This thesis sets out to examine the importance of Latin in the literary output of John Foxe by means of an analysis of a representative sample of the many different genres in which he wrote. The thesis rests on the examination of four propositions about Foxe's career as a Latin writer: first that his natural language of thought was Latin and that he was an accomplished Latinist; secondly, that he developed a significant intellectual network with the great scholars of the day; thirdly that his Latin, both spoken and written, is the key to unlocking the distinctiveness of his experience during his exile; and finally that on his return to England Foxe continued to use his Latin as a protagonist in the Elizabethan regime. It demonstrates not only that he was an extremely skilled Latinist, but also that he was very much in demand at different stages of his life as an exponent of those skills. In particular, this thesis shows beyond all doubt that the widespread view over the centuries, prevalent even among many of his contemporaries that John Foxe was simply the church historian who wrote the Acts and Monuments ('Book of Martyrs'), is completely wrong. Foxe was a true humanist and a son of the Renaissance in the tradition of Erasmus and his disciples, a neglected Latin writer, whose final untranslated work on the Apocalypse, at the least, merits a detailed study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:501561 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Wade, John Stephen |
| Publisher | University of Sheffield |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10328/ |
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