Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/152

 Foxe's correspondence was rapidly increasing, and his position in ecclesiastical circles grew influential. Parkhurst (29 Jan. 1563–4) solicited his aid in behalf of Conrad Gesner, who was writing on the early Christian writers. Lawrence Humphrey, president of Magdalen, appealed to him to procure for him an exemption from the regulations affecting clerical dress, but Humphrey afterwards conformed. On 20 Nov. 1573 one Torporley begged him to obtain for him a studentship at Christ Church. Strangers consulted him repeatedly about their religious difficulties. Francis Baxter (4 Jan. 1572) inquired his opinion respecting the lawfulness of sponsors, and another correspondent asked how he was to cure himself of the habit of blaspheming. About the same time Foxe corresponded with Lord-chief-justice Monson respecting the appointment of a schoolmaster at Ipswich, and recommended a lady to marry one of his intimate friends.

Much of his correspondence also dealt with the credibility of his monumental work. The catholics had been greatly angered by its publication. They nicknamed it ‘Foxe's Golden Legend,’ and expressed special disgust at the calendar prefixed to the book, in which the protestant martyrs took the place of the old saints (, Annals, i. 375–80). Foxe's accuracy was first seriously impugned in the ‘Dialogi Sex,’ published in 1566 under the name of Alan Cope [q. v.], although the author was without doubt Nicholas Harpsfield. Foxe showed some sensitiveness to such attacks. He instituted inquiries with a view to corrections or corroborations for a second edition, which the puritan party deemed it desirable to issue before the meeting of parliament in April 1571. This edition (1570) was in two volumes, the first of 934 pages, and the second of 1378. New engravings were added; there was a new dedication to the queen, in which Foxe declared that he only republished the book to confute the attacks of evil-disposed persons, who had made it appear that his work was as ‘full of lies as lines.’ The address to the persecutors of God's truth was omitted; a protestation to the true and faithful congregation of Christ's universal church, and four questions addressed to the church of Rome were added. Magdalen College paid 6l. 8s. for a copy of this new edition, and another copy belonging to Nowell was bequeathed by him to Brasenose, where it still is. Convocation meeting at Canterbury on 3 April resolved that copies of this edition, which was called in the canon ‘Monumenta Martyrum,’ should be placed in cathedral churches and in the houses of archbishops, bishops, deacons, and archdeacons. Although this canon was never confirmed by parliament, it was very widely adopted in the country.

About the same time Foxe prepared, from manuscripts chiefly supplied by Archbishop Parker, a collection of the regulations adopted by the reformed English church, which was entitled ‘Reformatio Legum.’ A proposal in parliament to accept this collection as the official code of ecclesiastical law met with no success, owing to the queen's intervention and her promise—never fulfilled—that her ministers should undertake a like task. But it was printed by Day in 1571, and held by the puritans in high esteem. It was reissued in 1640, and again by Edward Cardwell in 1850. In the same year (1571) Foxe performed for Parker a more important task. He produced, with a dedication to the queen, an edition of the Anglo-Saxon text of the Gospels. This was similarly printed by Day, and is now a rare book. Two years later he collected the works of Tindal, Frith, and Barnes, giving extracts from his own account of the writers in his ‘Actes.’

On 2 June 1572 Foxe's pupil and patron, the Duke of Norfolk, was executed, at the age of thirty-six, for conspiring with Mary Queen of Scots and the catholic nobility against Elizabeth. Foxe attended him to the scaffold. Some time before he had heard the rumours of Norfolk's contemplated marriage with the Queen of Scots, and had written a strong protest against it. Foxe's biographers have exaggerated the influence which his early training exerted on the duke and on his brother, Henry Howard, afterwards earl of Northampton. It is obvious that they assimilated few of their tutor's religious principles. On the scaffold the duke denied that he was a catholic; but he, like his brother in after years, had shown unmistakable leanings to catholicism. It is to the credit of both Foxe and the duke that their affection for each other never waned. The duke directed his heirs to allow Foxe an annuity of 20l. On 14 Oct. of the same year Bishop Pilkington installed Foxe in a prebendal stall at Durham Cathedral; but Foxe was still obstinately opposed to the surplice, and within the year he resigned the office. Tanner asserts that he was at one time vicar of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. Foxe's friend, Robert Crowley [q. v.], held this benefice for a long period; but he was suspended between 1569 and 1578, when Foxe may have assisted in the work of the parish. In 1575 Foxe energetically sought to obtain the remission of the capital sentence in the case of two Dutch anabaptists condemned to the stake for their opinions. He wrote to the queen, Lord Burghley, and Lord-chief-