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The Reformation · 1563, expanded to 1583
Acts and Monuments
John Foxe · 1516/17–1587
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What it is
A vast history of Christian persecution culminating in the Marian burnings, built from trial records, letters, and eyewitness interviews, and heavily illustrated.
Why it lasted
Placed in cathedrals beside the Bible, it shaped English Protestant identity for three centuries — and its anti-Catholicism shaped a great deal else besides.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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