John Foxe - Martyrologist (5 of 9)

An account of his life taken from The History and Antiquities of Boston by Pishey Thompson (1856) [continued].

partake of the danger, and make the destruction common;" adding, “that he well remembered with what instructions he had fortified his younger years, neither had he with more attention hearkened thereto, than he would, with constancy, put them into practice.” During the period of his tutorship, the memoir states, “the family resided chiefly at Reigate, in Surrey,1 and that there John Fox wrote several of his works, and laid the foundation of his ‘Acts and Monuments.'” How long he remained with this family is uncertain; but it appears that Gardiner, during that time, “Laid many traps for the young tutor, wishing to arrest him. Once on a visit to the Earl of Surrey (then Duke of Norfolk), Gardiner met Fox in the apartment of his pupils, where the Duke had been, when Fox, seeing Gardiner, instantly withdrew. The Bishop asked who he was, the Duke evasively answered, ‘He is my physician;’ ‘1 like his appearance,’ was the reply of the Bishop, ‘and when necessity requires I will employ him?'"2 The danger to Fox was now imminent, and the Earl, finding he no longer could protect him from the malice of Gardiner, sent Fox and his wife to the house of one of his servants. He then set sail from Ipswich, in a vessel provided by the Duke, but unfavourable weather obliged him to put again into that port. In the meantime, an officer, with a warrant from Gardiner, had searched the house, and pursued Fox to Ipswich; where, hearing he had sailed, the officer returned to London. When Fox, coming on shore, was informned of this, “He presently took horse as though he would have left town, but returned at night, and bargained with the master of the vessel to put to sea again, which he did during the night, and in two days landed him safe at Nieuport haven; from thence, after his wile’s confinement, he proceeded to Antwerp, and thence to Strasburgh; it is therefore probable that he escaped early in 1554.” We next find him at Basil, which city he reached after sojourning some time at Frankfort, where he was concerned in the troubles and discussions relative to the discipline and worship of the Church, on which a separation among the English exiles took place; and Fox, with several others, retired to Basil in 1555. Here he obtained employment from OPERINUS, a celebrated printer of that city. Many of Fox’s early works were printed here. It was here also, that (as we are informed by his son) he collected the materials for his “Acts and Monuments,” from accounts sent him from England and other parts. His son says,— “This place (Basil), for careful printing, and plenty of diligent and wealthy men in that profession, then surpassed all the other cities of Germany; and they preferred the industry of our men in that employmcmit before any of their own countrymen.” To these men Mr. Fox joined himself. He did not, however, devote himself to the mere mechanical labours required in a reader for the press. Fox was already known to the reformers as a zealous and laborious annalist; he appeared, therefore, to be the fittest instrument to record the consequences of the re-enactment of the persecuting statutes; and he was as anxious to write as they were to contribute the materials for his pages’. Details of the transactions in England were sent, therefore, to Grindal, one of the chief refugees, who

1 Dr. MAITLAND has a long argument to prove that in all cases where Reigate is mentioned, and they are very numerous, KENINGALE is meant; this was a well-known and principal seat of the Howard family in Norfolk, long since taken down. To prove this he refers to the original MS. No. 417, Article 66, Harleian MS. The place there being called Keningaliae, that is Keninghall.—B.

2 Dr. MAITLAND calls this statement absurd and inconsistent, and shows that the Earl of Surrey (Fox’s late pupil) was not Duke of Norfolk, until after Fox quitted England; the old Duke dying, August 25th, 1554, when Fox was at Strasburg. —B.

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