John Foxe (1516/17–1587) was born at Boston in Lincolnshire and became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, which he left in 1545 because of his Protestant views. During the reign of the Catholic Mary I he lived in exile in Strasbourg and Basel, where he published a Latin history of persecution in 1559. Returning under Elizabeth I, he brought out the first English edition of Actes and Monuments in 1563 and enlarged it in 1570, 1576 and 1583, collecting trial records, letters and eyewitness reports. He was ordained by Bishop Grindal and held a prebend at Salisbury but lived modestly in London, writing and preaching until his death.
“Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as, I trust, will never be put out.”
Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Chapter XIII: Persecutions In England During The Reign Of Queen Mary
John Foxe's Actes and Monuments, published in English in 1563 and popularly known as the Book of Martyrs, is a history of Christian persecution with special focus on the Protestants executed in England under Mary I between 1555 and 1558. Foxe collected trial records, letters, official documents and testimony from survivors, and the expanded 1570 edition ran to more than two thousand folio pages.