The papists foreseeing how detrimental his history of their errors and cruelties would prove to their cause, had recourse to every artifice to lessen the reputation of his work but their malice was of signal service, both to Mr. Yet, though he grew daily more exhausted, he proceeded in his studies as briskly as ever, nor would he be persuaded to diminish his accustomed labors. But in consequence of such excessive toil, leaving no part of his time free from study, nor affording himself either the repose or recreation which nature required, his health was so reduced, and his person became so emaciated and altered, that such of his friends and relations as only conversed with him occasionally could scarcely recognize his person. For the sake of greater correctness, he wrote every line of this vast book with his own hand, and transcribed all the records and papers himself. With prodigious pains and constant study he competed that celebrated work in eleven years. “On his resettlement to England, he employed himself in revising and enlarging his admirable Martyrology. With the ascension of Queen Elizabeth I, who was sympathetic to Protestantism, Foxe returned to England where he received a pension from one of his former students. Because so many English Protestants were martyred during Mary’s reign, Foxe felt the need to add to his work to include more recent history. In Switzerland, Foxe published a work on martyrs of the early church, first in Latin (1554) and then in English (1563). However, when the Roman Catholic Mary I (“ Bloody Mary,” 1516-1558) came to power, Foxe fled to Europe where he began working as a printer. When Edward VI (1537-1553), who was sympathetic to Protestantism, came to the throne, Foxe was able to move about publicly. He turned to tutoring to earn a living and had to live in hiding for a while.
When he finally and publicly embraced Protestantism, he was denounced as a heretic by the college, lost his fellowship, and was disowned by his family. Foxe studied the Scriptures as well as the writings of the early church fathers. Foxe began researching church history to help him better understand the controversies regarding the Catholic Church and the Reformation (see “Sketch of the Author” in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Create Space Independent Publishing, 2017, p. His first literary endeavors were in poetry and Latin comedies. As a youth, Foxe’s brilliance was recognized, and at Oxford University he earned a master’s degree and a fellowship (similar to a modern scholarship) at Magdalen College. John Foxe (also spelled Fox, 1516-1587) was an English Puritan preacher and church historian.
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