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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2018
Amid the great Protestant martyrologies of the mid-sixteenth century, Heinrich Pantaleon's Martyrvm historia (1563) has been comparatively overlooked. This article argues that Pantaleon's martyrology acted as a capstone to the narrative framework of Protestant suffering and resistance. Pantaleon's command of vernacular languages gave him access to a wider range of material than other martyrologists, material which his Latin text made accessible to learned readers across Europe. This article also examines the collaboration between Pantaleon and John Foxe, which directly inspired Pantaleon's martyrology and enabled Foxe to give a cohesive, trans-European account of Protestant martyrs in his Acts and monuments.
Tom Freeman would like to thank the staff at the Rare Books Room at the Cambridge University Library. David Gehring would like to thank the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, for a much-appreciated fellowship there, during which the research for this article was initiated. He would also like to thank audiences in Oxford and London for their comments on earlier versions of this article. Throughout this article, original spellings are maintained while punctuation is modernised.
1 Bunyan, John, The house in the forest of Lebanon, in The miscellaneous works of John Bunyan, ed. Midgley, Graham, vii, Oxford 1989, 159–64Google Scholar. Algieri Pomponio de Nola, a student at Padua, was burned for heresy in 1556: Caponetto, Salvatore, La riforma protestante nell'Italia del cinquecento, Turin 1992, 254–5Google Scholar.
2 Bunyan owned a copy of either the 1632 or the 1641 edition of the Acts and monuments and drew upon it heavily throughout his life: Freeman, Thomas S., ‘A library in three volumes: Foxe's “Book of Martyrs” in the writings of John Bunyan’, Bunyan Studies v (1994), 47–57Google Scholar. The letter of ‘Pomponius Algerius’, as Foxe terms him, appears in the second volume at pp. 181–3 of the 1632 and 1641 editions of the Acts and monuments.
3 The standard account of Pantaleon is Bolte, Johann, ‘Pantaleon, Heinrich’, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxv (1887), 128–31Google Scholar. Most scholarship has focused on Pantaleon's Prosopographia, a major biographical dictionary of illustrious Germans: Prosopographiae herovm atqve illvstrivm virorvm totivs Germaniae, Basle 1565–6 (VD16, P 228–30); Pantaleon's autobiography is at iii. 560–5. (VD16 is the abbreviation used for the Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts, which is a bibliography for German-speaking lands during the sixteenth century akin to the Revised Short Title Catalogue.) Hans Buscher's Heinrich Pantaleon und sein Heldenbuch, Basle 1946, is a study of the Prosopographia. Matthias Pohlig provides a nuanced description of the Prosopographia in the context of Reformation historical writing, but includes little about Pantaleon's career or other writings: Zwischen Gelehrsamkeit und konfessioneller Identitätsstiftung, Tübingen 2007, 259–69Google Scholar.
4 A useful overview of early Protestant martyrologies is Gregory, Brad, Salvation at stake: Christian martyrdom in early modern Europe, Cambridge, MA 2001, 139–96Google Scholar.
5 Ludwig Rabus, Der Heyligen Außerwöhlten Gottes Zeügen, Bekennern vnd Martyrern … Historien, Strasbourg 1552–8 (VD16, R31, R34, R37, R41, R42, R46, R48, R50).
6 Kolb, Robert, For all the saints: changing perceptions of martyrdom and sainthood in the Lutheran Reformation, Macon, GA 1987, 56–67Google Scholar, 158–64.
7 Jean Crespin, Le Livre des martyrs, Geneva 1554 (USTC 6414), and Actes des martyrs, Geneva 1564 (USTC 60253); John Foxe, Commentarii rervm in ecclesia gestarum, Strasbourg 1554 (VD16, F1948); Adriaan van Haemstede, De gheschiedenisse ende den doodt der vromer martelaren, Emden 1559 (USTC 408045).
8 For other Protestant martyrological works of the mid-1550s and mid-1560s see Gregory, Salvation at stake, 170–1.
9 Jean Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, Geneva 1560 (USTC 450286). After the Commentarii Foxe wrote the larger martyrology, Rervm in ecclesia gestarum … commentarii, Basle 1559 (VD16, F 1956).
10 Kolb, Saints, 56–8, 81–3.
11 Gilmont, J.-F., ‘Les Martyrologes du xvie siecle’, in Menchi, Silvana Seidel (ed.), Ketzerverfolgung im 16. und frühen 17 Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden 1992, 176–89Google Scholar, and Gregory, Salvation at stake, 165–96, provide overviews and comparisons and are the best of the few writings treating Rabus, Crespin, Foxe and Haemstede together.
