John Foxe and the Joy of Suffering Author(S): John R

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John Foxe and the Joy of Suffering Author(s): John R. Knott Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 721-734 Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2544014 . Accessed: 17/05/2014 21:54

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This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SixteenthCenturyJournal XXVII/3(1996)

John Foxe and theJoy of Suffering

JohnR. Knott Universityof Michigan

JohnFoxe rejectedthe earlyChristian and medievalemphasis on the exceptional natureof martyrsand on thedisjunction between vulnerable body and transported soul,focusing instead on thehuman qualities of his Protestant martyrs and thecom- munalexperience of thepersecuted faithful, which becomes the locus of thesacred. He avoidedthe miraculous in attemptingto reconcilerepresentations ofhorrific sufferingwith traditional affirmations ofthe inner peace andjoy ofthe martyr. Much of thedrama of theActs and Monuments arises from intrusions of the ordinary (the gesture ofwiping a sootyhand on a smock)and theunpredictable (a fire that will not burn). It is Foxe'sdeviations from the unwrittenscript of martyrdomand his occasional inabilityto containthe horror of a scenewith assertions of spiritual triumph that give hisnarrative its power.

NEAR THE END of his massiveActs and Monuments,John Foxe interruptsan account of the "shameful lives and desperate ends" of persecutors"stricken with God's hand" (8:668)1 to praise the English Protestantmartyrs with whom he contrasts them:

Let us now enterthe considerationof the blessed martyrs,who although they sufferedin theirbodies, yet rejoiced theyin theirspirits, and albeit theywere persecuted of men,yet were theycomforted of the Lord with such inward joy and peace of conscience, that some, writing to their friends,professed they were neverso merrybefore in all theirlives, some leaped forjoy, some for triumphwould put on their scarfs,some their wedding garments, going to the fire; others kissed the stake, some embraced the faggots,some clapt theirhands, some sang psalms;univer- sally they all forgave and prayed for their enemies; no murmuring,no repiningwas ever heard amongstthem. (8:669)

The passage epitomizes Foxe's vision of the spiritualtriumph of the martyrsover the authorities,ecclesiastical and civil, who have power over their bodies. His hyperboleneeds to be qualifiedby a readingof the storiesof individualmartyrs- few in factforgive their enemies publicly;some betraytheir fears-but it captures the celebratorymood of a majorityof these stories.Foxe insistsupon the "inward joy and peace of conscience" of the martyrs,seen as enabled by the comforting presenceof God and conveyed to the watchingcrowd by gesturesof the sort he

1Myextracts are from Rev.Josiah Pratt, ed., The Acts and Monuments ofJohn Foxe, 8 vols.(London, 1877).Volumeand page numbersare given in thetext.

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This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 722 SixteenthCenturyJournal XXVII / 3 (1996) enumerateshere. He saw the spiritualvictories he proclaimedas demonstratingthe power of a militantfaith to thosewho observedor read about them and as offering "an hope of heavenlycomfort" (1:521) for the persecuted. Foucault's model of civilpunishment, which shows authorityaffirming itself by the ritualexercise of its power to punish,does not go veryfar toward explaining the kind of agonFoxe rep- resents,with its culminationin the triumphof the victim.2This model, helpfulas it can be for understandingthe uses of institutionalpower, shiftsattention away fromquestions about the natureand meaningof sufferingand the representationof heroismand spiritualvictory that arise in connection with accounts of Christian martyrdom.Tounderstand the distinctivenessof Foxe's accounts of Protestantmar- tyrsit is more productiveto look at the traditionto which he was reacting. Christianmartyrology typically celebrates the peace and joy of martyrs,who are oftenrepresented as displayingan imperturbablefaith and as welcoming whatever pain the tortureror executionercan inflictin the confidence that theywill soon be unitedwith God.Yet one of the most strikingthings about thiswriting is its fascinationwith the tormentsof the body.Accountsof the earlyChristian mar- tyrsdetail grotesquetortures, some of which Foxe catalogues:"stripes and scourg- ings, drawings,tearings, stonings, plates of iron laid into them burning hot ... gridirons,gibbets and gallows" (1:109-10). Foxe himself celebrates the "mild deathsof the [Protestant]saints" (1:521), as he describesthese deathsat one point, yet he presentsthe violence theysuffer in detailed and realisticways, keeping the reader'sgaze focusedupon the actual scene of sufferingand the disfiguringeffects of the flames.I want to explorewhy Foxe confrontedhis readerswith such disturbing detail and how he reconciled,or attemptedto reconcile,the representationof sufferingwith affirmationsof spiritualjoy. His task,as martyrologist,was to persuade his readersthat his "saints" did indeed die mildly,with spiritualrejoicing, while experiencinghorrific torments. Foxe's representationof the sufferingof EnglishProtestants was stronglyinflu- enced by examples of earlyChristian martyrdom that he knew well, mainlyfrom the EcclesiasticalHistory of Eusebius,yet he transformedthe traditionhe inherited in importantways.3 The storyof Eulalia,a young Spanish virginof the fourthcen- turywho soughtmartyrdom, illustrates the appeal of thismaterial for Foxe and also his unease with the miraculouselements he found in his source,in this case the LiberPeristephanon of Prudentius.Eulalia in her abundance of zeal fleesher parents and aftera nightjourney guided by a troop of angels confrontsthe Roman judge who is persecutingChristians. Foxe reportsPrudentius' account of a white dove flyingfrom Eulalia's mouth at the momentof death and snow miraculouslycover- ing the scene of her executionbut adds a revealingqualification, "whereof let every reader use his own judgment" (1:272). He admiringlydescribes the "bold stom-

2MichelFoucault, Discipline and Punish, trans. Alan Sheridan (NewYork: Pantheon Books, 1979), chaps.1, 2. 3Foxeextended his chronological range to theRoman persecutionsof the early Christians in the secondEnglish edition of the Acts and Monuments (London, 1570), drawing extensively upon Eusebius.

