In every century there are examples of courageous Christians who were willing to lose their lives rather than deny their faith. One history-making book gathered many stories of martyrdoms and through its pages has inspired Christians for generations.

In 1563, Englishman John Foxe published his Acts and Monuments to give a universal history of God's work at building His church. Often called Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the history has become a Christian classic. There was a time when the Bible and Foxe's work were the only two books many Christians ever read.

John Foxe was born in 1516 in Boston, England, just as the Reformation began to dawn. The year Foxe was born, Erasmus published his New Testament in Greek; the year after Foxe's birth Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in Wittenberg. In 1534 Foxe went to Oxford to study theology. As Foxe read extensively in the Greek and Latin church fathers and compared them with the Roman church of his day, Foxe concluded the church had departed from the faith of the earliest Christians. At Oxford Foxe began to adopt Reformation views and also met the reformers Hugh Latimer and William Tyndale, two who would later become martyrs. Because he could no longer accept the theology of the Roman Church, Foxe lost his position at Oxford and could not be ordained to the priesthood. He married Agnes Randall of Coventry and for a time found work as a tutor in the household of William Lucy in Warwickshire. Then he moved to London where he sought work in vain.

Who Was That Man?
Starving and hopeless, one day he was sitting in St. Paul's Church when a stranger sat down beside him and put a large sum of money into his hands. The stranger told him to be of good courage, for in a few days God would give him a more certain sustenance. Foxe never learned who the stranger was, but soon the Duchess of Richmond hired him as tutor for her brother's children. Besides tutoring, Foxe wrote a number of Latin tracts urging reform. He also began work on a history that would be a justification of the Reformation and would show history as a cosmic struggle between Christ and anti-Christ, good and evil, truth and error.

When Henry VIII died and his young son Edward became king, those wishing to reform the Church gained the power at court. Edward's reign was brief, however, and at his death his half-sister Queen Mary ascended the throne. She re-established the Roman Catholic Church in England. Those who had followed the Reformation were imprisoned and persecuted. Many English Christians, including John Foxe, fled to the continent for safety.

A Narrow Escape
Bishop Gardiner was Queen Mary's instrument against the Reformers. He made inquiries regarding Foxe. Thomas, the young Duke of Norwich concealed Foxe's identity with a lie, declaring Foxe was his physician. Alarmed for Foxe's safety, he hustled him to Ipswich where a servant hid him. As soon as they could, Foxe and his pregnant wife boarded a ship for the continent. It had not cleared harbor when Gardiner's agents, waving a warrant for his arrest, broke down the door of the house where he had hidden. Finding him gone, they dashed to the harbor. Seeing they could not overtake the ship, they turned back. It was fortunate for Foxe they did. A storm drove him back to port. To mislead his pursuers, he rented a horse and pretended to flee into the country. That night he returned to the ship, pleaded with the captain to take him to safety and made good his escape.

Saving and Sharing the Stories
In 1554 Foxe published his History of the Acts and Monuments of the Church in Latin. Never before had Europeans heard the specific stories of the English Lollards, the followers of John Wycliffe, who had suffered persecution under the Church for their faith. While in exile Foxe worked as a proofreader with a printer in Basel, Switzerland and continued collecting information on Christians persecuted for their faith. Foxe added to his history contemporary stories from England of Queen Mary's persecutions, including those of the notable Oxford martyrs Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer.