Roman Church. Foxe explicitly states that he uses Wolsey and his alleged sins as a metonym for the Roman Church as a whole: I thought compendiouslye to expresse the ridiculous and pompous qualities, and demaner of thys foresayd Thomas Wolsey, Cardinall and Legate of Rome, in whom alone, the image and life of all other such like followers and professors of the same church, may be seene and obserued. Foxe presents an image of Wolsey as a over-proud and clownish hypocrite, far more concerned with increasing his (and the Roman temporal wealth and power Church’s) than appropriately reforming the Church. In weighting his Wolsey anecdotes with such obviously moralistic judgments, Foxe transforms Wolsey from a historical capable of both good and evil—into a vehicle for transmitting anti-Roman sentiment. While Foxe does take other figures as either positive or negative exemplars of the Reformist or Roman Church, Wolsey is unique in that Foxe juxtaposes him through constant repetition and explicit explanatory statements (both in-text and marginal) with the reformers who were just beginning to agitate for any number of religious reforms, whether based on or on any of the subsequent luminaries of the Luther’s teachings Protestant Reformation. The first four English editions of the published in 1563, Acts and Monuments, 1570, 1576, and 1583, were produced by Foxe himself in conjunction with his printer, John Day. What makes these four editions particularly valuable is that not only do they differ considerably in content, but that Foxe was responsible for those editorial decisions. In these four editions, then, modern scholars are given an opportunity to see how a leading Protestant martyrologist and propagandist manipulated his text in response to social and political changes. Though the evolution of these anti-Wolsey anecdotes shows a concerted effort by Foxe to select stories and images that present opinions geared against Wolsey and his policies (and, more broadly, the Roman Catholic Church), the editing of these anecdotes demonstrates keen awareness of the social climate Foxe’s into which his text was being released. Patrick Collinson agrees that the Acts and was, as he puts it, moving Monuments “a target”:
Roman Church. Foxe explicitly states that he uses Wolsey and his alleged sins as a metonym for the Roman Church as a whole: I thought compendiouslye to expresse the ridiculous and pompous qualities, and demaner of thys foresayd Thomas Wolsey, Cardinall and Legate of Rome, in whom alone, the image and life of all other such like followers and professors of the same church, may be seene and obserued. Foxe presents an image of Wolsey as a over-proud and clownish hypocrite, far more concerned with increasing his (and the Roman Church’s) temporal wealth and power than appropriately reforming the Church. In weighting his Wolsey anecdotes with such obviously moralistic judgments, Foxe transforms Wolsey from a historical of both good and evil—into a vehicle for transmitting anti-Roman sentiment. While Foxe does take other figures as either positive or negative exemplars of the Reformist or Roman Church, Wolsey is unique in that Foxe juxtaposes him through constant repetition and explicit explanatory statements (both in-text and marginal) with the reformers who were just beginning to agitate for any number of religious reforms, whether based on Luther’s teachings or on any of the subsequent luminaries of the Protestant Reformation. The first four English editions of the Acts and Monuments, published in 1563, 1570, 1576, and 1583, were produced by Foxe himself in conjunction with his printer, John Day. What makes these four editions particularly valuable is that not only do they differ considerably in content, but that Foxe was responsible for those editorial decisions. In these four editions, then, modern scholars are given an opportunity to see how a leading Protestant martyrologist and propagandist manipulated his text in response to social and political changes. Though the evolution of these anti-Wolsey anecdotes shows a concerted effort by Foxe to select stories and images that present opinions geared against Wolsey and his policies (and, more broadly, the Roman Catholic Church), the editing of these anecdotes demonstrates Foxe’s keen awareness of the social climate into which his text was being released. Patrick Collinson agrees that the Acts and Monuments was, as he puts it, “a moving target”: capable