Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/148

 William Tindal, and like them he strongly favoured extreme forms of protestantism. His colleagues at Magdalen were divided on doctrinal questions, and the majority inclined to the old forms of religious belief. He was bound by the statutes to attend the college chapel with regularity, and to proceed to holy orders within seven years of his election to his fellowship. He declined to conform to either rule. Complaint was made to the president, Dr. Owen Oglethorp, and Foxe defended himself in a long letter (Lansd. MS. 388). He expressly objected to the enforcement of celibacy on the fellows. Finally, in July 1545, he and five of his colleagues resigned their fellowships. There was no expulsion, as Foxe's biographer of 1641 and most of his successors have asserted. The college register records that ‘ex honesta causa recesserunt sponte a collegio,’ and Foxe's future references to his college prove that he bore it no ill-will.

Before leaving Oxford, Foxe mentioned in a letter to Tindal that he had derived much satisfaction from a visit to the Lucy family at Charlecote, Warwickshire. Thither he now directed his steps. William Lucy seems to have given him temporary employment as tutor to his son Thomas. On 3 Feb. 1546–7 Foxe married, at Charlecote Church, Agnes Randall, daughter of his old friend of Coventry—a lady who seems to have been in the service of the Lucys. He thereupon came up to London to seek a livelihood. The biographer of 1641 draws a dreary picture of his disappointments and destitution, and relates how an unknown and anonymous benefactor put a purse of gold into his hand, while in a half-dying condition in St. Paul's Cathedral, and how he received soon afterwards an invitation to visit [q. v.], duchess of Richmond, at her residence, Mountjoy House, Knightrider Street. The latter statement is well founded. It is undoubted that Foxe and his friend Bale, whose acquaintance he first made at Oxford, were both, early in 1548, entertained by the duchess, who was at one with them on religious questions (Actes, iii. 705). Through the joint recommendation of his hostess and of Bale, Foxe was moreover appointed before the end of the year tutor to the orphan children of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, who had been executed 19 Jan. 1546–7. The duchess was the earl's sister, and Bale was intimate with Lord Wentworth, who had been the children's guardian since their father's death. There were two boys, Thomas, afterwards duke of Norfolk (b. 1536), and Henry Howard, afterwards earl of Northampton (b. 1539), together with three girls. Foxe joined his pupils at the castle of Reigate, a manor belonging to their grandfather, the Duke of Norfolk. He remained there for five years.

In that interval Foxe published his earliest theological tracts. All advocated advanced reforming views. Their titles are: ‘De non plectendis morte adulteris consultatio Ioannis Foxi,’ London, per Hugonem Syngletonum, 1548, dedicated to Thomas Picton; ‘A Sarmon of Jhon Oecolampadius to Yong Men and Maydens,’ dedicated to ‘Master Segrave,’ London? 1550?; ‘An Instruccyon of Christen Fayth,’ London, Hugh Syngleton, 1550? dedicated to Melton, his stepfather, a translation from Urbanus Regius; and ‘De Censura, sive Excommunicatione Ecclesiastica, Interpellatio ad archiepiscopum Cantabr.,’ London, Stephen Mierdmannus, 1551. The first work was reissued in 1549 under the new title ‘De lapsis in Ecclesiam recipiendis consultatio,’ with a ‘Præfaciuncula ad lectorem’ substituted for the dedication to Picton (, Early Books in Lambeth Library, pp. 223–4). Furthermore, he prepared a school book, ‘Tables of Grammar,’ London, 1552. According to Wood, eight lords of the privy council subscribed to print this work, but its brevity disappointed its patrons. Meanwhile Foxe was reading much in church history with a view to an elaborate defence of the protestant position. On 24 June 1550 he was ordained deacon by Ridley, bishop of London, in St. Paul's Cathedral. He stayed for the purpose in Barbican, at the house of the Duchess-dowager of Suffolk, who became the wife of his friend, Richard Bertie [see ]. Subsequently he preached as a volunteer at Reigate, being the first to preach protestantism there.

The accession of Mary in July 1553 proved of serious import to Foxe. One of the queen's earliest acts was to release from prison the old Duke of Norfolk (d. 1554), the grandfather of Foxe's pupils. The duke was a catholic, and promptly dismissed Foxe from his tutorship. It is probable that Foxe thereupon took up his residence at Stepney, whence he dates the dedication of ‘A Fruitfull Sermon of the moost Euangelicall wryter, M. Luther, made of the Angelles’ (London, by Hugh Syngleton, 1554?). The elder lad, Thomas, had formed a strong affection for his teacher, and when he was sent from Reigate to be under the care of Bishop Gardiner at Winchester House, he contrived that Foxe should pay him secret visits. Foxe was soon alarmed by the obvious signs of a catholic revival. A rumour that parliament was about to re-enact the six articles of 1539 drew from him a well-written Latin petition denouncing any change in the religious esta-