The Book of Martyrs

1A profoundly influential book in the protestant cause, John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, more readily known as the Book of Martyrs, was first published in English in 1563 as a large folio volume, and was reprinted frequently thereafter. The current transcription comes from the edition of 1570, and is reproduced here with permission from the John Foxe Project, Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield. Shakespeare was clearly familiar with the narrative Foxe provides of the dispute between King John and Pope Innocent III.