The Actes and Monuments, popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by Protestant English historian John Foxe, first published in 1563 by John Day.
A page of the first English-language edition, printed by John Day in 1563
Frontispiece to the 1563 edition of The Book of Martyrs
Engraved Title page from Fox's Book of Martyrs, pub by Thomas Kelly in 1814 (folio)
William Tyndale, just before being strangled and burned at the stake, cries out, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes", in woodcut from an early edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
John Foxe was an English clergyman, theologian, and historian, notable for his martyrology Actes and Monuments, telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the 14th century and in the reign of Mary I. The book was widely owned and read by English Puritans and helped to mould British opinion on the Catholic Church for several centuries.
John Foxe
A page from the first edition of Actes and Monuments, also known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, published in 1563.
Dual martyrdom by burning, 1558; from a 1641 edition of Foxe.
Foxe, engraving by Martin Droeshout
