I've just crossed the
finish-line on my trek through the monumental “Acts and Monuments”
of John Foxe, known popularly as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. The original
work runs a full 7,058 pages and consists of 8 volumes. The popular
300-page paperback edition you will find in the Christian bookstore
is a “Reader's Digest” version of a “Reader's Digest” version
of a “Reader's Digest” version. Archbishop Grindal, who supplied
Foxe with many of the official records he cites, and who financially
supported Foxe during his exile in Strasbourg, once referred to the
work as Foxe's “book or martyrs,” and the name has stuck.
This will not be a book
review in the traditional sense, because reviewing a work of over
7,000 pages would be impossibly long, and would make the work seem
undesirable. It is a massive work. Writing it must have been an
herculean feat, but reading it is not. I did not breeze through it,
but many portions are so engaging that 100-150 pages seem to fly by.
This will be more of a review by impression.
One of the most important
thoughts I've had while reading this work is expressed by George
Townsend in his introductory dissertation: “If Foxe's Acts and
Monuments had not been written, and this is the best criterion of its
merits, no book in the English language can be mentioned, which could
supply its place. Whoever will but impartially and candidly consider
the mass of the materials collected, and remember that this work was
the first attempt to give to the common reader a history of the
church of Christ, as well as a narrative of the evil consequences of
the one false principle, that the soul of the Christian is to be
governed by authority that is fallible, on the supposition that such
authority is infallible, unchangeable and divine,—must, I think,
acknowledge, that the work of John Foxe is one of the most useful,
most important, and most valuable books we still possess. It has
never been superseded.”
As Townsend points out,
the value of the work is multi-faceted. First, there is the sheer
vastness of the accumulated knowledge and materials. Foxe, through a
multitude of influential connections, had access to countless records
and documents which no other historian could have gotten their hands
on – at least at the time of his writing. Secondly, his work proved
that the ministers of the Church are to be our useful directors, not
infallible teachers. Thirdly, an individual Christian might be in the right,
while the great body of the Church's leaders may be in the wrong.
Hence each individual must deem himself responsible to God alone.
Fourthly, Foxe's work taught the supremacy of Scripture for governing
the conscience. Fifthly, we are shown that every system of laws must
be founded upon the conviction of their usefulness and truth, or they
cannot be made permanent even by the most unrelenting persecutions,
of the most formidable power.
One of the most
interesting features of Foxe's work is his eschatology. The best
description I have read of his view, is “
Amillennial historicist.” The more I have thought about it, the more
convincing his view is.
In setting the stage for
what I am about to say, let me point out that all Christians are
agreed (at least in theory) that the prevalence or sparseness of a
subject in Scripture, is an indicator of its relative importance.
Anything revealed by God is important, but in the hierarchy of
doctrine, frequency and prevalence determines rank. Having said that,
isn't ironic that every eschatological position held in Christendom
is defined by its relation to the Millennium – something mentioned
a grand total of two times in the space of a couple verses, and that
in the most difficult book to interpret? Based on what we have
already said, it would seem to be a more balanced approach to view
the Millennium as something - while real - less central, less
definitive, less overall important, to our view of eschatology.
Foxe's view does just this.
In sum, Foxe believes the
Millennium was a specific 1000 year period in the Church's history,
and that this period is now past. It is not the grid upon which all
redemption history is written. Like hundreds of other events in the
life of God's people foretold in Scripture, it came to pass exactly
as foretold, and thus verifies the truth of God's Word.
Foxe reads Revelation 8
telling of a period of 294 years of vicious persecution against the
Church. This coincides exactly with the cessation of state-sanctioned
persecution at Constantine's conversion. This is the beginning of the
Millennium, according to Foxe. For a literal 1000 years, there was no
state-sanctioned, state-sponsored wholesale persecution of the
Church. The 1000 year period ends in the early 1300's when
persecution, which included prison and execution begins, with the
sanction of church and state, against men who proclaimed the Gospel
truths which were buried under the accumulated doctrinal pollutions
of the Middle Ages. This marks the period spoken of in Revelation 20
that Satan is let loose to persecute the Church again as he did in
the first 300 years of Church history. This period is extremely
intense because Satan knows his time is short. What we often forget
is how incredibly intense the persecution of Christians was in the
decades after 1517. We seem to imagine that Luther nailed up his 95
Theses, and Boom! everything was changed. The fact is, that in many
European nations (Foxe focuses mostly on England), the Reformation
was a slow, grinding process, with many false starts, and nearly
endless opposition.