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Knott / Foxe & theJoyof Suffering 723 ach" with which the twelve-year-oldEulalia defies Roman authority,scattering the images she is commanded to worshipas a gestureof contemptfor the idolatry theyrepresent.4 She challengesher persecutorto "burn,cut, and mangle"her body and professesto welcome being slashed to the bone with iron claws: "O Lord! behold thou art inscribed upon me! how pleasant it is to note these piercings, which markthy triumphs, 0 Christ!"(1:271).5 Her sufferingbecomes an emblem of Christ's,as she convertsher punishmentsinto a sign of victory.Foxe praises Eulalia as "merry"in embracingthe "terribleharrowing of her flesh"and her final tormentof being burned with torches.The only indication we get that Eulalia acknowledgespain at all is the reportthat she swallowsflames to speed her death. Foxe could accept the seeminglymiraculous tolerance of pain where he could not the appearance of angels and othermanifestations of the supernaturalor the cre- ation of a shrinefor the venerationof her bones,because he could understandit as evidence of a fortitudemade possibleby the sustainingpower of God. Eulalia's sufferingconforms to a pattern often found in accounts of early Christianmartyrs. She welcomes abuses of the body as ifseeking to imitatethe pas- sion of Christ;she insiststhat the pain of the fleshcannot reach her spirit;she shows no sign of being masteredby thispain. In retellingthe storiesof the earlymartyrs, Foxe reproducesmany of the formulasthat signal victory over pain and hence over the agency thatinflicts it. Blandina wears out her torturersand feelsno pain when finallygored to death by a bull (1:138 ff.);Peter Brown characterizesher as "raptin communion with Christ"while she is being gored.6Sanctus can endurehot plates applied to his "tender parts"because he is refreshedby "the water of life which flowsfrom Christ" (1:139). So miraculouslydoes God temperthe firethat Lau- rence'sgridiron becomes "not a bed of consumingpain, but a pallet of nourishing rest"(1:208). This is what Thomas Heffernan,writing about medieval saints'lives, calls the "analgesic state"often found in earlyacts of the martyrs.7For Foxe it is evidence that God will comfortmartyrs and strengthenthem to endure their ordeals.He frequentlydescribes his martyrsas displayingfortitude, but this is for him a distinctivelyChristian fortitude, an amalgam of the classicalvirtue and faith

4Anne-MariePalmer, Prudentius on theMartyrs (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 142, discusses Eulalia as a typeof the "virgo animosa," illustrating a new Christiannobilitas, and tracesVirgilian influences on Prudentius'account of her. 5Prudentiushas Eulalia assert that the name of Christ is writtenon herand thather blood speaks Christ'sholy name. Prudentius, trans. H. J.Thomson, 2 vols.(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1953), 2:143.Catherine Randall Coats, (Em)bodying the Word (NewYork: P. Lang, 1992), 20-21, comments on thesignificance of this writing on Eulalia'sbody. Coats discusses FoxeJean Crespin (Histoire des martyrs), Beza (IcOnes),and d'Aubigne(Les Tragiques) as Protestant martyrologists, distinguishing their techniques and emphasesfrom those of medieval hagiography. 6PeterBrown, The Body and Society (NewYork: Columbia UP, 1988), 73. 7ThomasJ. Heffernan, Sacred Biography: Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages (NewYork: OxfordUP, 1988),196-197.

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 724 SixteenthCenturyJournal XXVII / 3 (1996) in the truthof God's promises.8The martyr'sability to displayboldness and courage in the face of deathdepends upon a sense of God's supportiveand comfortingpres- ence althoughthis does not involve for Foxe the kind of divine interventionthat miraclesexemplify. The accounts of seemingly superhuman endurance that Foxe drew upon emphasizethe separationof the vulnerablebody and the inviolablespirit and the liberationof the spiritthrough suffering. When Eulalia's body slumpsin death,in the versionof Prudentius,the dove representingher escapingsoul clapsits wings in a sign of victoryand flies offto heaven.This translationforms the climax of the narrative.The emphasisin earlyaccounts of Christianmartyrdom on the way the spirittranscends pain and unites with God is if anythingintensified in medieval saints'lives. David Morris has described how medieval renderingsof martyrdom and sufferingtreat pain as "a medium of visionaryexperience," providing "a release into a pure communion with the divine."9Morris observesthat visual representa- tions of Saint Sebastian,like Mantegna's famousportrait, tend to show him with upraisedeyes, suggesting that he is alreadybeyond normal experience,enjoying a formof communion with the divine. In the most popular medieval martyrology,the Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine,the sense of disjunctionbetween body and spiritis oftenstriking. Saint Dorothy,one of manynoble virgins,preserves her virginityand her faiththrough a seriesof tormentsdirected by the Roman provostFabricius.When he has her put in a barrelof burningoil, she is so sustainedby the power of"her spouseJesuChrist thatshe feltnone disease ne harm,but a preciousointment of balm,"in the words of Caxton's translationatDorothy quicklyand miraculouslyrecovers from ordeals thatinclude havingher body beaten with rods and torn with iron hooks,her face disfiguredwith stones,and her breastsburned with firebrands.11Fabricius finally ends the confrontationby havingher beheaded,but not beforea child appearswith a basket of roses and apples ("from Paradise") and the voice of Christ summons Dorothy to heaven and promises her a martyr'scrown. Divine interventionsso