12 A few exceptions exist. David Watson examines Crespin's sources for English martyrs: ‘Jean Crespin and the first English martyrology of the Reformation’, in Loades, David (ed.), John Foxe and the English Reformation, Aldershot–Brookfield, VT 1997, 192–209Google Scholar. The following works examine Foxe's use or possible use of the martyrologies of Haemstede, Crespin and Rabus: Andrew Pettegree, ‘Haemstede and Foxe’, in Loades, Foxe and the English Reformation, 278–94; Latré, Guido, ‘Was van Haemstede a direct source for Foxe? On le Blas's pijnbanck and other borrowings’, in Loades, David (ed.), John Foxe at home and abroad, Aldershot–Burlington, VT 2004, 151–6Google Scholar; and Mark Greengrass and Thomas S. Freeman, ‘The Acts and monuments and the Protestant continental martyrologies’, in The unabridged Acts and Monuments online/TAMO (HRI Online Publications, Sheffield, 2011), <www.johnfoxe.org> (accessed 26 September 2017).
13 There are brief assessments of Pantaleon's importance to Foxe in Evenden, Elizabeth and Freeman, Thomas S., Religion and the book in early modern England: the making of Foxe's ‘Book of Martyrs’, Cambridge 2011, 95–8Google Scholar, 110, and Greengrass and Freeman, ‘Acts and monuments’.
14 Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 73–8.
15 Ibid. 75; Steinmann, Martin, Johannes Oporinus: ein Basler Buchdrucker um die Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts, Basle–Stuttgart 1967Google Scholar; Bonjour, Edgard, ‘Oporinus, Johannes’, Neue Deutsche Biographie xix (1999), 555–6Google Scholar.
16 Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 51–2, 55.
17 Foxe, Commentarii, fos 88r–93r, 177r–v. There are brief accounts of French, German and Italian medieval figures who clashed with church authorities at fos 173r–174v, and 175v–176v. John Bale, a former Carmelite, was interested in the martyrdom of Conecte, passing on his information to Foxe.
18 Ibid. fo. 205r.
19 This letter makes it clear that Foxe had written to Bullinger previously, but exactly when they began their correspondence is unknown.
20 The Zurich letters, ed. Hastings Robinson, Cambridge 1842, i. 26.
21 Ibid. i. 36.
22 Ibid. i. 42.
23 Foxe was still in Basle on 1 September 1559, the date of his dedication of the Rervm, but he had arrived in England by 30 October, when the duke of Norfolk wrote to him, stating that he would meet Foxe shortly in London: BL, ms Harleian 417, fos 115v, 118r.
24 ‘longa hic texenda mihi esset narratio: nisi institutam historiae seriem sequutus, de Anglis in praesentia, et Scotis: post uero de Germanis hominibus, atque inter hos de Luthero, suo ordine referre decreuissem’: Foxe, Rervm, 121.
25 Nicholas Ridley, A frendly farewel which Master Doctor Ridley … did write, ed. John Foxe, London 1559 (RSTC 21051). The title page is dated 10 November 1559.
26 Ibid. unpaginated preface.
27 ‘duo pariter Typographi, alter Basiliensis, qui latine imprimeret, alter Geneuensis, qui Gallicam etiam huius historiae editionem efflagitabat’: Foxe, Rervm, 1.
28 Gilmont, J.-F., Bibliographie des éditions de Jean Crespin, 1550–1572, Verviers 1981Google Scholar, i. 140.
29 Ibid; Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 94–5.
30 John Foxe, Acts and monuments (hereinafter cited as A&M, with date of edition), London 1563 (RSTC 11222), sig. B3v, states that it took eighteen months to print the work.
31 ‘libello de papistarum tyrannide’: ms Harleian 417, fo. 108v.
32 RSTC 20114. Freeman, Thomas S., ‘A solemn contestation of divers popes: a work by John Foxe?’, English Language Notes xxxi (1994), 35–42Google Scholar.
33 ‘de recognoscendis aliquibus martyribus tuis quaeso serio etiam cogita’; ms Harleian 417, fo. 108v.
34 Bolte, ‘Pantaleon’, 129.
35 Creizenach, Wilhelm, Geschichte des neueren Dramas, Halle 1918, ii. 125–6Google Scholar.
36 Kess, Alexandra, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant vision of history, Aldershot–Burlington, VT 2008, 121–2Google Scholar.
