[.ca] Foxe's Book of Martyrs (ISBN 0882708759)

A wonderful collection:
This book is the ultimate collection of the truth behind intolerance towards Christians and protestants in particular. Throughly updated and revised it bring the persecution of Christianity through 2002, so that you will see for yourself the more then 500 years of persecution and murder that has been done against Christians. In normal books one reads that Christians were the ones hurting and suppressing others but this book makes plain the truth, the truth that honest peaceful Christians are the victims of intolerance all over the world from Pakistan to the Sudan to Nigeria to India and beyond. Everywhere lone Christians are under assault and this book catalogs but a small portion of the incidents. From the beating and burning to death of a Christian woman in the Sudan to the raids by armed mobs on Christian youth camps in Indonesia this book is a wonderful collection. A must read for anyone interested in the present state of christianity in the world.

Historical Importance = 5 stars Actually history = 1 star:
John Foxe's book of martyr's is a classic as far as historical importance is concerned. With Queen Elizabeth solidifying Protestant power in England and suppressing the Catholic religion, John Foxe's propaganda linking the Protestant martyr's during Queen Mary's reign with the early martyr's of the ancient church became extremely popular. The popularity of the book, along with the Reformation tradition of nationalism and xenophobia, helped spread hatred and fear of Catholics throughout England as traitors who were beholden to a foreign ruler. It's relatively easy to see that the history takes a back seat to the "spin" after the deaths of early church martyrs (Foxe borrows slavishly from Eusebius' Church History for this) are recorded. Amazingly enough, Foxe makes orthodox Christians out of the Albigensians, a group of heretics who, if transported to the 16th century, would've been burned at the stake by any Protestant cleric or ruler. Foxe reserves the most venom for "bloody" Mary. Although a legitimate monarch, she was not as skilled at the fine art of propaganda and Protestants, who had virtually mastered the art, exploited that. Her first mistake was that she married a spanish man, leaving her wide open to xenophobic attacks by Protestants portraying her as someone who was subverting England through "foreign influence." Second, when a small minority of religious extremists tried to overthrow her legitimate rule and the traditional religion of the people, she responded by using the death penalty for heresy. Protestants seized on this and claimed that they were being punished unjustly for maintaining "biblical" Christianity. When Elizabeth was making martyr's out of Catholics (and in greater numbers than "bloody" Mary), Protestants appealed more to nationalist sentiment by saying that the Catholics were traitors trying to subvert their free state. This worked masterfully to demean catholics in the eyes of the English, becuase instead of threatening some abstract theological concept, the catholics were said to be subverting the country. Something that struck fear in every English man and woman. Stuck in the middle of this is a brief apologia for John Calvin. I'm pretty sure that this wasn't in the original edition of the Book of Martyr's, but the essay contains similar propaganda techniques. Calvin is portrayed as a prophetic voice that was roughed up by the institutional church that cared more for authority than pure doctrine. The essayist glosses over the cruelty and intolerance of his rule in Geneva and attempts to pin most of the blame for Michael Servetus' execution on Farel, claiming that Calvin wanted Servetus to repent and not to execute him (ignoring some of the more incidiary quotes in which he claimed that if Servetus came to Geneva, he wouldn't leave alive). The essayist wraps it up by making the head scratching claim that Calvin was a "friend of civil liberties. The historical importance of Foxe's Book of Martyr's cannot be overstated. It was hugely popular in its day and shaped England's attitude toward Catholic's for hundreds of years to come. In fact, modern day heirs of John Foxe in the fundamentalist camp view this as almost on par with the scriptures themselves. Although the Foxe's writing is almost transparently propaganda to all but the most committed fundamentalists today, it is still historically important towards understanding the mind set of the times and shouldn't be ignored.

A wonderful book that will make you angry and sad:
Prepare to be angry, very angry. This book is the ultimate collection of the truth behind intolerance towards Christians and protestants in particular. Throughly updated and revised it bring the persecution of Christianity through 2002, so that you will see for yourself the more then 500 years of persecution and murder that has been done against Christians. In normal books one reads that Christians were the ones hurting and suppressing others but this book makes plaint he truth, the truth that honest peaceful Christians are the victims of intolerance all over the world from Pakistan to the Sudan to Nigeria to India and beyond. Everywhere lone Christians are under assault and this book catalogs but a small portion of the incidents. From the beating and burning to death of a Christian woman in the Sudan to the raids by armed mobs on Christian youth camps in Indonesia this book is a wonderful collection. The original Foxes book of martyrs was to catalog the assaults in England by the Queen 'Bloody' Mary. This text keeps the tradition alive as it details the persecutions from that time to the present. This book may enrage you but it will also wake you up and encourage you to support peaceful protestant movements the world over.