8PatrickCollinson, "'A Magazineof Religious Patterns':An ErasmianTopic Transposed in English Protestantism,"in Godly People (London: Hambledon Press, 1983), 499-525, argues Foxe's indebtedness to classicalsources, particularly to the moralframework of Plutarch,for his conceptionof Protestant heroism.He sees Foxe'smartyrs as demonstratinga classical apatheia in the flames,although not the extremeversion of Stoicism.For Collinsonthey display a "trueAristotelian courage, midway between cowardiceand temerity"and a kindof moderation,avoiding the extremes of speech and behaviorthat characterizetheir persecutors, that he associateswith Aristotelian ethics. I wouldargue that one needs to look as well to Christianinfluences, in particularto thekind of bold speakingassociated with the apostlesin Acts and theemphasis on constancyand calmnessin Christianmartyrology. The boldnessof Foxe'smartyrs, in theirexaminations and also at thestake, is as remarkableas theirapparent control of theiremotions. 9David Morris,The Cultureof Pain (Berkeley:U CaliforniaPress, 1991), 126-129, 131-136. Morrisdiscusses Saint Sebastian and themystics SaintTeresa and Saint Catherine of Siena. OF.S. Ellis,ed., The Golden Legend, as Englishedby William Caxton (NewYork:AMS, 1973), 7:43. "1EamonDuffy, The Strippingof the Altars (New Haven:YaleUP, 1992), 170-171,comments on thepopularity of the bizarre and spectacular in latemedieval English accounts of Roman virgin martyrs and on theproliferation of torturesin saints'lives of theperiod (fifty-two separate ones in thecase of Erasmus).

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Knott / Foxe & theJoy of Suffering 725 dominatethe storythat it is difficultto forma clear sense of the characterof her resistance;the narratormultiplies torments to enhance the moralpower of her suffering,but her experience of these tormentsseems curiously unreal.Although Dorothyacts out the role of martyrin the materialworld, largely as passivevictim, she seems increasinglyconnected to the supernaturalone in which she will enjoy statusand influenceas "blessed saintDorothy" and "protectress"of those who pray to her againstthe perilsof fireand lightning.12 The storyof her sufferingmakes her appear unmistakablyholy and so farremoved from ordinary human experience as to seem inimitable.Her case could illustratethe claim of BrigitteCazelles thatthe earlymartyrs celebrated in medieval saints'lives "were not so much models to be imitated as they were exceptions to be admired." She notes that until the late twelfthcentury sainthood tended to be reservedto episcopal or aristocraticfigures: "distant,noble, heroic, admirable, inimitable."13 Foxe found many reasonsto be contemptuousof the Legendaaurea and other medievalsaints' lives, but one of the most fundamentalwas thatthey distorted what he regardedas "simple and uncorrupt"stories by the additionof "monkish miracles and grossfables" (1:258).These accretionswere anothersign of the venalityof the medieval churchto Foxe; by inventingever more outlandishmiracles, the monks promotedthe cult of the saintsand enhanced the value of the relicsthey preserved as objectsof worship.Theyalso attenuatedthe dramathat Foxe foundin the earliest accounts of Christianmartyrs of his own time,a drama grounded for him in the Christianfortitude of the individualmartyr. Foxe's Marian martyrs,whose stories make up about a thirdof theActs and Monumentsand were the major reasonfor its enduringinfluence, display such fortitudein theirexaminations for heresy, where theyboldly parrydoctrinal questions with scripturalanswers despite the threatof condemnation,and, especially,in theirconduct at the site of execution. Foxe was more interestedin Eulalia's bold speaking,in the mannerof the apos- des,14and in her fortitudethan in the pleasureshe professesto take in numbering her gashes;he showed no interestin the connection between sufferingand religious ecstasyone can findin medievalasceticism. His Protestantmartyrs anticipate joining a perfectedcommunity of the faithfulin heaven ratherthan achievingan ecstatic vision of God. Unlike the female saints discussed by Caroline Walker Bynum,they do not embracepain as a means ofjoining themselveswith the body

12Ellis,Golden Legend, 7:47. 13Introductionto Imagesof Sainthood in MedievalEurope, ed. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinskiand TimiaSzell (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991),2,3. 14See,e.g., Acts 4:13, 31; Phil.1:14, 20. Speakingthe word of God boldly,"filled with the Holy Ghost,"was a markof thetrue follower of Christ.Peter Brown, Power and Persuasion in LateAntiquity (Madison:U WisconsinPress, 1992), 61ff., chap. 3, and passim,describes the evolutionof parrhesia, whichhe describesas bold and freespeech, in theearly Roman Empire.He showsthe parrhesia ofphi- losophers,a kind of licensed speech by which they were able to offerfrank counsel to authorities,suc- ceededby the parrhesia of bishops and monks,often seen as spiritfilled. Brown's interest is primarilyin theexercise of power through such speech, by influencing emperors and local governorswho tolerated it.In Christianmartyrology bold speakingof the word of God is invariablyconfrontational, a challenge ratherthan a genuineattempt to persuade,and it typicallyhas theeffect of intensifying persecution.