37 John Bale, Scriptorvm illustrium maioris Brytanniae … catalogus, Basle 1557 (RSTC 1296 variant), i, sig. β2r.
38 ‘amici mei integerrimi’: Heinrich Pantaleon, Martyrvm historia, Basle 1563 (VD16, P222), fo. 3v, 336.
39 ‘Pars secvnda. Qvvm autem in prima parte Martyres saltem Angliae et Scotiae, a D. Ioanne Foxo Anglo, superioribus annis sint annotatae.’
40 ‘Quum uero per aliquot annos frustra… expectassemus’: Pantaleon, Martyrvm, sig. 3v. ‘We’ presumably signifies Pantaleon, Oporinus and their readers.
41 Date erroneously given in Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 110 n. 23.
42 Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 347–60.
43 Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 113–24.
44 Compare A&M (1563), 431–2, 433–5, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 46–8, 51–4.
45 Compare A&M (1563), 441–2, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 71–2.
46 Foxe, Pantaleon and Crespin identified Wagner as George Carpenter [Georgius Carpentarius]. Compare A&M (1563), 436–7, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 61–3, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 53r–55r.
47 Haemstede's martyrology did not draw on sources in English or French. Similarly, no evidence suggests that Rabus knew French, English or Dutch. Scholars agree that Crespin was not able to read German, and it is highly improbable that he could read English: David Watson, ‘The martyrology of Jean Crespin and the early French evangelical movement’, unpubl. PhD. diss. St Andrews 1997, 136; Kolb, Saints, 82. The question of Foxe's knowledge of German or Dutch is significant as there is evidence that he had some familiarity with the martyrologies of Rabus and Haemstede, but these examples demonstrate a limited knowledge of these languages at best.
48 Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 164–73.
49 A&M (1570) (RSTC 11223), 1058.
50 ‘Ex scripto testimonio Senatus Geneue[n]sis’: ibid.
51 Ibid. 1065.
52 Ibid. 1062.
53 Ibid. 1012–15.
54 Compare A&M (1570), 1019, 1020, 1024–8, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 68, 80–2, 156–7, 174, 178, 206–7, 217, 283, 309.
55 Compare A&M (1570), 1017–18, with Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 55r–v, and Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 63–4.
56 Preliminary observations on the relationship between Foxe and Crespin are in Greengrass and Freeman, ‘Acts and monuments’.
57 Compare A&M (1570), 1015–16, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 54–7.
58 Rabus, Der Heyligen, v, fos 143r–154r.
59 Compare A&M (1570), 1022, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 110.
60 Compare Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 110, with Rabus, Der Heyligen, iii, fos 180v–184r.
61 A&M (1570), 1025–6.
62 Ibid. 1024, 1028.
63 Compare A&M (1570), 1025–6, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 186–8, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 158r–160r; the accounts are virtually identical, but Foxe cited ‘Ex Lud. Rab. Pantal. Et alijs’.
64 Compare A&M (1570), 1023–4, 1028, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 97–100, 357–8.
65 Compare, for example, A&M (1570), 1023, 1027, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 96, 302.
66 Evenden and Freeman, Religion and the book, 56–8.
67 Latré, ‘Haemstede a direct source for Foxe?’, 151–5.
68 Compare A&M (1570), 1034, with Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 161v, and Haemstede, De gheschiedenisse, 179.
69 A&M (1570), 1040.
70 Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 268–80; Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 239r–249v; Haemstede, De gheschiedenisse, 327–39. Neither Pantaleon nor Crespin cited Haemstede. Foxe's account of roughly one hundred words omits documentary extracts that are ‘to bee read more at large, in the ix. Booke of Pantalion and others’: A&M (1570), 1040.
71 A&M (1570), 1047. The 1564 edition was the first edition of Crespin's martyrology to contain a sixth book.
72 Crespin, Actes des martyrs, 832–7; Haemstede, De gheschiedenisse, 410–16. The account is in book vi of Crespin's 1564 edition.
73 Foxe drew solely on Crespin's 1564 edition for the accounts of François Rebezies and Frederic Danville in Paris in 1558. Compare A&M (1570), 1052–5, with Crespin, Actes des martyrs, fos 882r–884v.
