The Book of Martyrs , by John Foxe (first published in 1563, with many subsequent editions), is an account of the persecutions of the church reformers and Protestants, mainly in England. Though the work is commonly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the full title is Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, touching Matters of the Church.

The first part of the book covered early Christian martyrs, a brief history of the medieval church, including the Inquisitions, and a history of the Wyclif movement. The second dealt with the reigns of Henry VII and Edward VI, and the third with the reign Mary. The work is in part a polemical blast against the Catholic Church, centered primarily on the Marian persecution, and in part a history and justification of the foundation of the Anglican Church. The work was lavishly produced and illustrated with a large number of woodcuts.

Foxe continued to collect material and to expand the work througout his life, producing three revised editions. After the completion of the second edition (1570), the Convocation ordered that every cathedral church should own a copy.

Foxe's work was enormous (the second edition filling two heavy folio volumes with a total of 2300 pages--estimated to be twice as long as Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) and its production by the printer John Day (who worked closely with Foxe) was the largest publishing project undertaken in England up to that time.

External link

• John Foxe. Acts and Monuments. The Variorum Edition. (http://www.hrionline.shef.ac.uk/foxe/) (hriOnline, Sheffield 2004).