Ancient and Early Modern Martyrs: A Reformation reappraisal of Britain’s Roman heritage as told by John Foxe (Abstract)

The Anglo-American conference on Ancients and Moderns is now just over 2 months away and the research for my paper is, annoyingly, still only slowly ebbing along.  Nevertheless I hope to be able to start talking a little more about my thoughts and findings on this blog over the next few weeks.  In the meantime I thought I would share with you the abstract for my paper:      

Ancient and Early Modern Martyrs: A Reformation reappraisal of Britain’s Roman heritage as told by John Foxe

The Acts and Monuments, written by John Foxe in the late sixteenth century, is commonly recognised as primarily a martyrology that vividly details the persecution of English Protestants by the government of Queen Mary.  However, the work is so much more than this; it is an ecclesiastical history that told a revised history of Christianity from Christ through to their own times.  In this history the Pope was labelled as Antichrist and traditionally perceived heretics counted as members of the true faithful. 

Foxe chose many ways to establish his argument and to validate his claims one of which was to show the authenticity of the protestant church to have stretched back to Christ himself.  In his second edition (published in 1570) Foxe devoted an entire chapter to the classical world seeking to show Roman culture, politics and religion through revised eyes.  Foxe wished to receive the classical world as a purer time not yet disfigured by human and supernatural corruptions but one also plagued by persecution.  For Foxe the true Christian church was a persecuted one as history had shown time and time again.   

Foxe achieved this aim largely through the eyes of Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263-339 AD) who had initiated the very form that Foxe wrote - the ecclesiastical history - but he also did so through the parallel researches carried out by other evangelical reformers such as the bibliophile John Bale and the German team of historians who compiled the Magdeburg Centuries.  Those texts were written in Latin so Foxe’s vernacular work provided for the ordinary English people the only accessible means to reformist re-evaluation of the classical world.  I will look at exactly what that interpretation was; how it related to the views of Foxe’s sixteenth century contemporaries; and how the classical world formed an essential role in Foxe’s understanding of the past and his conception for the present and future.  

Ancient or Modern religion? - Foxe's opening gambit

How did Foxe receive the classical traditions and texts?  How did he incorporate them into a revised conception of the past?  Was he unique in his vision of ancient civilization or did he agree with other scholars of his generation?  These are questions that need answering, and will have to become a focus for my study over the coming months.  Last weekend I made a start to these proceedings by reading through the first part of the first book of the Acts and Monuments.  In this section Foxe compared (in list format) the Roman Catholic Church of the sixteenth century with that described by Eusebius and others for early Christianity.  Foxe’s central purpose was to demonstrate that although the ancient church fathers had declared the Roman Church a true church, it was not right to claim that this was still true in the sixteenth century.  As Foxe himself notes:       

“What say they [that is the Roman Catholics], where was this Church of yours, before these fifty years?  To whom briefly to answer, first we demand what they mean by this, which they call our Church?  If they mean the ordinance and institution of doctrine and Sacraments, now received of us, and differing from the Church of Rome, we affirm and say, that our church was, when this church of theirs was not yet hatched out of the shell, nor did yet ever see any light: that is, in the time of the Apostles, in the primitive age, in the time of Gregory I and the old Roman Church” 

- A&M, 1583, bk. 1, pp. 25-26

As beginnings go this is a strong start for Foxe as it attacks head-on a central and popular Catholic argument: where was your church before Luther?  Foxe’s answer is a simple one: where was your church?

Ancients and Moderns: How to fit John Foxe into the picture?

Last week the Institute of Historical Research announced the programme for their 81^st Anglo-American Conference of Historians.  This year the topic is on Ancients and Moderns.  What do they mean by this?  Well the primary question for the conference is how does the classical world resonate in our own times?  In line with that question is how successive ‘epochs’ since the Renaissance have pictured themselves in relation to ancient civilizations? 

Logo for the 81s Anglo-American Conference of Historians
hosted by the Institute of Historical Research

There are many ways to answer and look at those questions one of which is to turn to the revision of history produced in the sixteenth century.  This is exactly what I plan to do in my paper for the Anglo-American conference.  The paper entitled Ancient and Early Modern Martyrs: A Reformation reappraisal of Britain’s Roman heritage as told by John Foxe will look primarily at the history of the Roman period in the Acts and Monuments and what this tells us about Foxe’s view of his own times.

