FOXE, JOHN (1516-1587).--Martyrologist, was _b._ at Boston, Lincolnshire, and _ed._ at Oxf., where he became a Fellow of Magdalen Coll. While there he gave himself to the study of the theological questions then in debate, and ended by becoming a Protestant, in consequence of which he in 1545 left his coll. He then became tutor in the family of Sir T. Lucy of Charlecote, and afterwards to the children of the recently executed Earl of Surrey. During the reign of Mary he retired to the Continent, and _pub._, at Strasburg, his _Commentarii_ (the first draft of the _Acts and Monuments_). Removing to Basel he was employed as a reader for the press by the famous printer Oporinus, who _pub._ some of his writings. On the accession of Elizabeth, F. returned to England, was received with kindness by the Duke of Norfolk, one of his former pupils, and soon afterwards (1563) _pub._ the work on which his fame rests, the English version of the _Acts and Monuments_, better known as _The Book Martyrs_. Received with great favour by the Protestants, it was, and has always been, charged by the Roman Catholics with gross and wilful perversion of facts. The truth of the matter appears to be that while Foxe was not, as in the circumstances he could hardly have been, free from party spirit or from some degree of error as to facts, he did not intentionally try to mislead; and comparison of his citations from authorities with the originals has shown him to have been careful and accurate in that matter. F., who had been ordained a priest in 1560, became Canon of Salisbury in 1563. He wrote sundry other theological works, and _d._ in 1587. There is a memoir of him attributed to his _s._, but of doubtful authenticity. Some of his papers, used by Strype (_q.v._), are now in the British Museum.