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 726 SixteenthCentury Journal XXVII / 3 (1996) of the sufferingChrist. 15 Rather,they see sufferingand pain as a trialof faithsent by God and as somethingto be enduredand overcomethrough faith with the help of grace.It was the constancyof the earlymartyrs, which Foxe saw as made possible by divine support (while downplayingvisible intrusionsof the supernatural),that established the pattern he traced in the accounts of sufferingunder "bloody Bonner,"Bishop of London, and other Marian persecutorssupplied by his infor- mants.Foxe describes Bonner's "rage" against a weaver of Shoreditch,Thomas Tomkins,who is "so endued with God's mightySpirit" that beatingsand other formsof mistreatmentfail to shakehis "confession of truth"(6:718). Bonner finally testsTomkins' faith by holding his hand in the candle flame,as the "Etruscan tyrantsPorsenna testedthe legendaryRoman hero Scaevola. Foxe uses the com- parison to investTomkins, the Shoreditchweaver, with a heroismcomparable to thatof the fargrander figure; "this Christian Scaevola so valiantlydid despise,abide, and endure thatburning, that we have less cause hereafterto marvelat the manflul- ness of thatRoman Scaevola" (6:719).What separatesthe fortitudeof Foxe's faithful"soldier of God" fromthat of Scaevola is the assumptionthat he is aided by the presenceof the Holy Spirit.16 A passage that does not appear in the original English edition of 1563 has Tomkinsreporting to a friendafterwards "that his spiritwas so rapt,that he feltno pain" (6:718).This denial of pain recallsthe raptcalm of the earlyChristian martyrs and furtherundermines Bonner's displayof power. Foxe's renderingof Tomkins' experience shows him embracingthe paradox at the heartof the Christianunder- standingof martyrdom,that one can sufferin body and yet rejoice in spirit.It also illustratesthe martyrologist'sproblem of makingsuffering so readilyendured con- vincingand significant.Does Tomkinssimply become the typeof the martyrhere, and, if so, can one believe in his fortitudeand regardit as heroic?The solution to the problemfor Foxe lay in supplyingthe kind of concretenessthat would individ- ualize his protagonistsand make them credible,as by describingdetails of clothing, gestures,and snatches of conversation with bystanders.Having established the humanness of his charactersand linked them with a supportivecommunity, he could rivethis readers'attention by describingthe effectsof the flamesin particularly grislyterms. Unless immunized against Protestantpropaganda, they were likely to believe in the authenticityof the storyand empathize with the victim. Here, in anotherpassage added to the 1563 edition,he shows Bonner relentingin his abuse ofTornkinsonly after"the sinewsburst, and the waterdid spirtin master Harpsfield'sface" (6:719). Elaine Scarry'scompelling study of the effectsof torturesuggests how the "annihilatingpower of pain" can shut out the victim'sconsciousness of the world and disintegratehis or her sense of identityand power of speech. Pain dominates

15SeeCaroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast (Berkeley:U CaliforniaPress, 1987), 183ff.,245ff., and passim. 16Foxe's"endued with" appears to mean' investedwith," although it could also havethe other archaicmeaning of"instructed by." See OED, s. v."endued with."

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Knott / Foxe & theJoy of Suffering 727 the consciousnessand silencesthe victim.17Foxe describesrelatively few instances of torture(these are more frequentin accountsof the Roman persecutions),but he representsthe experience of victimsof burningsin ways thatchallenge the picture Scarryoffers. Like such predecessorsas Eusebius and Prudentius,he depictsa form of heroic sufferingin which the victimmanifests a new sense of identity,as one of a companyof Christianmartyrs reaching back to the apostolic church,and speaks with a voice thatasserts an enhanced moraland spiritualauthority. By demonstrating the resilienceof theirfaith, Foxe's martyrsgain a powerfulnew voice and a new kind of influence.Weapprehend this voice throughthe medium of print,in Foxe's reconstructionof the story,but it oftenhas an immediacythat makes one feel like an eyewitness.In thisinstance Tomkins, as if enactingthe martyrdomthat he antic- ipated,calls out "O Lord! into thyhands, I commend my spirit"(6:718), thereby allyinghimself with the companyof"godly witnesses" by echoing the lastwords of the protomartyrStephen, appropriated by many of the Marian martyrs.Through such speech Foxe's martyrsinvoke the power of theWord of God in a finalact of witnessing,refusing to be silencedby the flames.18 Tomkins and those actuallyburned at the stake understood that the role of martyrcalled for demonstratingsuperiority to pain, and Foxe, drawingupon the detail supplied by reporters,shaped his accounts to show Protestantmartyrs tran- scending their suffering.Foxe describes the Marian protomartyrJohn Rogers washinghis hands in the flames"as one feelingno smart"(6:609), in an action that was to become a ritualgesture testifying to one's composure in extremity,and he frequentlycharacterizes martyrs as sleepingin the Lord, echoing a phrase used in Acts of Stephen's martyrdomthat dissolvesany sense of the agony of death. He reports gestures that testifyto astonishingfeats of endurance. Robert Smith, though blackened by fireand apparentlydead, "suddenly rose uprightbefore the people, liftingthe stumpsof his arms,and clapping the same together,declaring a rejoicingheart" (7:367). George Marsh,so long in the flameswithout moving he was thoughtdead, "suddenly" spreadshis arms and cries "Father of heaven,have mercyupon me" (7:53). Accordingto Foxe, the people reportedthat Marsh "died marvellouspatient and godly,"evidence thathe was securein his faithand received into heaven; he shows the unrelentingbishop who condemned him,on the other hand,preaching in the cathedralchurch that Marsh "burntlike a heretic,and was a fire-brandin hell" (7:53). These contestinginterpretations of the meaning of Marsh's death underscore the crucialimportance for Foxe and his contemporariesof how the martyrsplayed

