has been criticized as prolix, carelessly
edited, one-sided, sometimes credulous, but it is factually detailed and
preserves much firsthand material on the English Reformation unobtainable
elsewhere.
We would add to the article from EB, this photo-chastisement of Osteen.
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