It is a grim read, though I’m glad to have read it. It may not be completely reliable in every detail, though the names of the Martyrs and their fates are generally accepted.
Foxe records four primary points of dispute between the reformers and the Roman Church. The reformers:
- Denied the value of pilgrimages
- Refused to worship the saints
- Insisted on reading Scripture for themselves
- Denied the physical body of Christ was present in sacramental bread
For these points, hundreds were put to death.
Foxe’s treatment of the chief perpetrators, Queen Mary [1553-1558] and Edmund Bonner Bishop of London is certainly fair.
According to Foxe…
No other king or queen of England spilled as much blood in a time of peace as Queen Mary did in four years through her hanging, beheading, burning, and imprisonment of good Christian Englishmen.
The Martyrs remind me of something the writer of Hebrews [probably the Apostle Paul] wrote about Old Testament Martyrs:
Of whom the word was not worthy.
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I read an old copy of this in my thirties, and recently I received an updated (2018) copy from Voice of the Martyrs. I guess they continue adding martyrs to this list, which is endless, I'm sure. When I first read it, I understood it was suggested that some stories were exaggerated. But no matter what they say, there is truth to these stories. After all, persecutions have been predicted and prophesied.
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