Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563)

One of the most widely read books in the English-speaking world for three centuries.

John Foxe’s book tells the stories of Christian martyrs from the early Church through the Reformation. The Project Gutenberg edition is an abridged version of the classic.

Readers should know that Foxe wrote as a committed Protestant during the religious wars of the sixteenth century, and his account of Catholics is strongly partisan. It is valuable both for the stories it preserves and as a window into how bitterly Christians of that era persecuted one another.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Every book and document here is free to read.