Rating: 
Summary: Important historical document, but not history
Review: A one star rating may seem hash, but that is to counter the mistaken notion that many seem to have that this book accurately protrays history. This book is important as a historical document showing the hate propaganda that was circulated at the beginning of the Reformation. It is neither accurate in its chosing Christian martyrs (listing many herisises whose beliefs were not Christian by anyone's definition), nor are all the accounts of their suffering accurate. When Foxe treats of his own times his work is of greater value as it contains many documents and is but largely based on the reports of eyewitnesses; but he sometimes dishonesty mutilates his documents and is quite untrustworthy in his treatment of evidence. As an important aside, it must be remembered that as he was writing his books which this book is a part of(they were ultimately a total of 8 volumes, and book is a mere part of the collection of his writings), his very own Church of England was persecuting Catholics in much the same manner what he condemns that Catholic Church for. All Christians should look at this book to understand the roots of the distrust of between the Catholics and Protestants. But we should not look at this book as being accurate. Instead it shows us that although abuses did occur (on both sides, although many would never admit it), much of the continued distrust has its origins in inaccurate propaganda of the day, and that we are in fact more similar than most of us care to admit.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Be Misled - This is NOT Foxe's work!
Review: If anyone ever had the idea that the Roman Catholic Church was a "Christian" organization, they obviously never studied the history of that "church" nor have they read this book. More than just a regrettable "episode" in the life of the "church", after reading Foxe's accounts of horrendous torture and suffering of those who refused to recant their belief of the truth in the word of God, you may consider yourself more than fortunate to live in a time and place were you can freely proclaim the truth to others.
Many of the accounts of martyrs in this book, such as Master John Hooper who was "very slowly" burned to death, will leave an indelible impression on your mind for many days or weeks after you read the gruesome details of the his earthly demise. Do I hate Catholics, you may ask? No, I love each and every one of them as a precious soul...but one that is otherwise destined for Hell if they refuse to hear and see the truth. After reading this book and you are unable to figure out that the Roman Catholic Church was and still is Satan's greatest "religious" deception on earth, you need to ask yourself exactly "whom" it is your trying to please. We will all stand ALONE before Almighty God in judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
Another man, Charles Hadden Spurgeon, more eloquently put it this way;
"The Inquisition was the masterpiece of infernal craft and malice, and its deeds were far more worthy of fiends than men. If the church of Rome could at this moment...become a pure community, ten thousand years of immaculate holiness and self-denying philanthropy could not avail to blot out the remembrance of the enormous crimes with which the Inquisition has loaded it. There is a deep and indelible sentence of damnation written upon the apostate church by avenging justice...registered in heaven; nor can any pretence to present liberality reverse the condemnation...its infamy is engraved in rock for ever. [The Roman Catholic Church] wallowed so greedily in oppression, torture, and murder in her palmy days, that the foam of human gore hangs around her wolfish fangs, and men will not believe her to be a gentle lamb, let her bleat as she may."
ALL that call themselves CHRISTIANS should own and read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Not The True Foxes Book Of Martyrs
Review: If you want to get the full and true book by John Foxe then try elsewhere. There seems to be somewhat of a campaign to slur the works of John Foxe here. Any true Christian / Protestant should read this book alongside other books and the truth will be revealed. William Tyndale the English reformer strangled and burned at the stake for translating the bible into Enlglish. Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake also. In Lewes in England they still have annual bonfires to celebrate the Protestant Martyrs who were burned in the town centre by the Catholic bishops and priests. If you care to watch the film Elizabeth with Cate Blanchet it shows Protestants being burned as "heretics" and shows the Vatican signing a declaration that anyone who assasinated the illegitimate heretical whore Queen Elizabeth would be guaranteed a place in Heaven by power of the Pope. Catholic doctrine still states to this day that the RC Church has the right to kill "heretics" and recently (2000) Rome has declared that Protestant Churches are not true Churches.
These are best put by Cardinal Manning in the Pope's name: "In Christ's right I am Sovereign. I acknowledge no civil superior: I am the subject of no Prince, and I claim to be the supreme judge on earth, the director of the consciences of men; of the peasant that tills the field and the Prince that sits on the Throne: of the household that sits in the shade of privacy and the legislator that makes laws for the kingdom. I am the last sole supreme judge on earth of what is right and wrong."
Cardinal Heenan, former Archbishop of Westminster, declared: "Ecumenism does not mean pretending that all denominations are equally true; it does not mean that the [Roman] Catholic Church has nothing more than other churches. The ultimate object of ecumenism is to unite all Christians under the Vicar of Christ--the Pope."
