length escaped, with his wife then big with child; got over to Newport Haven, travelled to Antwerp and Francfort, where he was involved in the troubles excited by Dr. Cox and his party; and the first settlers being driven from that place, he removed from thence to Basil, where numbers of English subjects resorted in those times of persecution. In this city he maintained himself and family, by correcting the press for Oporinus, a celebrated printer; and it was here, that he laid the plan of his famous work, "The History of the Acts and Monuments of the Church." He had published at Strasburgh, in 1554, in 8vo, "Commentarii Rerum in Ecclesia gestarum, maximarumque per totam Europam persecutionum a Wiclavi temporibus ad hanc usque ætatem descriptarum," in one book to which he added five more books, all printed together at Basil, 1559, in folio.

After queen Mary's death, which bishop Aylmer says Fox foretold at Basil the day before it happened, and Elizabeth was settled on the throne, and the protestant religion established, Fox returned to his native country, where he found a very faithful friend in his former pupil, now fourth duke of Norfolk; who maintained him at his house, and settled a pension on him, which was afterwards confirmed by his son. In 1572, when this unhappy duke of

Norfolk was beheaded for his treasonable connection with Mary queen of Scotland, Mr. Fox and dean Nowell attended him upon the scaffold. Cecil also obtained for Fox, in 1563, of the queen a prebend in the church of Salisbury, though Fox himself would have declined accepting it; and though he had many powerful friends, as Walsingham, sir Francis Drake, sir Thomas Gresham, the bishops Grindal, Pilkington, Aylmer, &c. who would have raised him to considerable preferments, he declined them: being always unwilling to subscribe the canons, and disliking some ceremonies of the church. When archbishop Parker summoned the London clergy to Lambeth, and inquired of them whether they would yield conformity to the ecclesiastical habits, and testify the same by their subscriptions, the old man produced the New Testament in Greek, "To this (says he) will I subscribe." And when a subscription to the canons was required of him, he refused it, saying, "I have nothing in the church save a prebend at Salisbury; and much good may it do you, if you will take it away

FOX.

from me." Such respect, however, did the bishops, most of them formerly his fellow exiles, bear to his age, parts, and labours, that he continued in it to his death. But though Fox was a non-conformist, he was a very moderate one, and highly disapproved of the intemperance of the rigid puritans. He expresses himself to the following effect in a Latin letter, written on the expulsion of his son by the puritans from Magdalen-college, on the groundless imputation of his having turned papist; in which are the following passages. "I confess it has always been my great care, if I could not be serviceable to many persons, yet not knowingly to injure any one, and least of all those of Magdalen college. I cannot therefore but the more wonder at the turbulent genius, which inspires those factious puritans, so that violating the laws of gratitude, despising my letters and prayers, disregarding the intercession of the president himself (Dr. Humphreys), without any previous admonition, or assigning any cause, they have exercised so great tyranny against me and my son; were I one, who like them would be violently outrageous against bishops and archbishops, or join myself with them, that is, would become mad, as they are, I had not met with this severe treatment. Now because, quite different from them, I have chosen the side of modesty and public tranquillity; hence the hatred, they have a long time conceived against me, is at last grown to this degree of bitterness. As this is the case, I do not so much ask you what will do on my account, as what is to be thought of for your sakes: you who are prelates of the church again and again consider. As to myself, though the taking away the fellowship from my son is a great affliction to me, yet because this is only a private concern, I bear it with more moderation: I am much more concerned upon account of the church, which is public. I perceive a certain race of men rising up, who, if they should increase and gather strength in this kingdom, I am sorry to say what disturbance I foresee must follow from it. Your prudence is not ignorant how much the Christian religion formerly suffered by the dissimulation and hypocrisy of the monks. At present in these men I know not what sort of new monks seems to revive; so much more pernicious than the former, as with

None of Fox's biographers seem to have been aware that in 1572 he was collated to a prebend in the church of

you

Durham, but quitted it the same year, probably on account of his nonconfor mity.

more subtle artifices of deceiving, under pretence of perfection, like stage-players who only act a part, they conceal a more dangerous poison; who while they require every thing to be formed according to their own strict discipline' and conscience, will not desist until they have brought all things into Jewish bondage." Conformably to these sentiments, he expresses himself on many other occasions, in which he had no private interest, and the two succeeding reigns proved that he had not judged rashly of the violent tempers and designs of some of the puritans. Those, however, who detest their proceedings against the son of a man who had done so much for the reformation, will be pleased to hear that he was restored to his fellowship a second time, by the queen's mandate.

