Foxes “Book of Martyrs” was once one of the most widely read and broadly influential books within the English Reformation tradition. Starting as one of the great chained books, given a privileged place in every parish church alongside the English Bible and Book of Common Prayer during the English Reformation, it exerted an incredible influence on the cultural imaginary of the English Reformers and generations of their cultural, political, and theological successors. Even so, in recent years it has fallen significantly out of use, and almost entirely out of Evangelical scholarship. This paper will outline the books original form, trace the decline of the books use, and offer a proposal for its retrieval.
Part of the book’s decline can be attributed to the multifaceted nature of its reception. Begun among the protestant exiles of Marian persecution, in its original form it was conceived of as a protestant response to both Roman Catholic historiography and hagiography, thus it had both polemic and devotional goals. I offered both a protestant interpretation of history, and a richly theological view of protestant devotion as exhibited chiefly in the lives of the martyrs. Using the martyrs as models, it promoted a vision of Christian spirituality as rooted in the gospel, empowered by the Spirit, and marked by endurance unto death.
When protestants were returned to power under Elizabeth it quickly became a powerful political tool. This politicization would continue through the entire Tudor and Stuart periods as both Royalist and Puritan parties rallied Foxe’s stories to their cause. As the business of popular print exploded across Early Modern Europe, popularized versions placed the book in the hands of lay Christians. From novelty abridgments, short story pamphlets, and even printed songs and mnemonic devices to aid the reader in memorizing martyr stories, these cheaper popularized versions made Foxe’s book one of the most significant influences on Early Modern protestant devotion.
As political tensions faded with the Glorious Revolution and religious fervor wanned with the Enlightenment, Foxe’s book came to be seen as little more than a compendium of popular stories. Abridgments, short story pamphlets, and packets of grisly illustrations based upon the Book of Martyrs continued to proliferate well into the twenty first century and remain the only way in which many Christians have encountered the book. This situation persists as no complete edition of the Book of Martyrs has come to print since the early nineteenth century. This paper will argue that when understood in its original form and intent Foxe’s Book of Martyrs has much to offer to modern Evangelical understandings of devotion and spirituality. Conceived in a time of persecution, but published in a time of Christian ascendance, it deliberately applies the spirituality of the protestant martyrs to all situations of Christian life and offers a positive proposal for a Christian understanding of true spiritual endurance.