Book Three begins with the arrival of the Hirsau reformers at Petershausen, including a brief biography of the reforming abbot Theodoric (r. 1086–1116) and a detailed description of his material renovation of the monastery. An extended series of miracles, visions, and anecdotes follow, many of which serve as subtle commentaries on the success and challenges of the reform. The book then describes the efforts of the monks to establish and manage daughter houses, which presents many setbacks and challenges for the monastery. In the midst of these efforts, the investiture controversy emerges again, but this time at the local level. Conflict and even a short exile ensue when a pro-imperial bishop is installed at Constance. After the conflict ends in Theodoric’s favor, an account of his death follows, commemorating his unique character and contributions to the library.

This chapter analyses lollard views of the priesthood and tithing found in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments. It begins by looking at the nature of the lollard critique of clergy, revealing that despite the nuanced categories modern scholars have given to ‘anticlericalism’ (including distinctions between ‘literary anticlericalism’, ‘hyperclericalism’, and ‘antisacertodalism’), Foxe’s portrayal of the priesthood is dominated by calls for an abolition of a separate priestly class. It then hones in on two radical concepts in the lollard narratives: clerical disendowment and the notion of temporal possessions more generally, and the idea of episcopacy. Beyond the ministers themselves, Foxe’s book describes a range of opinions concerning the tithes which maintained them, from scepticism to outright denunciations. It confirms that these ideas, preserved by Foxe’s tome, offered historical precedents for separatists and puritans as well as conformists in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Book Four continues the history of the monastery from the death of Theodoric to the author’s own time with an eclectic collection of colorful stories continuing many of themes introduced in Books Two and Three – conflicts with bishops and lay patrons, internal politics, relations with daughter houses, and various miracles. Twice the bishop-proprietor Ulrich I of Constance attempts to intervene in the election or abdication of an abbot, spurring the monastery to assert its libertas in active resistance. Hints of profound troubles in the wake of reform are introduced, including violence in the abbey, economic mismanagement, and failed attempts to found and reform other houses. The monastery is miraculously spared from fire on multiple occasions.

Introduces chronicle and places into its historical context. The Hirsau Reform and its role at Petershausen is discussed at length, and a broad overview of the social landscape of Swabia in the central Middle Ages is provided. The manuscript of the chronicle is discussed briefly, and important notes about the translation are provided.

This short section draws together the three main sections of the book to consolidate the arguments about the significance of the lollards in the English Reformation. This memory was indelibly imprinted on the English Reformation because the lollards were immortalised in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments as spiritually enlightened forbears. Rather than mould their beliefs to fit the Elizabethan religious settlement of his own day, Foxe’s textual tolerance meant that the ‘Book of Martyrs’ acted as a vector for radical religious ideologies. These ideologies, conveyed and seemingly authorised by the revered John Foxe, acted as historical exemplars for later Protestant nonconformists, thus establishing the lollards as an inherently subversive element in the English Reformation.

When mentioning the lollard legacy in the work of Coverdale, Foxe and others, nearly all modern scholars, assert that these medieval heretics provided historical evidence of God’s approval. But remarkably few lollard deaths conformed to the literary tropes and exemplary models of the early church. Although several high-profile lollards were executed, they had been condemned as traitors, and many lollard records were cut off after trial, leaving evangelical chroniclers unsure how these so-called heretics had died. This chapter addresses this tension, and demonstrates how Foxe moulded the lollards into martyrs – whether they died suffering or not. By recounting in excruciating detail the trials, imprisonments, abjurations, and penance of the lollards, Foxe shifted focus away from the constancy of the martyr and towards the cruelty of the bishops who interrogated them. In particular, it shows how Foxe perceived the ecclesiastical oath to be an abuse of power, especially the ex officio oath. Due largely to Foxe’s success in establishing the lollards as true martyrs, post-Reformation Protestants rarely questioned their martyrological value, and this paved the way for discontented religious advocates to appropriate the lollards in line with the trials of their own religious traditions.

Every one of the seven traditional sacraments of the medieval church was called into question or even rejected wholesale by some lollards. And while a rejection of transubstantiation characterised most lollard critiques of Catholic eucharistic theology, in fact trial records – and indeed Foxe’s Acts and Monuments – suggest a wide diversity of opinion among the dissenters with regard to the efficacy and value of the sacraments as a whole. This chapter examines lollard beliefs on the sacraments as mediated by Foxe in order to delineate Foxe’s editorial practices. The first section details how the lollards articulated their disappointment with nearly all the constituent parts of the traditional sacramental framework. From there, it turns to the two sacraments that reformers upheld as valid: the Eucharist and baptism. Although a staunch rejection of transubstantiation unsurprisingly passed muster with Foxe, the range of views concerning baptism – which included even a blunt rejection of its efficacy – forced Foxe into an uncomfortable position. Baptism, then, serves as a case study in order to scrutinise Foxe’s editorial practices, determining that he was inconsistent with his deletions.