17ElaineScarry, The Body in Pain(NewYork: Oxford UP, 1985),chap. 1. 18Medicalanthropologist Robert Kleinman,"Pain and Resistance:The Delegitimationand Relegitimationof LocalWorlds," in Painas HumanExperience: An Anthropological Perspective, ed. Mary- JoDelVecchio Good et al. (Berkeley:U CaliforniaPress, 1992), 169-197, argues that expressing pain can becomea formof resistanceto authority,for example, in thecase of victimsof China'sCultural Revolution.Such pain,associated with symptoms of illness,becomes a meansof relegitimatinglocal moralworlds. Kleinman's model can be adaptedto Foxe'smartyrs if one invertsit. In theircase, not expressingpain becomes the means of resisting authority and ofrelegitimating a moral world that they sharewith supportive onlookers.

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 728 SixteenthCenturyJournal XXVII / 3 (1996) theirroles at the stake.Onlookers obviouslywatched forand recordedsuch seem- ing miraclesof faithas the gesturesof Smithand Marsh,or thatofThomas Haukes, who told his friendsbeforehand to watch for a sign thathe could keep his mind "quiet and patient"despite the pain and subsequentlyraised his burninghands over his head and clapped them threetimes "with great rejoicing,as it seemed"(7:115, italicsmine). Such gestureswere takenas signalingthe triumphof the spirit,yet this is nevera disembodiedspirit for Foxe. It expressesits victorythrough the medium of the body insteadof by some formof communion with the divine.WhereEula- lia's spirittriumphs in the form of the dove that claps its wings as it ascends to heaven,Haukes claps his charredhands in a gesturethat keeps the reader'sattention fixedon the actual scene and the human drama acted there.In the woodcuts that accompanied earlyeditions of theActs and Monuments,the martyrsstare out at the readeror at the onlookers (in fullerrepresentations of the execution scene) rather than looking to heaven. Foxe's narrativeand the accompanyingillustrations work togetherto reinforcethe bond betweenthe martyrand the communityfrom which he or she emerged.Thiscommunity, which Foxe liked to see as imitatingthe experience of the primitivechurch, becomes the locus of the sacred.His emphasisis on the communal experience of a persecuted band of saints,a "godly fellowship," ratherthan on the raptureof the transportedsoul. The factof a supportiveaudience distinguishesFoxe's execution scenes from many of those described in earlieraccounts, including that of Eulalia, who con- frontsRoman authority alone, having escaped the parents who would have restrainedher. Foxe's martyrsare rooted in a sustainingholy communityand con- sciously play to it at their executions, with hortatoryprayers where these are allowed as well as with gesturesaffirming their faith. By reprintingthe lettersof martyrs,sometimes at greatlength, Foxe underscoredthe importanceof theiracts of witnessingto this communityand stressedthat their words would survive. Whether to family,friends, or parishioners,these letterstypically construct argu- mentsfor martyrdom and urge recipientsto be true to theirfaith under persecution, appealing frequentlyto scripture.Robert Smith's letters repeat familiar biblical formulas:"God will tryhis elect as gold in the furnace" (7:365); "Your sorrowshall be turnedinto joy" (7:366).19 In a verse epistleto his brother,Smith urges:

Come forthout of all fear,and do as I have done; And God shallbe thyguide, and give thee such increase, That in the flamesof firethou shalthave perfectpeace, Into eternaljoy, and pass out of all pain: Where we shallmeet with mirth,and neverpart again. (7:362) Smith does not appear here as exceptionallypious or holy,but as one ordinary Christianurging another to "do as I have done." His focusis on the communityof

19Wisd.of Sol. 3:6;John16:20.