74 A&M (1570), 1028.
75 Ibid. 1028–9.
76 Ibid. 1005–18. Foxe divided his material into accounts containing one martyr or, at other times, numerous martyrs, such as the twenty-eight executed at Louvain in 1544: ibid. 1020.
77 George of Halle (A&M [1570], 1010), Wolfgang Schuch (A&M [1570], 1016) and Wendelmoet Claesdockter (A&M [1570], 1018).
78 The martyrdoms of a pastor and a peasant, both of which repeat Pantaleon's citation of Oecolampadius (A&M [1570], 1012, 1014–15; compare Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 46–8, 51–4), and the account of Leonard Keyser, where Foxe repeats Pantaleon's citation of Martin Luther (compare A&M [1570], 1017–18, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 63–4).
79 Compare A&M (1570), 1010, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 37, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 42v.
80 Compare A&M (1570), 1013–14, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 48–51, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 47v–49v.
81 Compare A&M (1570), 1010, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 38, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 43r. Foxe later mentioned this martyr, citing Crespin (A&M [1570], 1029). Foxe probably based his first relation of this martyr on Pantaleon and his second on Crespin, not realising that both referred to the same person.
82 Compare A&M (1570), 1010, 1016–17, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 39–40, 61–3, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 42v–43r, 53r–55r. Foxe, as noted above, included Wagner in the edition of 1563.
83 One is the account of the martyrdom of Jean le Clerc at Meaux in 1524, where Foxe cited both Pantaleon and Crespin as sources; the wording of his account differs from Pantaleon (who added further detail to Crespin's account) but matches Crespin's text exactly (compare A&M [1570], 1010, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 43, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 46r–v). The other is the account of Jean Castellane at Lorraine in 1524, where Foxe, citing nobody, again followed Crespin very closely, failing to include details in Pantaleon's longer account (compare A&M [1570], 1010–12, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 40–2, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 44r–46r).
84 Compare A&M (1563), 421–2 and A&M (1570), 1005–6, with Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 43r–v, Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 38–9, and D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Drescher, Karl, Weimar 1923, xxxv. 411–15Google Scholar.
85 Compare A&M (1563), 422–8, and A&M (1570), 1006–10, with D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Drescher, Karl, Weimar 1908, xviii. 224–40Google Scholar. Compare the shorter account in Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 35–8.
86 Johann Sleidan, A famovse cronicle of oure time, called Sleidanes commentaries, trans. John Daus, London 1560 (RSTC 19848), fo. 71r.
87 A&M (1563), 435. Compare A&M (1570), 1016.
88 Compare A&M (1563), 442, and A&M (1570), 1018, with Sleidan, A famovse cronicle, fo. 83r–v. Compare Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 56v–57r, citing no source; Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 66–8, citing Rabus’ second volume.
89 A&M (1570), 1019–29.
90 The accounts of Martin Hoerbloc (A&M [1570], 1022); Adrian, a tailor of Tournai (A&M [1570], 1023); ministers exiled from Locarno (A&M [1570], 1028); and a preacher of Erfurt (A&M [1570], 1029).
91 Ursula and Mona burned at Delden (A&M [1570], 1022); Nicholas of Mons (A&M [1570], 1025–6); and Marion, wife of a barber, executed at Mons (A&M [1570], 1025–6).
92 A&M (1570), 1027–8.
93 The accounts of Johann Pistorius and George Scherrer (compare A&M [1570], 1019, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 44–5, 68); a priest living outside Basel, twenty-eight people executed in Louvain, Perceval van Bellinghem and Giles Tilleman (compare A&M [1570], 1020–1, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 81–2, 96–7, 101–2); Nicholas and Francis Thiessen, Pierre Bruly, an unnamed priest, a priest in Hungary and the expulsion of Hermann von Wied, archbishop of Cologne, from his see (compare A&M [1570], 1022–5, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 80, 84–96, 156–7, 174, 178); Augustine the barber, a woman in Augsburg and two girls at Bamberg (compare A&M [1570], 1025–7, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 188–9, 206, 217); and Hostius (‘otherwise called George’), Johannes Frisius the abbot of Neustadt, 200 ministers from Bohemia and Godefride de Hamelle (compare A&M [1570], 1027–8, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 219–27, 283, 299–302, 309).
94 The accounts of a friar Henry in Tournai (compare A&M [1570], 1020, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 66); Protestants in Ghent (compare A&M [1570], 1022, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 102–3); and those resisting the Augsburg Interim (compare A&M [1570], 1025, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 200).
