In 1570, at the request of Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London, John Foxe preached a sermon at Paul's Cross, which was an open-air pulpit {on the grounds of St. Paul's Cathedral} of mostly timber with room for 3 or 4 inside it, set on stone steps with a lead-covered roof and a low surrounding wall. From here was preached much of the English Reformation, with sermons preached here usually printed and thus redistributed to a wider audience. This lofty exposition of the Protestant doctrine of redemption and attack on the doctrinal errors of the Papist Church was enlarged and published that year as A Sermon of Christ Crucified. "To know the crucified sacrifice of Christ's body to be a perfect deliverance of all his people, to be a full satisfaction once, and for ever, for all our sins - to be a free justification, redemption, and righteousness before God for ever, to all them that believe in him, without any other means or help adjoined to him - this is to know Christ Jesus crucified." Foxe.
John Foxe, martyrologist, is remembered as the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, an account of Christian martyrs throughout history but especially emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants from the fourteenth century through the reign of Mary I.
Foxe's prospects, and those of the evangelical cause generally, improved after the death of Henry VIII in January 1547, the accession of Edward VI, and the formation of a Privy Council dominated by pro-reform Protestants.
Although both he and his contemporary readers were more credulous than most moderns, Foxe presented "lifelike and vivid pictures of the manners and feelings of the day, full of details that could never have been invented by a forger." Foxe's method of using his sources "proclaims the honest man, the sincere seeker after truth."
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