An early English Protestant, John Foxe fled from England to Strasbourg, France, when Mary Tudor became queen. There, he occupied himself with a Latin history of the Christian persecutions and he printed, in Latin, the first part of his history of the persecution of Protestant reformers. First published under the title “Actes and Monuments” in 1563, “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” is an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the reign of Mary I. The book helped mold British popular opinion about the Catholic Church for several centuries as it was widely owned and read by English Puritans. During Elizabeth’s reign, this book was highly celebrated and even became required reading. It was placed in churches and reprinted in shorter editions so that many households possessed a copy. Expanded extensively over the course of Foxe’s life, “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” is made readily accessible in this 19th century abridgement.