95 A&M (1570), 1028; compare Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 215.
96 A&M (1570), 1029–60.
97 The martyrdoms of Alexander Canus (Laurent Canu) (compare A&M [1570], 1029, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 76–8, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 62r–64r) and Paris Panier (compare A&M [1570], 1042, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 296, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fo. 269v). Beyond the eighty-seven accounts, lists of French and Belgian martyrs end Foxe's section. These names are taken from Crespin's 1564 martyrology. Compare A&M (1570), 1060, with Crespin, Actes des martyrs, 907–69, 991–1086.
98 A&M (1570), 1034, 1043; Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 173–4, 30[6]–7; Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 139v, 277v–278v.
99 A&M (1570), 1043; Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 217.
100 The story is of a man – ‘the brother of Tamer’ – who recanted, then hanged himself in despair. Foxe stated that the account is ‘Ex Ioan. Manlio in Dictis Phil. Melanct.’; Pantaleon cited ‘Io. Manlius in dictis Phil. Melanchtonis’ (compare A&M [1570], 1043, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 217), i.e. Johannes Manlius, Locorvm communium collectanea, Basle 1562 (VD16, M603), popularly known as ‘De dictis Philippi Melanchthoni’.
101 Compare A&M (1570), 1033–4, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 174–5, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 139v–140v.
102 Compare A&M (1570), 1030, with Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 66v–67v, and Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 82–3.
103 Compare A&M (1570), 1049–50, with Crespin, Actes des martyrs, 872–8, and Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 333.
104 Compare A&M (1570), 1062, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 157–8.
105 Compare A&M (1570), 1066, with Les Memorables de Francisco de Enzinas, trans. Jean de Savignac, Brussels 1963, 293–4. The material on Enzinas is considerable and falls outside the focus of the present article. On Enzinas's historical writing see Kinder, A. Gordon, ‘Spanish Protestants and Foxe's book: sources’, Bibliothèque d'humanisme et Renaissance lx (1998), 107–16Google Scholar, and Pinilla, Ignacio J. García and Nelson, Jonathan L., ‘The textual tradition of the Historia de statu Belgico et religione Hispanica by Francisco de Enzinas (Dryander)’, Humanistica Lovaniensia l (2001), 267–86Google Scholar.
106 Compare A&M (1570), 1066–7, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 200–5, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 162r–166r.
107 Compare A&M (1570), 1070–3, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 329–32.
108 The accounts of Galeazzo Trezio (compare A&M [1570], 1068–9, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 246–9); Francesco Gamba (compare A&M [1570], 1070, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 296–9); and two Augustinians in Rome (compare A&M [1570], 1070, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 265).
109 The accounts of ‘Dominicus de Basana’ (Dominico Cabianca) (compare A&M [1570], 1067–8, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 205–6); ‘Johannes Mollius’ (Giovanni Mollio Buzio) (compare A&M [1570], 1069–70, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 263–5); ‘Johannes Aloysius’ (Aloysius Pascale) and Jacopo Bonello (compare A&M [1570], 1073, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 337); and persecution in Naples and Calabria (compare A&M [1570], 1073–4, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 337–8).
110 Rabus, Der Heyligen, iii, fos 186r–192r; A&M (1570), 1070; Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 265.
111 Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 249.
112 Ibid. 337.
113 Ibid.
114 Ibid. 329–32, 337–8.
115 Freeman, Thomas S. and Monta, Susannah Brietz, ‘The style of authorship in John Foxe's Acts and monuments’, in Hadfield, Andrew (ed.), The Oxford handbook of English prose, Oxford 2013, 522–43Google Scholar.
116 Foxe did precisely the opposite with documents on English martyrs that had not previously been printed. A third reason behind Foxe's citations of Pantaleon and others might have been his desire to direct his readers to more detailed, accessible accounts for the mainland brethren, thus reducing the need to include long documentary extracts. Another factor in 1570, of course, was paper supply.
117 A&M (1570), 1035; compare Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 185–6, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 157r–158r.
118 Compare A&M (1570), 1030, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 82–3, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 66v–67v.
119 Compare A&M (1570), 1049–50, with Crespin, Actes des martyrs, 872–8, and Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 333.
120 Compare A&M (1570), 1030–2, with Pantaleon, Martyrvm, 103–8, and Crespin, Actiones et monimenta, fos 82r–85v. Foxe dedicated three folio pages to the account because he found de la Voye's lengthy answers on purgatory and the papacy polemically useful.
