John Foxe and the Joy of Suffering

John Foxe rejected the early Christian and medieval emphasis on the exceptional nature of martyrs and on the disjunction between vulnerable body and transported soul, focusing instead on the human qualities of his Protestant martyrs and the communal experience of the persecuted faithful, which becom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Sixteenth century journal 1996-10, Vol.27 (3), p.721-734
Main Author: Knott, John R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
16th century
Christianity
Fortitude
Foxe, John (1516-87)
Gestures
Heroism
History and sciences of religions
Literary criticism
Literary studies. Texts. Editions
Martyrdom
Martyrs
Modern period
Pain
Protestantism
Reformation
Religious rituals
Renaissance period
Saints legends
Torture
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Summary:John Foxe rejected the early Christian and medieval emphasis on the exceptional nature of martyrs and on the disjunction between vulnerable body and transported soul, focusing instead on the human qualities of his Protestant martyrs and the communal experience of the persecuted faithful, which becomes the locus of the sacred. He avoided the miraculous in attempting to reconcile representations of horrific suffering with traditional affirmations of the inner peace and joy of the martyr. Much of the drama of the Acts and Monuments arises from intrusions of the ordinary (the gesture of wiping a sooty hand on a smock) and the unpredictable (a fire that will not burn). It is Foxe's deviations from the unwritten script of martyrdom and his occasional inability to contain the horror of a scene with assertions of spiritual triumph that give his narrative its power.
ISSN:0361-0160
2326-0726
DOI:10.2307/2544014