In 1564 he sent a Latin panegyric to the queen, upon her indulgence to some divines, who had scruples respecting a strict conformity, and yet were suffered to hold dignities in the church. In July 1575 he wrote a Latin letter to the queen, to dissuade her majesty from putting to death two anabaptists, who had been condemned to be burnt. Fuller, who transcribed this letter from the original, has published it in his "Church History," and Collier, who has too frequently joined the popish cry against Fox, yet allows that it is written in a very handsome Christian strain. In this letter, Fox declares, "that with regard to those fanatical sects, he does not think they ought to be countenanced in a state, but chastised in a proper manner; but that to punish with flames the bodies of those, who err rather from blindness than obstinacy of will, is cruel, and more suitable to the example of the Romish church, than the mildness of the gospel; and in short such a dreadful custom, as could never have been introduced into the meek and gentle church of Christ, except by the popes, and particularly by Innocent III. who first took that method of restraining heresy. He observes that he does not write thus out of an indulgence to error, but, as he is a man, out of regard to the lives of men, that they may have an opportunity of repenting of their errors. He declares a tenderness for the lives, not only of men, but even of brute animals themselves; and affirms, that he could never pass by a slaughter-house, without the strongest sense of pain and regret. He entreats her majesty, therefore, to spare the lives of these wretches," &c. But Fuller tells us, that though the queen constantly called Mr. Fox "her Father,"

yet she gave him a flat denial as to the saving of their lives, unless they recanted their errors, which they refused, and were executed.

Fox was a man of great humanity and uncommon libesality. He was a most laborious student, and remarkably abstemious; a most learned, pious, and judicious divine, and ever opposed to all methods of severity in matters of religion. That he was not promoted was entirely owing to his retaining some opinions adverse to the habits and ceremonies of the church, which he had imbibed abroad. "Although," says Fuller, "the richest mitre in England would have counted itself preferred by being placed upon his head, he contented himself with a prebend of Salisbury. How learnedly he wrote, how constantly he preached, how piously he lived, and how cheerfully he died, may be seen at large in the life prefixed to his book." Wood and Strype are united in their praises of his talents and personal character; the former only, like his successor Collier, cannot forgive him for being "a severe Calvinist, and a bitter enemy to popery." Of his liberality many anecdotes may be found in our authorities.

This excellent man died in 1587, in the 70th year of his age, and was buried in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate, of which, it is said, he was sometime vicar; but, as Wood thinks, if he had it at all, he kept it but a little while, in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. He left two sons, Samuel and Thomas. Samuel became demy, and afterwards fellow of Magdalen-college, in Oxford. In 1610, he wrote his father's life, prefixed to his "Acts and Monuments of the Church." Thomas was fellow of King's college, in Cambridge, and became afterwards an eminent physician at London.

2.

Besides what has been mentioned, Fox wrote, 1. "De Censura, seu Excommunicatione Ecclesiastica, Interpellatio ad Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem, 1551," 8vo. "Tables of Grammar, 1552." Wood tells us, that these "Tables were subscribed in print by eight lords of the privy council; but were quickly laid aside, as being far more too short, than king Henry the VIIIth's Grammar was too long." 3. "Articuli sive Aphorismi aliquot Joannis Wiclevi sparsim aut ex variis illius opusculis excerpti per adversarios Papicolas, ac Concilio Constantiensi exhibiti." 4. "Collectanea quædam ex Reginaldi Pecocki Episcopi Cicestriensis opusculis exustis conservata, et ex VOL. XV.

D

antiquo psegnate transcripta." 5. "Opistographia ad Oxonieuses." The three last are printed with his "Commentarii rerum in Ecclesia gestarum," at Strasburg, 1554, in 8vo, mentioned above. 6. "Concerning Man's Election to Salvation, 1581," 8vo. 7. "Certain Notes of Election, added to Beza's Treatise of Predestination, 1581," 8vo. 8. "The Four Evangelists in the old Saxon Tongue, with the English thereunto adjoined, 1571," 4to, and many other pieces, which were levelled against the Papists.

None of these, however, are likely to add much to his fame, which is now exclusively founded on his "Acts and Monuments," more familiarly known as "Fox's Book of Martyrs." Of this vast undertaking, some brief account cannot be uninteresting. We have before noticed that he conceived the plan, and executed some part of it when he was at Basil, but reserved the greatest part of it until his return home, when he might avail himself of living authorities. It appears by his notes that the completion of it occupied him for eleven years, during which his la bour must have been incessant. His assistants, however, were numerous. Among those who pointed out sources of information, or contributed materials, was Grindal, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who, when an exile for bis religion, established a correspondence in England for this purpose, and received accounts of most of the acts and sufferings of the martyrs in queen Mary's reign. It is said also to have been owing to Grindal's strict regard to truth, that the publication of the work was so long delayed, as he rejected all common reports that were brought over, unless confirmed by the most satisfactory evidence. It was this scrupulous fidelity which induced him to advise Fox at first only to print separately, such memoirs of certain individuals as could be authenticated, which accordingly was done, although these separate publications are now seldom to be met with. At length after a residence of some years in England, employed in collecting written and oral information, the first edition was published at London in 1563, in one thick vol. folio, with the title "Acts and Monuments of these latter and perillous days touching matters of the Churche, wherein are comprehended and described the great persecutions and horrible troubles, that have been wrought and practised by the Romish prelates, speciallye in this realme of England and