The cardinal widely regarded as Catholicism's second most powerful figure has upset Irish ecumenists by claiming that the Pope is developing "papal primacy" in his relations with other Churches.
Quite clearly as all the reformers summised (Calvin, Luther, Knox, Wesley, Cranmer etc) - The Pope is anti-Christ and this work is a must read for all true Christians.
It is perhaps gruesome and violent as one other reviewers has stated but that is no reaaon to hide it away and ignore the facts of what happened. People died for our civil and religious liberties during the Reformation and Glorious Revolution times and that should be remembered and taught to all our children. Christ clearly is paramount but we should not forget history and the lessons to be learned. Power, money and greed can corrupt and this is evidenced throughout the history of the Catholic Church.
Rating: 
Summary: Historical Importance = 5 stars Actually history = 1 star
Review: John Foxe's book of martyr's is a classic as far as historical importance is concerned. With Queen Elizabeth solidifying Protestant power in England and suppressing the Catholic religion, John Foxe's propaganda linking the Protestant martyr's during Queen Mary's reign with the early martyr's of the ancient church became extremely popular. The popularity of the book, along with the Reformation tradition of nationalism and xenophobia, helped spread hatred and fear of Catholics throughout England as traitors who were beholden to a foreign ruler. It's relatively easy to see that the history takes a back seat to the "spin" after the deaths of early church martyrs (Foxe borrows slavishly from Eusebius' Church History for this) are recorded. Amazingly enough, Foxe makes orthodox Christians out of the Albigensians, a group of heretics who, if transported to the 16th century, would've been burned at the stake by any Protestant cleric or ruler. Foxe reserves the most venom for "bloody" Mary. Although a legitimate monarch, she was not as skilled at the fine art of propaganda and Protestants, who had virtually mastered the art, exploited that. Her first mistake was that she married a spanish man, leaving her wide open to xenophobic attacks by Protestants portraying her as someone who was subverting England through "foreign influence." Second, when a small minority of religious extremists tried to overthrow her legitimate rule and the traditional religion of the people, she responded by using the death penalty for heresy. Protestants seized on this and claimed that they were being punished unjustly for maintaining "biblical" Christianity. When Elizabeth was making martyr's out of Catholics (and in greater numbers than "bloody" Mary), Protestants appealed more to nationalist sentiment by saying that the Catholics were traitors trying to subvert their free state. This worked masterfully to demean catholics in the eyes of the English, becuase instead of threatening some abstract theological concept, the catholics were said to be subverting the country. Something that struck fear in every English man and woman. Stuck in the middle of this is a brief apologia for John Calvin. I'm pretty sure that this wasn't in the original edition of the Book of Martyr's, but the essay contains similar propaganda techniques. Calvin is portrayed as a prophetic voice that was roughed up by the institutional church that cared more for authority than pure doctrine. The essayist glosses over the cruelty and intolerance of his rule in Geneva and attempts to pin most of the blame for Michael Servetus' execution on Farel, claiming that Calvin wanted Servetus to repent and not to execute him (ignoring some of the more incidiary quotes in which he claimed that if Servetus came to Geneva, he wouldn't leave alive). The essayist wraps it up by making the head scratching claim that Calvin was a "friend of civil liberties. The historical importance of Foxe's Book of Martyr's cannot be overstated. It was hugely popular in its day and shaped England's attitude toward Catholic's for hundreds of years to come. In fact, modern day heirs of John Foxe in the fundamentalist camp view this as almost on par with the scriptures themselves. Although the Foxe's writing is almost transparently propaganda to all but the most committed fundamentalists today, it is still historically important towards understanding the mind set of the times and shouldn't be ignored.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful book that will make you angry and sad
Review: Prepare to be angry, very angry. This book is the ultimate collection of the truth behind intolerance towards Christians and protestants in particular. Throughly updated and revised it bring the persecution of Christianity through 2002, so that you will see for yourself the more then 500 years of persecution and murder that has been done against Christians. In normal books one reads that Christians were the ones hurting and suppressing others but this book makes plaint he truth, the truth that honest peaceful Christians are the victims of intolerance all over the world from Pakistan to the Sudan to Nigeria to India and beyond. Everywhere lone Christians are under assault and this book catalogs but a small portion of the incidents. From the beating and burning to death of a Christian woman in the Sudan to the raids by armed mobs on Christian youth camps in Indonesia this book is a wonderful collection. The original Foxes book of martyrs was to catalog the assaults in England by the Queen `Bloody' Mary. This text keeps the tradition alive as it details the persecutions from that time to the present. This book may enrage you but it will also wake you up and encourage you to support peaceful protestant movements the world over.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book that will make you angry and sad