Perhaps I should let Foxe
speak in his own words:
Concerning the interpretation of which
times, I see the common opinion of many to be deceived by ignorance
of histories, and the state of things done in the church; they
supposing that the chaining loosing up of Satan for a thousand years,
spoken of in the Revelation, was meant from the birth of Christ our
Lord. Wherein I grant that spiritually the strength and dominion of
Satan, in accusing and condemning us for sin, was cast down at the
passion and by the passion of Christ our Saviour, and locked up, not
only for a thousand years, but for ever and ever. Albeit, as touching
the malicious hatred and fury of that serpent against the outward
bodies of Christ's poor saints (which is the heel of Christ), to
afflict and torment the church outwardly; that I judge to be meant in
the Revelation of St. John, not to be restrained till the ceasing of
those terrible persecutions of the primitive church, at the time when
it pleased God to pity the sorrowful affliction of his poor flock,
being so long under persecution, the space of three hundred years,
and so to assuage their griefs and torments; which is meant by the
binding up of Satan, worker of all those mischiefs: understanding
thereby, that forasmuch as the devil, the prince of this world, had
now, by the death of Christ the Son of God, lost all his power and
interest against the soul of man, he should turn his furious rage and
malice, which he had to Christ, against the people of Christ, which
is meant by the heel of the seed [Gen. iii.], in tormenting their
outward bodies; which yet should not be forever, but for a
determinate time, when it should please the Lord to bridle the
malice, and snaffle the power, of the old serpent, and give rest unto
his church for the term of a thousand years; which time being
expired, the said serpent should be suffered loose again for a
certain or a small time. [Apoc. xx.]
And
thus to expound this prophetical place of Scripture, I am led Three
by three reasons:
The
first is, for that the binding up of Satan, and closing him in first
the bottomless pit by the angel, importeth as much as that he was at
liberty, raging and doing mischief before. And, certes, those so
terrible and so horrible persecutions of the primitive time
universally through the whole world, during the space of three
hundred years of the church, do declare no less. Wherein it is to be
thought and supposed that Satan, all that time, was not fastened and
closed up.
The
second reason moving me to think that the closing up of Satan was
after the ten persecutions of the primitive church, is taken out of
the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; where we read, that after the
woman, meaning the church, had travailed forth her man-child, the old
dragon, the devil, the same time being cast down from heaven, drawing
the third part of the stars with him, stood before the woman with
great anger, and persecuted her (that is, the church of God) with a
whole flood of water (that is, with abundance of all kinds of
torments), and from thence went, moreover, to fight against the
residue of her seed, and stood upon the sands of the sea; whereby it
appeareth that he was not as yet locked up.
The
third reason I collect out of the Apocalypse, chapter xiii., where it
is written of the beast, signifying the imperial monarchy of Rome,
that he had power to make war forty and two months; by which months
is meant, no doubt, the time that the dragon and the persecuting
emperors should have in afflicting the saints of the primitive
church. The computation of which forty-two months (counting Forty-two
every month for a Sabbath of years; that is, for seven years, after
the order of Scripture), riseth to the sum (counting from the passion
of the Lord Christ) of three hundred years, lacking six; at which
time Maxentius, the last persecutor in Rome, fighting against
Constantine, was drowned with his soldiers, like as Pharaoh,
persecuting the children of Israel, was drowned in the Red Sea. Unto
the which forty-two months, or Sabbaths of years, if ye add the other
six years wherein Licinius persecuted in the East, ye shall find just
three hundred years, as is specified before in the first book (vol.
