Our principal data for the history of this persecution are derived from John Foxe’s _Acts and Monuments_, and the martyrologist’s spirit of animosity, wilful misrepresentation and neglect to rectify obvious errors, have exposed his book to everlasting reproach. On the death of his last descendant, the greater number of his manuscripts were either given to Strype, or allowed to remain in Strype’s hands till his death in 1737, when many of them were purchased for the Harleian Collection, now in the British Museum. A few found their way into the Lansdowne Library. They include amongst a mass of heterogeneous documents of the most unequal value and interest—such as the depositions of some who were really present at the different executions for religion in the reign of Queen Mary, minutes of the examination of prisoners, apparently written on the spot, fantastic stories of his favourite theory concerning the judgments of God, on those who persecuted the followers of the reformed doctrines, and the thrilling legend of Pope Joan—several statements sent to Foxe for the purpose of correcting portions of his work, but of which he never made any use. Nearly, if not quite all the material for that part of the _Acts and Monuments_, which deals with the reign of Mary, was collected by others for Foxe and Grindal, during their absence from England. Grindal handed over to Foxe the accounts of the various prosecutions for heresy sent to him by his correspondents at home, taking care, however, at the same time, to warn the martyrologist against placing too much confidence in them, he himself suspending his judgment, “till more satisfactory evidence came from good hands”. He advised him for the present, only to print separately the acts of particular persons, of whom they had authentic accounts, and to wait for a larger and completer history, until they had reliable information of the whole persecution.[533] But the careful investigation which Grindal recommended did not fall in with the particular genius and uncritical methods of Foxe, who, perhaps on account of his necessitous condition, worked with a will, on the unsifted tales and reports, as they came to hand, so that the book in its Latin form was completed, almost to the end of Mary’s reign, and was published at Basle, before his return to England in 1559. He afterwards made an English translation of the work, but without seeing fit to revise his material, and it was given to the public under the title of _Acts and Monuments_. It was at once popularly styled the _Book of Martyrs_.