The entire first book of the Acts and Monuments was dedicated to early Christian and Roman history with Eusebius’ account of early martyrs utilized by Foxe as a parallel to Protestants martyred under Queen Mary.  Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 263 – 339) wrote the first ever ecclesiastical history in the fourth century and Foxe located his work in the same tradition.  In this, Foxe was the first in England to follow Eusebius’ lead since the Venerable Bede but he was not the only one to do so in Christendom in the late sixteenth-century.  A German reformer named Matthias Flacius was also heavily involved in a collaborative project based in the city state of Magdeburg.  This project, basing itself upon Eusebius’ church history, resulted in fourteen volumes charting Christian history from the birth of Christ right through to the thirteenth century.  It was to prove a valuable inspiration and source for Foxe’s English-centric project. 

Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 263-339)

The return to Eusebius by protestant reformers both in terms of content and in form had specific resonances for a revised history of Christianity, especially one based upon the idea of the true faithful as a persecuted people as Foxe’s was.  Thus far there have only been a handful of studies on the Eusebius question and the Roman period in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments and only two published:

• Minton, Gretchen E., '"The Same Cause and Like Quarell" : Eusebius, John Foxe, and the Evolution of Ecclesiastical History', Church History, 71:4 (2002), 715-42 .
• Freeman, Thomas S., Great Searching out of Bookes and Autors: John Foxe as an Ecclesiastical Historian, unpublished Ph.D (New Brunswick, The State University of New Jersey, 1995).
• Pucci, Michael S., ‘Reforming Roman Emperors: John Foxe’s characterisation of Constantine in the Acts and Monuments’, in David Loades (ed.), John Foxe: An Historical Perspective (Aldershot, 1999), pp. 29-51.  

The John Foxe project offers some additional research in its commentaries although these are preliminary in nature and, I should confess, were partly written by myself, and therefore represent my own limited investigations into this area thus far.  Included amongst these commentaries is the fact that Foxe, like all humanist scholars of his age, followed Cicero’s leges historiae – i.e. that the first priority was truth.  Foxe uses Cicero’s ‘laws’ not only to justify his own text but to derogatorily claim medieval chroniclers as having failed to attain the aspiration of Cicero (see commentary for 1583, bk. 1, p. 24).  Another commentary remarks upon Foxe’s overriding prophetic framework based loosely upon that of John Bale’s Image of Bothe Churches (1545).  Foxe structured his account of early martyrs via Eusebius but also through the lens of ‘two kingdom’ theory (the idea that there were a distinction between the affairs of this world and the kingdom of Christ) and the second of the visible and invisible church (see commentary for 1583, bk. 1, p. 53).  For the account of the ten persecutions we know that Foxe relied heavily upon the German ecclesiastical history, the commonly named Magdeburg Centuries that I mentioned earlier, and a handful of other sources including, presumably, a copy of Eusebius’ ecclesiastical history.  However, as discussed in the commentary for 1583, bk. 1, p. 57 investigations into this portion of Foxe’s book remains at a preliminary stage.  It is therefore these ten persecutions that I will be most interested in looking at for my paper. 

Inflation in William Harrison's Description of England

Ever since money became a primary mode of exchange the economy has had an enormous effect on the ordinary day to day lives of people.  Of course we are currently in one of those periods of decline with recovery seemingly still somewhere far off in the distance.  During this recession many news outlets noted how different this economic downturn was to those in the past.  No doubt that is true, but it is surely equally true of all economic downturns.  No recession is precisely the same as another. 

On the whole it can be said that the standard of living in England rose during the sixteenth century but there were nonetheless two periods of high inflation that caused serious problems for the population.  In the last years of Henry VIII and first years of Edward VI debasement of the currency caused high inflation and then again towards the end of Elizabeth I’s reign prices rocketed due to bad harvests with somewhere around a 50% increase in costs. 

What did the chroniclers say about these periods of inflation and about the general rise in living standards?  Annabel Patterson argues that William Harrison (writing for the Holinshed Chronicles) commented on the economic situations – albeit in a fragmentary way – in his Description of England (see Patterson, Reading Holinshed’s Chronicles, ch. 5).  In the 1577 edition Harrison was optimistic and pointed out various ways that the people were better off: primarily the prevalence of chimneys which aired out houses, softer bedding material, and an increase of imported luxuries such as tapestries, pewter and plate.  This account was written during an upturn in real wages.  In his later revisions of 1587 Harrison amended his account to reflect on the downturn that had since occurred.  For instance the ‘amendment of lodging’ was recounted in 1577 as ‘great’ but in 1587 noted also as ‘not generall’ (Patterson, p. 82).