i. Page 291). After the which forty and two months were expired,
manifest it is that the fury of Satan, that is, his violent malice
and power over the saints of Christ, was diminished and restrained
universally throughout the whole world. Thus then, the matter
standing evident that Satan, after three hundred years, counting from
the passion of Christ, began to be chained up, at which time the
persecution of the primitive church began to cease, now let us see
how long this binding up of Satan should continue, which was promised
in the Book of the Revelation to be a thousand years; which thousand
years, if ye add to the forty-two months of years, that is, to two
hundred and ninety-four years, they make one thousand two hundred and
ninety-four years after the passion of the Lord. To these, moreover,
add the thirty years of the age of Christ, and it cometh to the year
of our Lord 1324, which was the year of the letting out of Satan,
according to the prophecy in the Apocalypse.
The
first persecution of the primitive church, beginning at the thirtieth
year of Christ, was prophesied to continue forty-two months; that is,
till a.d. 294.
The
ceasing of the last persecution of the primitive church by the death
of Licinius, the last persecutor, began in the three hundred and
twenty-fourth year from the nativity of Christ; which was from the
thirtieth year of his age, two hundred and ninety-four years.
The
binding up of Satan after peace given to the church, counting from
the thirty years of Christ, began a.d. 294, and lasted a thousand
years, that is, counting from the thirtieth year of Christ, to the
year 1294.
About
which year, pope Boniface VIII was pope, and made the sixth book of
the Decretals, confirmed the orders of friars, and privileged them
with great freedoms; as appeareth by his constitution, Super
Cathedram a.d. 1294...
These
things thus premised for the loosing out of Satan, according to the
prophecy of the Apocalypse, now let us enter (Christ willing) upon
the declaration of these latter times which followed after the
letting out of Satan into the world; describing the wondrous
perturbations and cruel tyranny stirred up by him against Christ's
church, and also the valiant resistance of the church of Christ
against him and Antichrist, as in these our books here under
following may appear, the argument of which consisteth in two parts:
first, to treat of the raging fury of Satan now loosed, and of
Antichrist, against the saints of Christ fighting and travailing for
the maintenance of truth, and the reformation of the church.
Secondly, to declare the decay and ruin of the said Antichrist,
through the power of the word of God; being at length, either in a
great part of the world overthrown, or, at least, universally in the
whole world detected. - John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, Book V (Volume
2 of 8), pages 724-727 of the 1843 edition
This framework and exposition of
prophecy surfaces again and again in Foxe's work. It is the defining
characteristic of the work. The little paperback edition will not convey this. Foxe is not merely recounting history and
giving Protestants a “Remember the Alamo,” he is interpreting
history through his interpretation of Scripture. The
matter-of-factness with which Foxe treats biblical prophecies and
historical fulfillments, leaves one with the impression that Foxe's
view was the standard view of most of his contemporaries. Every
single one of Foxe's critics, whether the papists of his own day, or
those of subsequent centuries, have focused their attention on pretended reliability issues of Foxe's primary sources, or whether
Foxe was accurately presenting the facts. No one, I repeat, no one –
has ever tackled his eschatology. To me, this speaks volumes. When one
is faced with a mountain of inconvenient evidence, from a purely pragmatic stance, sometimes ignoring
its existence is more effective than taking it on point by point.
As
far as Foxe's reliability as a historian goes, Townsend writes, “His
frequent appeals to eye-witnesses of the things he relates, the
manner in which the declarations he received from the persecuted of
their examinations and sufferings, are affirmed by him, not to be
credited for their own words only, even though in one remarkable case
the narrative of their sorrows was written with their own blood, and
not with ink. All these things prove to us that Foxe is worthy of our
confidence, and that his 'veracity and fidelity' cannot be assailed
with either truth or honour. Disgrace has followed every attempt to
destroy its value.” Subsequent historical investigations have
further strengthened Townsend's assessment.
