Foxe's Book of Martyrs

John Foxe (1516–1587), born at Boston, Lincolnshire, England, was a devout and scholarly boy. He attended Brasenose College, Oxford and then Magdalen College where he held a fellowship for seven years. While a student, Foxe became known for his scholarly wisdom and piety and could have led a quiet and successful life; becoming aware of certain spiritual truths, however, Foxe embraced Protestantism. In 1545, he resigned his fellowship at the university and become a tutor for the Lucy family of Warwickshire. Shortly thereafter, he married Agnes Randall of Conventry. John Foxe worked for the Reformation, writing tracts and beginning his famous history of the persecutions and martyrdoms in England from John Wycliffe through the early 1500s. When staunch Roman Catholic Queen Mary took the throne in 1553, Foxe and his family fled England for the continent in fear for their lives. There he continued working on his manuscript, which was eventually published in 1563 as The Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perilous Days. Foxe continued laboring on his work until his death in 1587.