John Foxe

John Foxe (1516–April 8, 1587) is remembered as the author of the famous Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Life under Elizabeth I

On May 22, 1563, shortly after the first edition of Actes and Monuments was published, Foxe was appointed prebend of Shipton in Salisbury Cathedral, ostensibly in recognition of his achievement. Foxe never visited the cathedral and performed no duties associated with the position except to appoint a vicar, William Masters, a highly educated, fellow evangelical and former Marian exile. Foxe gave Masters the right to cut and sell trees on the vicarage; Masters did not exercise this right, however. Foxe's inaction as a canon of the cathedral led him to him being declared contumacious, and he was charged with failing to give a tithe for repairs to the cathedral.

Related Topics:
Prebend - Shipton - Salisbury Cathedral - William Masters - Vicarage - Canon - Contumacious - Tithe

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By 1565 Foxe was caught up in the vestments controversy led at that time by his associate Crowley. Foxe's name was on a list of "godly preachers which have utterly forsaken Antichrist and all his Romish rags" (i.e., early Puritans) that was presented to Lord Robert Dudley some time between 1561 and 1564 (Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepys Library, "Papers of state", 2.701). He was one of the twenty clergymen who on March 20, 1565 petitioned to be allowed to choose not to wear vestments, but unlike many of the others, Foxe did not have a London benefice to lose when Archbishop Parker enforced conformity. Rather, when Crowley lost his position at St Giles-without-Cripplegate, Foxe stepped in for him. A few years later (c. 1568) Foxe moved out of Norfolk's house to Grub St. in this parish, and his associate John Field (divine) became curate at the church.

Related Topics:
Vestments controversy - Crowley - Robert Dudley - Vestments - Benefice - Archbishop Parker - St Giles-without-Cripplegate - Grub St. - John Field (divine)

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Foxe's move was probably motivated by his concerns about Norfolk's actions which led to his his imprisonment in the Tower on October 8, 1569 and his condemnation to death on January 26, 1572 following the Ridolfi Plot. Foxe and Alexander Nowell ministered to Norfolk from this time until his execution, which Foxe attended, on June 2, 1572.

Related Topics:
Ridolfi Plot - Alexander Nowell

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At Grindal's behest, though complaining of being burdened by his literary endeavors and liable to be hissed at by the audience, Foxe preached on 2 Cor. 5.20-21 at Paul's Cross on , March 24, 1570 in an exposition of the Protestant doctrine of redemption with an attack on the mass. The sermon was published that year as A Sermon of Christ crucified (STC 11242).

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On February 2, 1577 Foxe preached at Paul's Cross and drew a complaint from the French Ambassador to the Queen that he had said that the French Protestants "had great cause to take arms against their king, for that he admitted their public enemy the Pope." When called to answer to the Bishop of London, Foxe said he had been responding to Osorius' assertion that French Protestants rejected lawful sovereignty.

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Foxe was one of the earliest students of Anglo-Saxon, and he and Day published an edition of the Saxon gospels under the patronage of Archbishop Parker.

Related Topics:
Anglo-Saxon - Archbishop Parker

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Foxe died on the 8th of April 1587 and was buried at St. Giles's, Cripplegate.

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