I will never forget the
impact the little paperback "Book of Martyrs" had on me
when I read it as a young teen. I was inspired, appalled, edified,
and frightened all at the same time. For days I remember living with a gloomy cloud over my head - a cloud of fear that I could never possibly endure what so many men, women, and children before me endured. As time passed, I began to realize that most of them would've felt the same way, and that it was the same grace of God which enabled them to witness to God's truth in their deaths that enabled me to witness to God's truth in my life. But that impact is nothing compared to
the impressions that this complete edition makes and leaves. I know millions of readers love the little paperback, but in
all honesty, it is a travesty of the original. Far too much ended up
on the cutting-room floor. And what gets left out is precisely what
gives impact to what got left in.
For example: The little
paperback version tells how Nicholas Ridley was tied to a stake and
burned alive for his faith. What the little paperback doesn't
give you is the full context of Ridley's trial. “Acts and
Monuments” includes dozens of pages of court transcripts. It provides letters between the key players giving the reader a background and framework to the story that the little paperback will never convey. You can
read the verbatim back and forth between Ridley and “bloody”
Bonner. You can read Mary's ecclesiastics twist his words on purpose
and order court recorders falsify his answers. You can read how he
was publicly humiliated in the courtroom. Men forcibly restrained him
and dressed him up as a popish priest while a man behind him read out
the ceremony of the mass in Latin, pretending that he (Ridley) was
saying it, thus “making” Ridley commit the transubstantiation he
repudiated. The humiliation goes on and on for days. Ridley bears up
under it and continues to appeal to Scripture against Gardiner and
Bonner. If you only read the account of Ridley, you would be inclined
to think that a greater travesty of justice has never been committed.
But Foxe provides nearly the same documentary evidence for another
200 Marian martyrs, not to mention all the martyrs whose lives and
sufferings he presents from the days of the Apostles through the days
of Wycliffe, Hus, and Savanarola. Ironically, the concentrated emphasis on torture and death in the little paperback actually lessens its impact. The real personhood of both the sufferers and the persecutors gets lost.
Besides all this, Foxe's
honesty will not let you reduce his work to a hagiography. Along with
hundreds of accounts of the brave sufferings of countless martyrs and
confessors, he also includes court transcripts and letters of men and
women who could not bear up under the persecution and who lapsed and
recanted. Foxe never scorns these men and women, either. In fact, he
seems to include the stories, often quite elaborate and long, to
emphasize the prodigious power the Romish church had. It took
extraordinary men and women to buck up under the pressure and set the
bar for other martyrs and confessors. Foxe openly acknowledges that
men, in human frailty, may recoil from the prospect of torture and
cave in to the temptation to recant. He is surprisingly understanding
of this phenomenon, yet without condoning it as an expedient to save
one's life.
This honesty is another
feature that slips through the cracks in the little paperback. That
small edition will beat you over the head with blood and gore. This
edition will provide text and context to the sufferings – and will
also tell you about those who ran from the sufferings and recanted.
He will even give you their two or three-page-long letters of
recantation – shameful as they may be.
In
a very real sense, this work is not
a “book of martyrs.” It is so much more. It is an indispensable
resource whose absence could not be filled by anything else ever
written.
I
conclude with a couple of thoughts:
- This is really more of a reference work than a history. When Foxe relates the life of particular martyr, he frequently includes actual court transcripts of his trial, condemnation, and sentencing. He also not infrequently includes letters written to and from the person under consideration. Many of these letters are to found nowhere else but in the Acts and Monuments. Foxe has done the Church an inestimable service in preserving these materials. Foxe was personally known to many of the martyrs and confessors whose lives and deaths he chronicles. His connections to the official documents through Grindal and others, gave him access to records no one else alive at the time could've gotten their hands on. This is no superficial history. Foxe lives in primary sources. Many of these sources are inaccessible to today's readers because the only extant copies are in special sections of museums, or else they are in Latin or Anglo-Saxon (Old English). Foxe has provided both original transcriptions of the original texts and English translations of these. The sources which are readily available (Bede, Matthew Paris, Henry of Huntingdon, etc) will more than verify the veracity of Foxe's accounts.
- This work needs to be republished in its full form. This 1843 edition should be a standard reference work in every pastor's library. It is a great disservice and insult to the memory of our martyred Protestant forebears that the full version of this work has been out of print for so long. And it is an even greater insult to their memory that many of the modern editions include the deaths of papists, as if in the end, they belong in the same company as our sainted Protestant martyrs – whom they killed!