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Knott / Foxe & theJoyof Suffering 729 the saintsin heaven,which he hopes will include his brother,rather than on indi- vidual union with the divine. Smith'sversified exhortation reveals an underlyingconcern of the letterswith addressingthe fearthat led manyto follow the easierway of conformity.By virtue of theirspiritual authority and theirassertions of faith,prospective martyrs might hope to lead others"out of" thisdisabling fear. In the processthey could strengthen theirown resolve.Professing their confidence, in conversationswith fellowprison- ers and in lettersto supporters,was a way of maintainingit. Smith'sverses, like many of the letters,accept the factof pain and the need to prepareoneself for it. They relyupon the common assumptionthat divine guidance and support("God shall be thyguide") coupled with the expectation of heavenlyjoy would secure inner peace whatever the physicaltorments of the flames.Paul had provided a model for such witnessingwith his recitalsof hardshipsendured (includingbeat- ings,imprisonment, perilous journeys).20 By actingon his advice to "bear the cross of pain" with patience (7:369), Smith became for Foxe "a singular example of Christianfortitude, who so manfullyand valiantlydid standin defenseof his Mas- ter'scause" (7:356). Smithis describedas actingmanfully because Foxe thoughtof Christian soldiers and the fortitudethey displayed as masculine. He tended to presenthis femalemartyrs as "poor selywomen" emboldened by God.21 Whatever his idealizing and celebratorytendencies and those of the martyrs whose words he reproduced,Foxe grounded his storiesof individualmartyrdoms in a convincinglymaterial world in which his human actors do registerpain, at least on occasion, and are capable of hesitating.Regis Boyer has commentedon the tendencyof medievalhagiography to leave space and time relativelyundefined and the saintsthemselves "weakly individualized ... copies of a common prototype" (the monk, the virgin,the confessor,and so forth).22Foxe, by contrast,carefully established dates and settings,especially of examinations and executions, and embedded his accounts of martyrdomsin a largernarrative chronicling the resistance of individualsand the ultimatetriumph in England of the true church.He recorded particularizingdetails that make the ordeals more credible than those describedin the Legendaaurea and the martyrsthemselves more distinctivelyhuman than the saintscommemorated there. Such detail has the effectof authenticating Foxe's accounts and intensifyingtheir drama and of makinghis protagonistsseem familiarmembers of a communityacting out roles that anyone could be called upon to play.He collapsed the distancethat medieval hagiographytends to open up between the saintand the ordinaryhuman. Foxe describesCecily Ormes, iden- tifiedas the wife of a weaverand daughterof a tailor,as graspingthe stakein a sym- bolic gestureand declaring"Welcome the Cross of Christ,"then findingher hand

202Cor. 11:23-27. 21SeeEllen Macek, "The Emergenceof a FeminineSpirituality in TheBook of Martyrs," Sixteenth CenturyJournal 19 (1988): 63-80. Macek'semphasis is on the"spiritual maturation" of Foxe'sfemale martyrs. 22RegisBoyer, "An Attemptto Definethe Typology of MedievalHagiography," in Hagiography andMedieval Literature:A Symposium, ed. HansBekker et al. (Odense:Odense UP, 1981),29.

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 730 SixteenthCenturyJournal XXVII / 3 (1996) sootyand wipingit on her smock (8:427). It is characteristicof Foxe to reportboth gestures,the ritualone binding her to the invisiblecompany of "godly witnesses" who have gone before,the otherby itsvery ordinariness marking her kinshipwith the visiblecommunity of believerswho gatheredat the stake.The stubbornfact of soot and thenatural impulse to wipe it offroot Cecily Ormes in thisworld and give the scene a sudden poignancy.The effectcould hardlybe more unlike thatwhich Prudentiuscreated with the detailsof the white dove and the unexpectedsnow that markEulalia's death,testifying to her purityand to the miraculouscharacter of the event. The storyof Rawlins White,"6good fatherRawlins," offersone of the better examplesof the way Foxe presentsthe drama of an ordinaryperson, lacking education and social standing,who is called to play the role of martyr.23White is one of Foxe's mostindividualized and engagingcharacters, an illiterateWelsh fisherman who with the help of his young son memorizesenough of the Bible to become an effectivepreacher. Foxe's account emphasizesWhite's plainness (he comes to the stakein an old russetcoat with a kerchiefon his head) and his habit of bluntspeak- ing.White characterizeshimself as a "poor simple man" who truststhat God will strengthenhim, and he resiststhe bishop by stubbornlyaffirming his sense of his identity:"Rawlins you left me, and Rawlins you find me; and, by God's grace, Rawlins I will continue" (7:31).When his examinerssay a mass forhis conversion, White rushesin fromthe next room at the sound of the sacringbell and calls on the people to witness that"I bow not to this idol" (7:31). At the stakeWhite reduces the priestwho sermonizesover him to amazed silence by challenginghis "clerklyinterpretation" of the sacramentof the altarwith scripture. Drawing upon the detail supplied by his reporter("one masterDane"), Foxe presentedWhite as exemplifyingthe kind of bold speakingin the name of truth thathe associatedwith the apostles.Yethe also included detailsthat suggest a very human vulnerability.Wbiterises from kissing the groundbefore the stakewith dirt stickingto his nose, an incidenthe turnsinto a reminderof his mortality("Earth unto earth"). He confessesto feeling"a great fightingbetween the fleshand the spirit"and tellsthe blacksmithto make fastthe chain thatbinds him to the stake, "for it may be thatthe fleshwill strivemightily" (7:32). Such remarksmay have become part of the ritualat the stake(Ridley urges the blacksmithto "knock [the chain] in hard,for the fleshwill have its course" [7:550]), but they add a sense of inner conflictthat one does not findin earlyChristian accounts, in which chains simplyconstitute another form of torment.Reminders of the rebelliousnessof the fleshand of the anxietyof the prospectivemartyrs about their abilityto control theirbodies suggestthe real difficultyof maintaininga "cheerfulcountenance" at the stake,as Foxe reportsthatWhite did.

23Thepreachers and bishops whose stories Foxe gave the greatest prominence are in factoutnum- beredby thoseof lower social station and considerablyless education, as commentatorson Foxehave long noted.Richard Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood: The ElizabethanWriting of England (Chicago: U ChicagoPress, 1992), 264-266, argues the importance of Foxe's emphasis on thepoverty and simplicity ofmany of the martyrs he includesin hisvision of the true church.

