Between Illustration and Idolatry
Between Illustration and Idolatry
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and the Evolution of the Cult of Images in Reformation England Carlie Pendleton Randolph Macon College
Abstract The publication of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, referred to more commonly as the Book of Martyrs, is the ultimate embodiment of political and religious propaganda under the Tudor dynasty. It is distinguished from other major Protestant martyrologies of the sixteenth-century by its heavy use of illustrative woodcuts, a use which not only successfully communicated the book’s message to a largely illiterate laity but established Protestantism as an integral part of English national identity. Its subsequent state-sponsored dissemination throughout English churches and cathedrals led to its popular use as a liturgical and devotional text.
In John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Bishop John Hooper embodies the ghastly image of Protestant martyrdom under the Marian regime as one who slowly burned for his faith. In Foxe’s account, even when “he was blacke in the mouth and his toung swollen that he could not speake” he still cried out to Jesus for forgiveness.1 And even after “he knocked hys brest with hys handes vntill one of his armes fell of,” Hooper raised his other arm to continue his repentance.2 Even after burning for the better part of an hour, Hooper is recounted not as wailing in agony but instead as a lamb, whom even after his bowels had fallen out and his genitals were engulfed in flames, “he dyed as quietly as a child in his bed.”3 For his constancy in faith unto death and his steadfastness in the midst of torture, John Hooper is considered a martyr for the Protestant faith. The best part about John Hooper’s story is that anyone could understand it and need not read a single word. This was all due to the exquisite woodcut illustrations in the Book of Martyrs. The woodcut illustrations used in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs provided an emotionally evocative experience of martyrdom for the reader. They were used to communicate the new Protestant martyrology to an English laity who by and large was both illiterate and reluctant to take to the new faith. These illustrations ultimately resulted in the establishment of Protestantism as an integral part of English national identity. However, the use of such images to invoke a religious experience, while effective, flirted with the idolatry that the Reformation had so vehemently denounced. As with most books, religious or otherwise, first impressions matter to the reader. Foxe understood this well as he visually overwhelms the reader with his massive frontispiece woodcut. Foxe knew that he would need to clearly define and illustrate the terms of his book as to what constituted both the true religion and heresy. He also understood that influencing a laity with a low rate of literacy required the images that he used to be heavily detailed and allegorical in nature. The Book of Martyrs’ frontispiece is the epitome of these guidelines. It is impossible to absorb the enormity of this woodcut’s message by examining it as a whole. Instead it can be broken down into sections, each one juxtaposed with an example of faith and of heresy. The 1563 edition, as well as the subsequent editions, all contained a centered box of text that briefly outlines the 1 “The Martyrdom of John Hooper,” in The Unabridged Acts and Monuments Online or TAMO (1570 edition), by John Foxe (Sheffield: HRI Online Publications, 2011), 1723. http://www. johnfoxe.org (accessed November 11, 2012). 2 Ibid., 1723. 3 Ibid., 1723.
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FOUNDATIONS • Volume VII No. 1
FOUNDATIONS • Fall 2013
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