- Nothing can prepare you for encountering the barbarity and despicable cruelty of Stephen Gardiner and “bloody” Edmund Bonner. Under the auspices of Queen Mary, these two moral monsters account for 288 executions, not to mention those who were mercilessly whipped, those who died in prison, those whose bones were exhumed to be desecrated, and those who lived in a self-imposed exile overseas (one of whom was Foxe).
Reading
the whole work was truly a monumental task. The sheer amount of
information is overwhelming. The graphic descriptions of the torture
and execution of so many men, women, and children, is heart-rending.
I had a sick feeling deep in my gut through many parts of this work.
Foxe concludes his account of Mary's reign with these words: “Of
queen Mary this truly may be affirmed, and left in story for a
perpetual memorial or epitaph for all kings and queens that shall
succeed her, to be noted—that before her, never was read in story
of any king or queen of England, since the time of king Lucius, under
whom, in time of peace, by hanging, beheading, burning, and
prisoning, so much Christian blood, so many Englishmen's lives, were
spilled within this realm, as under the said queen Mary for the space
of four years was to be seen, and I beseech the Lord never may be
seen here after.”
Foxe concludes the work by reminding his readers that he had access to enough information to have made the work considerably longer! His final paragraphs read:
“And thus to conclude, good christian reader, this present tractation, not for lack of matter, but to shorten rather the matter for largeness of the volume, I here stay for this present time, without further addition of more discourse, either to overweary thee with longer tediousness, or overcharge the book with longer prolixity; having hitherto set forth the acts and proceedings of the whole church of Christ, namely, of the church of England, although not in such particular perfection, that nothing hath overpassed us; yet in such general sufficiency, that I trust, not very much hath escaped us, necessary to be known, touching the principal affairs, doings and proceedings of the church and churchmen. Wherein may be seen the whole state, order, descent, course, and continuance of the same, the increase and decrease of true religion, the creeping in of superstition, the horrible troubles of persecution, the wonderful assistance of the Almighty in maintaining his truth, the glorious constancy of Christ's martyrs, the rage of the enemies, the alteration of times, the travails and troubles of the church, from the first primitive age of Christ's gospel, to the end of queen Mary, and the beginning of this our gracious queen Elizabeth. During the time of her happy reign, which hath hitherto continued (through the gracious protection of the Lord) the space now of twenty-four years, as my wish is, so I would be glad the good will of the Lord were so, that no more matter of such lamentable stories may ever be offered hereafter to write upon. But so it is, I cannot tell how, the elder the world waxeth, the longer it continueth, the nearer it hasteneth to its end, the more Satan rageth; giving still new matter of writing books and volumes: insomuch that if all were recorded and committed to history, that within the said compass of this queen's reign hitherto hath happened, in Scotland, Flanders, France, Spain, Germany, besides this our own country of England and Ireland, with other countries more, I verily suppose one Eusebius, or Polyhistor, which Pliny writeth of, would not suffice thereunto."But of these incidents and occurrents hereafter more, as it shall please the Lord to give grace and space. In the mean time, the grace of the Lord Jesus work with thee, gentle reader, in all thy studious readings. And while thou hast space, so employ thyself to read, that by reading thou mayest learn daily to know that which may profit thy soul, may teach thee experience, may arm thee with patience, and instruct thee in all spiritual knowledge more and more to thy perpetual comfort and salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom be glory in secula seculorum, Amen.”
Uncomfortable
as reading much of this material was, it must be read, and it must be
kept in the Church's view. We dishonor our Protestant forebears and
the Lord they suffered, bled, and died for, by neglecting and
forgetting their lives and sufferings. We must never forget.
For those who may be
interested in reading it, there are a couple of sources.
Still Waters Revival
Books has the set available in pdf format. One can purchase either
the entire 8 volume set, or the individual volumes. It is available here.
Also, the individual volumes
can be found on Google Books. Below are the links to each volume.