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Foxe framedhis account of the execution itselfwith a characterizationthat suggestsWhite's dignity and calm.He remarkson the apparentalteration ofWhite's appearance at the stake,noting that his white hair and beard make him seem "angelical,"and thathe appears"bolt upright"(he had walked with a stoop before) and with"a mostpleasant and comely countenance."The factthat Foxe shows the aged Hugh Latimersimilarly transformed (in his shroud he stands"bolt upright" and appears"comely" where beforehe had seemed a "witheredand crooked silly old man" [7:549]) suggeststhat such characterizationsare part of his construction of heroism.The individualsthreaten to disappearinto the type at such moments, with the implicationthat social and other distinctionsare erased by the common experience of martyrdom,yet the charactersof bishop and fishermanare firmly establishedbefore this point. Foxe assureshis readers that"it cannot be said that [White] sufferedor feltany great pain," since he "abode quietly and patiently" (7:33), thisafter describing him as bathinghis hands in the flamesuntil the sinews shrinkand the fatdrops away and as loudly crying"Lord, receive my spirit!"until he could not open his mouth,a period he characterizesas "somewhatlong." One feelsthe tensionhere and elsewherebetween Foxe's need to believe in the "mild deathsof the saints"and the evidence of what may have been prolongedand ago- smwa nizing pain.24 Foxe's "somewhat long" in effectconcedes this pain but without acknowledgingit or allowinganything to blurthe heroicportrait of RawlinsWhite. Sometimesthe evidence of pain is unmistakable.We learn thatThomas Ben- bridge recanted at the stake because of the "intolerable heat" (8:492) fromhis leatherstockings; Foxe can saythis because Benbridge retractedhis recantationand was burned indeed a week later.He describesbotched firesthat prolong the dying and recordsthe kind of sensationaldetail, like Hooper's beatinghis breastwith his arm untilthe arm fallsoff, that led Helen White to call him a "masterof horror."25 Foxe knew the dramaticpower of such detail,and he knew also thatby recording the fire'shorrific torments, his versionof the torturesimposed by Roman persecutors,he could make such triumphsof faithappear more astonishingand at the same time more tangiblethan the distantordeals of the early Christianmartyrs and the oftenfantastic ones of medieval saints'lives. A comment in his 1563 preface,"To the Persecutorsof God's Truth,Commonly Called Papists,"suggests another reason forpreserving as fulla recordas possible of the abuses of the bodies of the faithful: "Behold, here presentbefore your eyes,the heaps of slain bodies, of so many men and women ... whose wounds, yet bleeding before the face of God, cry ven- geance!"(1:508). By displaying the wounds, "yet bleeding," he amplified his Protestantcry for revenge for those "slain forthe word of God" (Rev. 6:9-10).

24Wecannot know, of course,to whatdegree Foxe's martyrs actually experienced pain. Severe (third-degree)burns can deadenthe nerve endings, and thestate of mindof themartyr, demonstrating thepower of his or herfaith by refusingto recantand anticipatingentrance into heaven,could have affectedthe perception of pain.We know of ritual practices in whichcelebrants in theirexaltation show no signof pain;for example, the hook-hanging ritual used in India.Celebrants of thisritual, thought to representthe power of the gods, hang from a specialcart by steel hooks embedded in theirbacks. See RonaldMelzack and Patrick D.Wall, The Challenge of Pain, rev. ed. (NewYork:Basic, 1983), 28-30. 25 HelenWhite, Tudor Books of Saints and Martyrs (Madison: U WisconsinPress, 1963), 161-162.

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Those actuallyawaiting burning appealed to scripturalpromises of bodilyres- urrection.As Robert Samuel put it, paraphrasingPaul (Phil. 3:21): "Christ shall transfigureour vile bodies, and conformthem to his glorious body" (7:369).The vulnerablenatural body, its corruptibilityproven by the "wounds" inflictedupon it,would be "raised in incorruption"at the LastJudgment (1 Cor. 15:42). In a last prayerat the stake,Nicholas Sheterdenfound consolation in the prospectof a body made perfect,beyond the troublesof this world.After urging God to accept his body as a sacrifice("whatever rebellion hath been, or is found in my members, againstthy will"), he prays:"Let this tormentbe to me the last enemy destroyed, even death,the end of misery,and beginningof alljoy, peace and solace; and when the time of resurrectioncometh, then let me enjoy again these membersthen glo- rified,which now be spoiled and consumed by the fire"(7:313).Foxe's preoccupa- tion with the details of the spoiling and consuminghas the importanteffect of heighteningthe imagined contrastwith the glorifiedbody of the saint. Foxe clearlythought he could containthe imagesof horrorhe capturedwithin the frameof a narrativethat celebrates the victoriesof the martyrs,neutralizing the terrorsuch images mightarouse by insistingupon the peacefulnessand joy of the martyrin the flames.Yetthe narrativeframe can crack,as it does verynoticeably in Foxe's account of the death of Nicholas Ridley, with his fellow bishops Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer the most prominentof the Marian martyrs.The woodcut thatrenders the famous scene at Oxford gives no indicationof the rup- ture that we find in the narrative.This shows the heroic figuresof Latimer and Ridley at the stakeat the moment of the lightingof the fire,simultaneously utter- ing what are intended to be last words. Their preacherlygestures and assured expressionssignal a triumphantfaith to the supportivecrowd, as the secularauthor- ities and the priestwho hasjust denounced themlook on. At the beginningof the narrative,Ridley seems remarkablypoised, gesturing to heaven when he arrivesfirst at the site of execution,then embracingLatimer "with a wonderous cheerfullook" and assuringhim that"God will eitherassuage the furyof the flame,or else strengthenus to abide it" (7:548). Ridley continues to play the more prominentrole in the scene, takingthe lead in attemptingto respondto the sermon censuringthem as heretics,elaborately giving away posses- sions and clothingto clamoringsupporters ("Happy was he thatmight get any rag of him"), and pressinga suiton behalfof his sisterand othersdependent upon him. Yet Latimerspeaks the memorable finalwords about lightinga candle that"shall neverbe put out,"added in editionsafter 1563,26 and dies the exemplarymartyr's