Review: Prepare to be angry, very angry. This book is the ultimate collection of the truth behind intolerance towards Christians and protestants in particular. Throughly updated and revised it bring the persecution of Christianity through 2002, so that you will see for yourself the more then 500 years of persecution and murder that has been done against Christians. In normal books one reads that Christians were the ones hurting and suppressing others but this book makes plaint he truth, the truth that honest peaceful Christians are the victims of intolerance all over the world from Pakistan to the Sudan to Nigeria to India and beyond. Everywhere lone Christians are under assault and this book catalogs but a small portion of the incidents. From the beating and burning to death of a Christian woman in the Sudan to the raids by armed mobs on Christian youth camps in Indonesia this book is a wonderful collection. The original Foxes book of martyrs was to catalog the assaults in England by the Queen 'Bloody' Mary. This text keeps the tradition alive as it details the persecutions from that time to the present. This book may enrage you but it will also wake you up and encourage you to support peaceful protestant movements the world over.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic on those who burned bright in the darkness
Review: Some historians have pointed out that Foxe was biased against Catholics. Although his personal conflict against Catholicism likely drove his effort to put this book together, one has to recognize that the very abuses described in this book are a large part of WHY he was set against Catholicism in his own day in the first place. So far as I know, most or all of the stories of burning heretics, which Foxe describes, are true. All of which is a part of what Pope John Paul II has begun apologizing for at the change of the millennium. But Foxe also spends an equal amount of time retelling the stories of Christians who were killed for their faith during the days of ancient Rome. As a result, I don't think the book builds Roman Catholic resentment in most readers. Instead, it reveals the real fabric of Christian faith. Those who like only a rosey picture of the Church are no different than those who like only a rosey picture of the real world we live in. This book describes the dark times in Christian history, but the light is never lost in that darkness. And that is what this book is really about--the inability of the darkness to snuff out the light of true faith--whether it is an internal darkness within the Church or an external darkness that tries to engulf the Church.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest story in English History
Review: This book is pure history and is very controversial. There was a time when every home had this book along with The Bible. This book had a great influence on the English people for centuries. Much of the history covered here are events during the reign of Bloody Mary I. After the Reformation many kings and queens had a violent backlash against the people they believed a threat to their power. The printing press was a hated invention and owning a Bible was a death sentence because people for the first time in certuries people could begin to think for themselves. This is also a very hated book. It would be very easy to dismiss the events here to prejudice and propoganda but it should be kept to mind that the historic record does show 300 men and women were burned to death because of the Inquistion brought by Mary to England. This book was a warning to people of the things that could happen under a Catholic monarch. The distrust of Catholics would continue for hundreds of years. With this book came the end of burning heretics at the stake in England. The horror of this book may have showed the common man how wrong it was to be so cruel to his fellow man. It is a monument in English Literature and one of the earliest works of modern English. I loved every page.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful collection
Review: This book is the ultimate collection of the truth behind intolerance towards Christians and protestants in particular. Throughly updated and revised it bring the persecution of Christianity through 2002, so that you will see for yourself the more then 500 years of persecution and murder that has been done against Christians. In normal books one reads that Christians were the ones hurting and suppressing others but this book makes plain the truth, the truth that honest peaceful Christians are the victims of intolerance all over the world from Pakistan to the Sudan to Nigeria to India and beyond. Everywhere lone Christians are under assault and this book catalogs but a small portion of the incidents. From the beating and burning to death of a Christian woman in the Sudan to the raids by armed mobs on Christian youth camps in Indonesia this book is a wonderful collection. A must read for anyone interested in the present state of christianity in the world.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful collection
Review: This book is the ultimate collection of the truth behind intolerance towards Christians and protestants in particular. Throughly updated and revised it bring the persecution of Christianity through 2002, so that you will see for yourself the more then 500 years of persecution and murder that has been done against Christians. In normal books one reads that Christians were the ones hurting and suppressing others but this book makes plain the truth, the truth that honest peaceful Christians are the victims of intolerance all over the world from Pakistan to the Sudan to Nigeria to India and beyond. Everywhere lone Christians are under assault and this book catalogs but a small portion of the incidents. From the beating and burning to death of a Christian woman in the Sudan to the raids by armed mobs on Christian youth camps in Indonesia this book is a wonderful collection. A must read for anyone interested in the present state of christianity in the world.
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