Foxe's Book of Martyrs Select Narratives

by Foxe, John; King, John N.

• ISBN13: 9780199236848
• ISBN10: 0199236844
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

'Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man: we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as, I trust, shall never be put out.'Hugh Latimer's famous words of consolation to Nicholas Ridley as they are both about to be burnt alive for heresy come from John Foxe's magisterial Acts and Monuments, popularly known as the Book of Martyrs. This vast collection of unforgettable accounts of religious persecution exerted as great aninfluence on early modern England and New England as the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It contains many stirring stories of the apprehension, interrogation, imprisonment, and execution of alleged heretics. The narratives not only attest to the fortitude of individuals who suffered for theirfaith not many years before the birth of Shakespeare, but they also constitute exciting tales filled with graphic details and verbal wit.This modernized selection also includes some of the famous woodcuts that illustrated the original text, as well as providing a comprehensive introduction to Foxe's life and times and the martyrology narrative.

Author Biography

John N. King is editor of Reformation and co-editor of Literature and History. His publications include English Reformation History: The Tudor Origins of the Protestant Tradition (Princeton UP, 1982), Milton and Religious Controversy: Satire and Polemic in Paradise Lost (CUP, 2000), and Foxe's Book of Martyrs and Early Modern Print Culture (CUP, 2006).

Table of Contents

Introduction

Select Bibliography

Chronology of Foxe's Life and Times

Select Narratives

Thomas Bilney

William Tyndale

Anne Askew

John Roger

Lawrence Sanders

John Hooper

Rowland Taylor

Thomas Tomkins

William Hunter

Rawlins White

George Marsh

Thomas Haukes

John Bradford and John Leaf

Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley

Stephen Gardiner

John Philpot

Bartlett Green

Thomas Cranmer

The Guernsey Martyrs

Joan Waste

William Dangerfield

Richard Woodman

Rose Allin and other Colchester Martyrs

George Eagles

The Islington Martyrs

Prest's Wife

Edwin Sandys

Lady Elizabeth

Judgement Tales

Explanatory Notes

Glossary of Persons

Glossary of Places

Glossary of Words and Terms

Index

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