26"Be ofgood comfort,master Ridley, and playthe man. We shallthis day light such a candle,by God'sgrace, in England,as I trustshall never be putout" (7:550).Nothing else Latimer says or doesin thescene prepares us forthe measured eloquence of thisremark. The onlyother speech we hearfrom Latimeris colloquial,including his responseto Ridley's"Oh, be ye there?"on the wayto the stake ("haveafter ... as fastas I can follow")and hisreported reaction to thesermon ("Well! there is nothing hidbut it shallbe opened").His finalremark, while in character,has a rhetoricalmanner that suggests Foxe'sshaping hand. Foxe's concluding comment, another addition to the1563 text,shows a similaruse of pauses:"What reward remaineth for them in heaven,the day of theLord's glory, when he cometh withhis saints, shall shortly, I trust, declare" (7:551).

This content downloaded from 192.211.24.157 on Sat, 17 May 2014 21:54:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Knott / Foxe & theJoyof Suffering 733 death. Foxe shows him embracing the flames,stroking his face and bathing his handsin the fire,then dyingrelatively quickly, "with littleor no pain" (7:550). Foxe representsRidley, by contrast,as sufferingfrom a firethat cannot reach his upperbody, ironically made worse by his brother'swell-meaning act of heaping on more faggots.Instead of quietlyenduring, with ritualhand washing,he strug- gles and cries "Lord, have mercy upon me" and "I cannot burn" (7:551) until a bystanderremoves some faggots,allowing the fireto flameup and ignitethe bag of gunpowderaround his neck providedby his brotheras a kindness.Foxe focuseson the pain of Ridley's burninglegs, "whereof he had no release,only his contentation in God."The formulaicassertion of contentconveys little sense of satisfactionor comfortin God. In thiscase, the factsof the eventseem to overwhelmthe topoi of the martyrologist. Foxe pictures hundredsweeping "in beholding the horrible sight" of such eminentmen of the churchdestroyed by the"fury of the fire... [raging]upon their bodies." His descriptionof the sorrowingof the crowd and the past accomplish- mentsof the victimsregisters a mixtureof shock and outrageat the unseemliness of the event ("so manygodly virtues ... such excellentlearning, to be put into the fire,and consumed in one moment"). He ends his narrativeabruptly and unchar- acteristicallyby declaring,"Well! dead theyare and the rewardof thisworld they have already"(7:551).The account in the 1563 edition ends here.Foxe added sub- sequentlythat they would receivetheir reward in heaven at the LastJudgment. He obviouslybelieved thatLatimer and Ridley would receivetheir martyrs' crowns of eternallife (Rev. 2:10),27 if not the immediateunion with God thatEusebius and otherssaw forthe earlyChristian martyrs, and feltthe need to cap the disturbing account of Ridley's executionwith an affirmationof ultimatevictory. The scene of Ridley's deathillustrates something important about theActs and Monuments.It is the deviationsfrom the unwrittenscript of martyrdom,the unpre- dictablethings like soot on the hands or a firethat will not burn right,that make Foxe's Protestantsaints seem vividlyhuman and theirheroic sufferingwithin reach of ordinarymembers of a holy community.Whilethe conventionallanguage of the martyrologisttakes over at times,Foxe musthave recognized thatthe rejoicing of the spirithe insistsupon could not reallybe separatedfrom the pain and the indig- nitiesof the fleshand thatthe strugglebetween fleshand spiritcould not be tran- scended as simplyas assertionsabout peace in the flamesimplied.The power of his evocations of heroic Christianfortitude depends upon his abilityto suggestthe weaknessand susceptibilityto pain of his protagonistseven while recordingtheir triumphantgestures of faith.Thecompelling drama that he was able to give his stories of martyrdomexplains why the Actsand Monumentscontinued to appeal not only as a historyof the triumphof Protestantismin England but, ironically,as a source of patternsof speech and behaviorfor those who thoughtthe EnglishRef- ormationfar from over and could identifywith the indeliblyhuman gesturesof resistanceto persecutionand endurance of sufferingthat Foxe represented.What

27Thefaithful are also promised crowns of glory. See 1 Pet.5:4.

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Foxe could not have foreseenwas the subversivepotential of storieslike that of RawlinsWhite to fuelresistance to the authorityof the establishedchurch: by Eliz- abethan Separatists,John Lilburne,John Bunyan,the Quaker leader George Fox, and a host of otherswho contributedto the emergenceof a vigorousnonconform- ist traditionin England.28

28RichardHelgerson discusses the appropriationof Foxe by the ElizabethanSeparatist Henry Barrowand byBunyan in chap.6 ofForms of Nationhood. I examine the influence of Foxe'srepresenta- tionsof persecutionand sufferingat lengthin Discoursesof Martyrdom in English Literature, 1563-1694 (Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 1993).

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