We can learn much from history's skeletons:
Whenever someone opens this book, they are grabbing a shovel, and with each passing chapter exhuming a new skeleton. The Church of Rome would be very pleased if these bones would remain peacefully buried in their churchyard caskets, but alas, what was done in the darkness is now revealed in the light. No true Christian can fully ignore the brutality, the racks, the searing fires, the strangulations, thumbscrews, beheadings, spearings, and crucifixions that the early Christian martyrs endured for the sake of spreading the Gospel seed. Every Christian should read the gruesome stories beginning with stoning of Steven (the first martyr) and continuing on into the ages of the Protestant reformation and hideous inquisitions devised by Satan to "purge" the fruit of Jesus Christ from this world. Every born-again believer in Christ should know the story of William Tyndale, and the price he paid so the world could have an English New Testament. Recently, I was surfing the online Catholic encyclopedia and did a search on Tyndale and Wycliffe. What I found disturbed me. The Church of Rome evidently still deems these men heretics. No apologies, no repentence for burning Tyndale at the stake, and I believe that if she could, she'd burn him and every Protestant pastor and evangelist she'd get her hands on all over again. According to the search I made, John Foxe was a liar, a deceiver and a criminal. It is truly disturbing that the Roman Church is still so successful in disguising her true identity, even despite the wealth of historical evil hanging on her clothsline. Please, if you are a born-again, bloodwashed believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (a Christian), and if Jesus lives inside your heart and has opened the knowledge of God to you, through the Holy Spirit, and if you read the scriptures and have a personal relationship with Christ, then please, please, please read this book and be humbled by the true pioneers of early Christianity. Don't get mad and attempt to justify (or even deny, as some have tried) the motives of the Church of Rome, because Satan is a liar. Remember, Satan always provides an imitation for the real things of God. If God has founded a Church, Satan will provide a cheap imitation. If God sent His Christ, Satan will send his antichrist. Can we learn much from history? Do dead men really tell no tales? Ask the skeletons buried in John Foxe's Book of Martyrs (and then confirm the historical data through a Webster's encyclopedia or any other reputable, secular source) and come up with your own conclusion. And remember this: the Church of Rome herself WILL NOT DENY nor APOLOGIZE for burning and torturing these Christian men; after all, it was done for the glory of her god.

Don't Be Misled - This is NOT Foxe's work!:
This book is to Foxe's original work as a pocket dictionary is to a full size, complete Webster's (the kind that requires a stand). Foxe's original work is nearly 7.000 pages in eight volumes! But the really sad thing is that this particular edition has been so carelessly edited, rewritten, and corrupted. There is even a chapter about John Calvin, whom FOXE NEVER WROTE ABOUT! All the Catholic/Protestant quibbling about Foxe's book is pathetically stupid, especially between people who've never even laid eyes upon the complete work. Besides, the REAL church was started over two hundred fifty years before Rome laid claim to Christianity -- and the first Christian church building was erected in England within three years of the crucifixion. So true Christianity is neither Catholic (never was) NOR Protestant (having never been Catholic, there was nothing for REAL Christians to protest except the way they were treated by both groups). The truth is that Foxe accurately chronicled Roman Catholic atrocities of his time, but he also wrote in support of the Reformed (Protestant) church which used very similar tactics. He also reached some incorrect conclusions, for which he can easily be forgiven, since they are not central to his work and he did not have the research tools we have available today. But the real point is that THIS BOOK IS NOT FOXE'S WORK and bears almost no resemblance to it. If you are interested in obtaining a a reprint of the REAL Foxe work, contact swrb(dot)com on the world wide web -- select "Rare Bound Photocopies" then look under "F" for Foxe's work. I am not necessarily endorsing any of the other works they sell, but they are the only current source I know for the complete Foxe work. Any Christian foolish enough to think they've read "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" after reading the Thomas Nelson edition (or most other "modern" versions) is probably unlearned enough to call himself Catholic or Protestant.