Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Fox Editor's Preface Only a very few words of
explanation are necessary to introduce this edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs,
a work which used to hold a place in thousands of households by the side of The
Pilgrim's Progress and the Bible, and which is well fitted at the present
hour to do great service for evangelical and Protestant truth.
Fox is undoubtedly a vivid, powerful, truly interesting writer, with a style
whose simplicity covers elements both of tenderness and indignation, and some of
his narratives are among the finest in the English language.
But in his book, as he left it, he did not always arrange his materials in
the way most likely to attract the reader of the present day.
His literary craftsmanship in the making of phrase, sentence, and paragraph is
noticeable.
But he was markedly deficient in literary architectonics.
He did not always build up his hewn stones into a simple structure, the lines of
which could at once be taken in by the observer.
An endeavor has been made, in this edition, to remedy that defect.
The modern reader is won by a clear and simple arrangement of what is placed
before him.
Accordingly, the editor has striven hard to merit the commendation of having
secured that.
The editor believes that nothing essential has been omitted in this edition,
that he has conserved everything in the Book of Martyrs that most obviously makes
for edification.
Fox, when he had the material, narrated at great length the examinations
of the martyrs before their judges.
Inevitably, the same points of controversy emerge, the same questions are asked,
and the same answers given, again and again.
The editor of this edition has thought it necessary to avoid these repetitions,
while having an anxious care that in the cases of the more illustrious martyrs,
to each of whom a chapter is devoted, the truths for which they offered up their
lives are fully and explicitly stated.
Further, the biographical part of Fox's immortal work has, in this edition,
been disentangled from the very lengthy dissertations on general religious history
in which the illustrious author delighted.
Fox's plan was to tell his story under each reign, then when he came to the hour
in which his hero struck upon the scene, he pulled up, began to relate the
biography of his subject from the beginning of his career, and that done,
returned to his main narrative.
National history and personal biography were more mixed up than they need have
been, and repetitions were frequent.
These salutatory methods led to confusion.
The biography did not stand out in sharp relief, the reader was not clearly pointed
to it, and the general impression of the whole on his mind was blurred.
The discursiveness of Fox's work in its original form is also a bar to its hearty
acceptance by the modern reader, for of all characteristics, discursiveness
is that of which the latter is most impatient.
He likes narratives that are clean-cut, swift, full of movement, making straight
for the point.
The editor has kept these last-mentioned essential points in mind all the time of
his preparation of this volume.
The result, it is hoped, proves that Fox's narratives, judged merely on literary
grounds, are among the most graphic and the most readable in our literature.
Add to that that the great theme with which this famous book deals, the
falsehood, aggressiveness, and intolerance of Romanism and its cruelty, which always
merely waits its opportunity, are topics full of living significance at this hour,
and it becomes reasonable to entertain hope that this volume may receive a great
popular welcome and again nobly serve the cause for which it was written.
Perhaps it ought to be added that the editor is quite aware that the Emperor
Constantine, Wycliffe, and Luther, whose lives are narrated in this book,
were not martyrs in the current acceptation of the word.
But the original meaning of martyr is witness, and these were assuredly
witnesses whose testimony to the gospel was of great value.
Besides, every reader would have felt that the volume was imperfect without these sketches.