books. Before leaving Frankfort he had begun to translate into Latin Cranmer's treatise on the Eucharist in answer to Gardiner (London, 1551). He found the task difficult. Grindal and others begged him to persevere. When he heard of Cranmer's death in 1556 he at once negotiated with Christopher Froschover of Zurich for its publication, but the negotiation dragged on till 1559, and the work, although partly utilised by Foxe elsewhere, still remains in manuscript (Harleian MS. 418). In 1556 Oporinus published Foxe's ‘Christus Triumphans,’ an apocalyptic drama after German models, in five acts of Latin verse, concluding with a ‘panegyricon’ on Christ in Latin prose. The original manuscript is in Lansdowne MS. 1073. Tanner says that an edition was issued in London in 1551, a statement of doubtful authority. The work is a crude and tedious mystery play, but achieved such success as to be published in a French translation by Jean Bienvenu at Geneva in 1562, a form in which it is now of the utmost rarity. An English translation by Richard Day [q. v.] appeared in 1578, 1599, and 1607, and reprints of the original, prepared by Thomas Comber for use in schools, ‘ob insignem styli elegantiam’—an undeserved compliment—are dated 1672 and 1677 (cf. Herford, Studies in the Lit. Relations of England and Germany, pp. 138–48). After Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer had fallen at the stake, Foxe drew up an admirable expostulation and plea for toleration, addressed to the nobility of England (8 Feb. 1555–6). It was first printed by Oporinus at Basle in 1557 under the title ‘Ad inclytos ac præpotentes Angliæ proceres … supplicatio. Autore Ioanne Foxo Anglo.’ In the same year he brought out an ingenious series of rules for aiding the memory, entitled ‘Locorum communium logicalium tituli et ordines 150, ad seriem prædicamentorum decem descripti,’ Basle, which was reissued in London as ‘Pandectæ locorum communium’ in 1585. In 1557 and 1558 Foxe remonstrated in a friendly way with Knox on account of the strong language used in ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet;’ and on Elizabeth's accession he wrote a congratulatory address, which Oporinus printed.
Meanwhile Foxe was receiving through Grindal reports of the protestant persecutions in England. Bradford's case was one of the earliest he received. When reports of Cranmer's examinations arrived Foxe prepared them for publication, and Grindal seems to have proposed that these and the reports of proceedings against other martyrs should be issued separately in two forms, one in Latin and the other in English. Foxe was to be responsible for the Latin form. The English form was to be prepared and distributed in England. Only in the case of the story of Philpot's martyrdom was this plan carried out. Strype preserves the title of Foxe's pamphlet, printed at Basle, detailing Philpot's sufferings, ‘Mira et elegans cum primis historia vel tragœdia potius de tota ratione examinationis et condemnationis J. Philpotti … nunc in Latinum versa, interprete J. F.,’ but no copy is now known. On 10 June 1557 Grindal urged Fox to complete at once his account of the persecution of reformers in England as far as the end of Henry VIII's reign (Grindal, Remaines, Parker Soc., p. 223 et seq.) He worked steadily, and in 1559 had brought his story of persecution down to nearly the end of Mary's reign. Nicolaus Brylinger with Oporinus sent the work, which was all in Latin, to press, and it appeared in folio under the title ‘Rerum in ecclesia gestarum, quæ postremis et periculosis his temporibus evenerunt, maximarumque per Europam Persecutionum ac Sanctorum Dei Martyrum si quæ insignioris exempli sunt, digesti per Regna et Nationes commentarii. Pars prima, in qua primum de rebus per Angliam et Scotiam gestis atque in primis de horrenda sub Maria nuper regina persecutione narratio continetur. Autore Joanne Foxo, Anglo.’ A second part, giving the history of the persecutions of the reformers on the continent, was announced to follow, but Foxe abandoned it, and that part of the work was undertaken by Henry Pantaleone of Zurich. This great volume of 732 numbered pages is in six books, of which the first embodies the little volume of ‘Commentarii.’ The expostulation addressed to the nobility is reprinted (pp. 239–61). Bishop Hooper's treatise on the Eucharist, forwarded to Bullinger, and written while in prison, appears with dissertations on the same subject by Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer. The whole was dedicated to Foxe's pupil, the Duke of Norfolk (1 Sept. 1559). At the same time as the book was issued the pope (Paul IV) announced that he had prohibited Oporinus from publishing any further books.
Foxe left for England in October, a month after his great book had been published. He wrote announcing his arrival to the Duke of Norfolk, who offered him lodgings in his house at Christchurch, Aldgate, and afterwards invited him to one of his country houses. On 25 Jan. 1559–60 Grindal, now bishop of London, ordained him priest, and in September 1560 Parkhurst, another friend, who had just become bishop of Norwich, promised to use his influence to obtain a prebendal stall at Norwich for him. Foxe is often represented as having lived for some time
