Foxe's Book of Martyrs

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2010

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss John Foxe and his book Actes and Monuments, better known today as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Born in 1517, John Foxe was an early Protestant who was forced to flee the persecutions which ensued when the Catholic Mary came to the English throne in 1553. He was a horrified observer on the Continent as more than three hundred of his countrymen were burnt at the stake. In exile he began work on a substantial work of scholarship, bringing together eyewitness accounts of these horrifying deaths.First published in 1563, Foxe's Book of Martyrs was one of the most elaborate early books produced, and thanks to vivid woodcut illustrations reached an audience far beyond the literate elite. Its stories of Protestant martyrdom became powerful Church propaganda in the late sixteenth century and were used by those who wished to banish Catholicism from England permanently. But despite its use as an instrument of religious factionalism, Foxe's work remains one of the key and most read books of the early modern period. With:Diarmaid MacCullochProfessor of Church History at the University of OxfordJustin ChampionProfessor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of LondonElizabeth EvendenLecturer in Book History at Brunel UniversityProducer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:46.5	the program. Hello in the early years of the Elizabethan age the Protestant scholar
0:51.5	John Fox published a work of religious history. He called it
0:54.9	acts and monuments of these latter and perilous days touching matters of the church
1:00.1	wherein are comprehended and described the great persecutions and horrible troubles
1:04.2	that have been wrought and practiced by the Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England
1:09.2	and Scotland from the era of our Order thousand until the time now present.
1:13.6	Today we know this book as Fox's Book of Martyrs.
1:16.6	It describes vividly the torture and execution of hundreds of people put to death
1:21.1	for their religious beliefs. It's a mighty volume, four times the
1:24.8	length of the Bible, and illustrated with graphic woodcuts. It was hugely successful, and for many
1:29.7	years virtually every church in England owned a copy. Today it's seen as one of the
1:33.8	most important books of the Reformation. Its influence all over the British
1:37.2	hours was immense and for a long time afterwards this vitantly anti-Catholic text
1:41.6	was used as a tool of religious propaganda. With me to discuss Fox's Book
	...

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