Thomas S. Freeman

“The Good Ministrye of Godlye and Vertuouse Women”: The Elizabethan Martyrologists and the Female Supporters of the Marian Martyrs

The images that the phrase “Marian Protestant” summons to mind are both dramatic and predictable. Whether they are of Cranmer holding his hand in the flame, Latimer exhorting Ridley to play the man, or more generalized images of men and women dying at the stake, we see the landscape of Marian Protestantism shrouded in the smoke from the fires of Smithfield and think of it exclusively in terms of martyrs. This unblinking fixation on the Marian martyrs is partly the result of an all too human fascination with violent death, but it is also the result of our dependence on John Foxes Acts and Monuments (1563–83), popularly known as the “Book of Martyrs,” a sobriquet that does justice to Foxes preoccupations when discussing the penultimate Tudor reign. Nevertheless, to ignore the majority of Marian Protestants who did not die for the gospel is to study the steeple and believe that you have examined the entire church. Like the steeple, the martyrs are the most conspicuous group of Marian Protestants, yet like a steeple their existence depended on the support of the rest of the church. However, even this metaphor fails to do justice to those coreligionists who provided the Marian martyrs with physical, financial, moral, and emotional support. The relationships between the martyrs and their “sustainers” (to use Foxes phrase) were profound and complex, with both parties drawing strength from each other. The relationships between male martyrs and their female sustainers are of particular interest and importance; in fact, it will be suggested in this article that these relationships had a decisive influence on the development of English Protestantism.

Research, rumour and propaganda: Anne Boleyn in Foxe's ‘Book of Martyrs’

Recent scholarship has questioned the accuracy of John Foxes depiction of Anne Boleyn as an evangelical and a patron of reformers. It has even been suggested that Foxe exaggerated or invented the material he presented on the evangelical zeal of Henry VIIIs second queen. A thorough examination of Foxes sources, however, reveals that he based his account of Anne on material ultimately derived from those who knew her or had benefited from her support. It can also be demonstrated that much of Foxes account of Anne is confirmed by independent sources. Finally, careful comparison of the material on Anne in the different editions of Foxes work printed during his lifetime, and analysis of their variations, indicates when Foxe acquired his information about Anne. This, in turn, reveals a great deal about the circumstances in which Foxe composed his account and the specific political and polemical purposes which influenced it. Foxes account of Anne was one-sided and biased but the information he presented on her was, as far as it went, accurate and it should not be discounted in any scholarly assessment of Henrys queen.

FATE, FACTION, AND FICTION IN FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS

The tales of divine judgements on sinners which are found throughout John Foxes famous martyrology, the Acts and monuments , and also collected in a concluding appendix to the work, have often been dismissed as the products of gossip, while Foxes printing of them has been traditionally regarded as an idiosyncratic, but ultimately insignificant, aberration in his historical writing. After examining the sources for two of these stories of providential punishment, this article will argue that some of the anecdotes of divine retribution printed in Acts and monuments were sent to Foxe in pursuit of local feuds and private grievances, arising from personal hatreds and prospects of material gain as well as religious conflict. After examining the changes made to these stories in the different editions of Acts and monuments , this article will maintain that such providential stories were central, rather than marginal, features of Foxes work and thought. It is hoped that this article will offer a fresh perspective on Foxes editorial practices, on the accuracy of Acts and monuments and also on the conflicting objectives of Foxe and his informants.

The Power of Polemic: Catholic Responses to the Calendar in Foxe's ‘Book of Martyrs’

Although scholars have come increasingly to recognise the considerable influence of early modern Catholic writers upon the historiography of the English Reformation, a crucial aspect of this influence has received scant attention: the impact of Catholic polemical writings upon perceptions of the Reformation. This article will examine a particularly striking and important example of the effects of Catholic polemic, the attacks on the calendar of martyrs included in editions of John Foxes Acts and monuments. It will describe how these attacks merged with traditions of anti-Puritanism to create a stereotype of the Marian martyrs as being poor, from the lowest social classes, uneducated and disrespectful of authority to the point of rebellion. These attacks also laid the foundation for the myth, still prevalent today, that many of the Marian martyrs were guilty of Trinitarian or sacramentarian heresies which would have led to their condemnation as heretics even under a Protestant regime.

Early Modern Martyrs

Inspired by the example of Henry Walpole, an English Jesuit martyr (who had himself been converted by the example of Edmund Campion), Dona Luisa de Carvajal journeyed from her native Spain to preach the gospel in England. Martyrdom eluded her, but she was repeatedly arrested and died while awaiting repatriation to Spain. Julius Palmer, a Catholic student at Oxford, converted to Protestantism after learning the details of the martyrdoms of Ridley and Latimer; he was burned as a heretic in Reading in 1556. Joyce Lewes, another Protestant martyred in the same reign, undertook a public and fatal rejection of Catholicism after being impressed by the willingness of Laurence Saunders, who had been burned nearby, to die rather than accept Catholicism. Florimond de Raemond, who would become a prominent Catholic controversialist, temporarily converted to Protestantism after witnessing the high profile martyrdom of Anne du Bourg.

Restoration and Reaction: Reinterpreting the Marian Church

Although the reign of Mary i (1553–8) was a tumultuous and eventful one, for over four hundred years there was little debate about it or about the queens efforts to restore Catholicism to England. The reign was almost universally perceived as poor, nasty, brutish and short-lived and the restoration of Catholicism was believed to have been doomed to failure, both because the burning of heretics offended English sensibilities and because Protestantism was already so deeply embedded in England that it could not be uprooted. Yet towards the end of the twentieth century, the tectonic plates of historical research began to shift and the resulting tremors altered the historiographical landscape of Marys reign, and indeed of the English Reformation.

Through a Venice Glass Darkly: John Foxe’s Most Famous Miracle

On New Year’s Day, 1578, Sir John Langley, a wealthy alderman of the City of London, lay dying. Present at his deathbed were three of the most eminent preachers in the capital: Robert Crowley, who held four London livings, Alexander Nowell, the dean of St Paul’s cathedral and John Foxe, the martyrologist. As Langley’s life ebbed away, Foxe went up to the dying man and ‘used both godly councell unto him and some devote prayers’. Since Langley could no longer speak, Foxe urged him to signify his belief in Christ by holding up his hands: Ymmediatly so he did and then … Mr Fox was verie gladd, and told him that he had done ynoughe to show him self both a Crystian and to depend only uppon the merittes of Chrystes passione.

Offending God: John Foxe and English Protestant Reactions to the Cult of the Virgin Mary

On 20 January 1574, at about 7.00 p.m., Alexander Nyndge, one of the sons of William Nyndge, a gentleman of Herringwell, Suffolk, suddenly went into violent paroxysms. Edward Nyndge, Alexander’s brother, intervened. Edward was a Cambridge graduate and a former fellow of Gonville and Caius, and his University education had apparently prepared him for just such an emergency. He immediately declared that Alexander was possessed by an evil spirit and summoned the villagers to come and pray for his brother’s recovery. As the praying continued, Alexander’s convulsions grew worse; a half dozen men had to hold him in his chair. Meanwhile the onlookers were praying extemporaneously. Suddenly someone invoked both God and the Virgin Mary. Edward pounced on this remark and admonished the crowd that such prayers offended God. The evil spirit, in a voice ‘much like Alexanders voice’, chimed in, endorsing the propriety of the prayer. But ‘Edward made answere and said thou lyest, for ther is no other name under Heaven, wherby we may challenge Salvacion, but thonly name of Ihesus Christe’. This point settled, Edward proceeded to organize his brother’s exorcism.