Simple adjustment of the words in a text between editions can be a useful indicator of fluctuations on the market during the early modern period.  It is equally true today.  If we look at the language used during the years of ‘boom’ compared to these years of ‘bust’ slight variations in word-use have been used to portray varying economic security.  Terminology used to describe the work of bankers and the stock exchange has been particularly revised.  Such thoughts leads me to a question (one which I don’t really have an answer to): how much of what happens in the economy is actually due to the words used to convey the situation compared to what the situation is actually about?  There is no doubt that words have power to control situations and direct them along certain lines.  So how far is our economy effected by words rather than facts and figures?  I’m no economist so I cannot answer such a series of questions but it is perhaps useful to consider these things when reading the newspapers and, equally as important, when reading medieval and early modern chronicles.  

History Today: Student Page on the Protestant Reformation

History Today online has added a new student page on the topic of the Protestant Reformation.  With articles by Michael Mullett, Russel Tarr, and Andrew Pettegree and several other links to History Today articles this is nice introduction to the subject and, while not strictly speaking on the topic of intellectual history, does discuss nicely the theological debates and events surrounding Martin Luther, John Calvin and other well known leaders of sixteenth century reformers.

Have a look on the History Today Student Page.

Patrick Collinson's final publication

The highly influential historian of post-reformation English religion, Patrick Collinson sadly passed away late last year but his passing came with one final publication.  This England: Essays on the English Nation and Commonwealth in the Sixteenth Century (Manchester, 2011) is a collection of essays previously published independently between 1994 and 2009.

The book represents the final word by Patrick Collinson on the sixteenth century.  Unlike his earlier work, post-reformation religious culture – whilst playing its role – is not its general focus.  That said, there is a considerable religious thread throughout largely manifested through examination of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments.  For the most part though, this binding together of recent articles by Collinson, reflects his latter interested in ‘early modern English politics and self-fashioning Collectively’, as Collinson’s reviewer Sarah Waurechen argues.

It is to this review – to be found in Reviews in History - that I thought worthwhile linking to here.  Sarah Waurechen sums up the collection as demonstrating Collinson’s view that:  

“ the political community was active and engaged, and that certain ideas, texts, and moments in history served as rallying points around which an English national identity could form. The problem, though, was that this identity was an unstable one, and Collinson illuminates the fissures in Protestant discourses about the nation, and in the ways in which histories might reflect religious and political fault lines. For him, this explains why the nation eventually collapsed into civil war.”

Other resources:

• Patrick Collinson Obituary (The Guardian)
• Publisher website (Manchester University Press)
• Reviews in History review of 'This England: Essays on the English Nation and Commonwealth in the Sixteenth Century (review no. 1186 by Sarah Waurechen)

Annabel Patterson, Reading Holinshed’s Chronicles (Chicago Press: Chicago, 1994)

BOOK REVIEW

Annabel Patterson’s 1994 Reading Holinshed’s Chronicles is a seminal work that brought the study of Holinshed back into historiographical favour.  For a long time Holinshed was perceived as only worthwhile studying as the base matter for the historical plays written by William Shakespeare.  Its content as far as historians and literary scholars were concerned was of nothing of importance – simply the final who-rah for the dying chronicle tradition.  This belief of course is in struck contrast to its ecclesiastical brother, John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, which has received serious scholarly study for many decades. 

Patterson’s thesis is divided into three main sections.  The first is to me the most interesting (although I differ to Patterson in this as she sees these chapters as introductory matter for her more original research).  The first four chapters focus on the intentions behind the Holinshed enterprise, its authors and the protocols involved in a collaborative project such as this, and the revisions made to the text for the second edition.  The first chapter (entitled Intentions) notes the members of the Holinshed ‘syndicate’ both for the first edition and second but talks more about issues of censorship and cohesiveness of narrative (or lack of) between the contributors than about the men themselves.  It is interesting, for example, that each contributor seems to have dedicated their piece to rival patrons.  Patterson also makes the case for Abraham Fleming as holding the role of chief editorial control of the second edition (which differs from some other interpretations). 

The second chapter (entitled Authors) is a short biographical account of each author of the Chronicles providing little that cannot be found elsewhere – but nevertheless useful in such a book as this.  The third chapter (entitled Protocols) is much more interesting.  Here Patterson lays out some of the historiographical and contextual protocols that lie beneath the narrative that each author contributed.  Thus elements such as referencing sources, adding a variety of opinions and voices to the arguments, and the use of eye witness accounts and anecdotes are reported as the basis for studying the various narratives.  The final chapter in the first section (entitled Revision) has a more limited focus.  It is about – of course – revisions made between the first and second editions of the Chronicles but more specifically it is about William Harrison’s prologue: Description of England.  This chapter has the feeling of preliminary work with much more to be done at a later date.  The revisions made by Harrison are interesting – they say much about his changing religious views (or at least about what he felt comfortable sending to print) and about his views of the Elizabethan state in general.           

Holinshed's Chronicles - Title page
from the 1587 edition 

The second section is used by Patterson to discuss the differing themes in Holinshed’s Chronicles: ‘economics’; ‘government’; ‘religion’; and ‘law’.  Although this section represents a more traditional approach to history research it is also where Patterson sees her conclusions as offering the most important results.  These chapters are, however, not so much about these themes in of themselves but about the perceptions of them in Holinshed.  This is not so much an attempt at institutional history but rather more an intellectual history focused around Holinshed and his collaborators; and thus in turn a study of late sixteenth-century Elizabethan historical scholarship.  Indeed the contributors for the two editions of Holinshed’s Chronicles reads like a ‘who’s who’ of late Elizabethan scholarship: Raphael Holinshed, Reyner Wolfe, Richard Stainihurst, Edmund Campion, William Harrison, Henry Bynneman, Abraham Fleming, John Hooker, John Stow, Francis Thynne, and William Patten. 

In the chapter on ‘Economics’ Patterson explains how the chroniclers believed that educated citizens should be alerted to price and currency fluctuations.  They achieved this aim chiefly through inserting information about economics in fragmented pieces throughout the text.  ‘Government’ is the topic of the sixth chapter.  Here Patterson takes Sir Geoffrey Elton to task over his conceptualisation of Parliament’s role in the sixteenth century showing that study of Holinshed can produce an alternative take.  Patterson argues that Holinshed regarded Parliament as the institution on which a secular history should be focused upon.  As an ‘evolutionary’ account of government, Holinshed shows how Parliament reached its peak in the reign of Richard II and that parliamentary responsibility was not sustained thereafter.    

Chapter seven is entitled ‘Religion’ but as Patterson points out this is not about doctrine or practice but ‘the convergence of church and state in the enforcement of religious orthodoxy’.  In particular Patterson focuses on the re-evaluation of the fifteenth century Lollard movement by Hall, Bale, Foxe, and Holinshed.

The trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton which resulted in his acquittal much to the fury of Mary’s government is the subject of chapter eight entitled ‘Law’.  Throckmorton was accused of complicity in a Protestant conspiracy but through extensive knowledge of the law was able to tear apart his accuser’s case.  According to Patterson:

‘in Holinshed’s eyes, Thorockmorton’s trial stood for his own theory of law in relation to the ancient constitution, and Throckmorton himself became the most articulate spokesman for what “indifference” meant in the territory of law’ (Patterson, p. 155).  

The final section of Reading Holinshed’s Chronicles moves away from the generalised and onto the tightly focused subjects of censorship and the ‘surprising’ (Patterson’s word) attention of the Chronicles to the underprivileged.  First we are treated to the idea of ‘popular’ history as found in the Chronicles especially where Holinshed and his collaborators focused on the Babington Plot and the phantom pregnancy of Queen Mary.  This chapter looks at the multi-vocal voice of the ordinary people (as far as it could be reconstructed or moulded into the chronicle framework).  Thus the account of the celebration for Mary’s claimed pregnancy includes gossip between ordinary people about whether or not they believed the queen to indeed be with child. 

The next chapter looks at gender history – or more specifically the visibility of women in the Chronicles.  Patterson notes that although Holinshed included several tales about women (other than the obvious female monarchs of the period) it was largely Abraham Fleming who, in an uneven form, brought in stories concerning women.  

We then move onto the topic of censorship (a thread that has run throughout the book).  Patterson interestingly shows how Holinshed and his successors were not only aware of the issues of censorship but on how they provided a commentary on ‘freedom of information’ through the use of history.  The argument here is that Elizabeth’s government was strong on enforcement of censorship and closely aligned to that of her sister’s policy.  The authors of the second edition of Holinshed, Patterson argues, were deeply aware of this continuity and sought to make their perceptions known to their readership. 

Finally, Patterson looks at ‘reception’ – to how the chronicle was transmitted to future generations and how it was received by them.  To my mind there is much more that could be said on this subject such as the use the chronicles were put to by each generation and if elements of Holinshed’s text found their way into other formats or not.    

As yet Patterson’s work has not been superseded (although the Holinshed Project promises further reassessment and refreshment of the subject in the near future).  The digitalisation of the Chronicles by the Holinshed Project is a giant leap forward for the study of both editions and will hopefully direct the rigor of historical scholarship in the same way that the Foxe Project has managed over the last twenty years for the Acts and Monuments.  Since Patterson’s monograph was published various articles have discussed Holinshed – most of which have made some sort of reference to Patterson’s research.  However, the only further monograph to have yet appeared was published in 2010 by Igor Djordjevic entitled Holinshed’s Nation: Ideals, Memory, and Practical Policy in the Chronicles.