The Testament of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste is a document whose authenticity has been debated for decades, but has remained unresolved. Here the Testament is analysed in detail and it is shown that its central issue is the martyrs’ request not to disseminate their relics. In addition, the earliest sources relating to the cult of the Forty Martyrs are presented and recent studies on the beginnings of the cult of relics are cited. On this basis it is shown that the Testament is spurious.

This article examines the fear of death in fourteenth-century Italy by analysing miracle testimonies through the methodological frameworks of terror management theory (TMT) and lived religion. It argues that devotion to saints served as a key coping mechanism for existential anxiety. Examples from the canonisation processes of Clare of Montefalco and Nicholas of Tolentino reveal how individuals turned to saints for protection, seeking to prolong life rather than accept death. This study provides both empirical and methodological insights into the medieval fear of death, illustrating its parallels with contemporary experiences of death anxiety.

Robert Testwood (c. 1490–1543), professional singer and evangelical mischief-maker, is the subject of many colourful anecdotes in Foxe’s Acts and monuments, including a scene in which Testwood mocks the veneration of the Virgin Mary by sabotaging a performance of a polyphonic motet in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. This act of sonic iconoclasm can be dated securely to mid-May 1538. It can be placed in a rich context of surveillance, propaganda, dissent and counter-dissent among the liturgical staff of St George’s as they navigated the changes of the early Reformation.

The Oxford English dictionary’s earliest citation for the coinages Baxterianism and Baxterian to refer to the distinctive ecclesiological and theological thought of the seventeenth-century Puritan divine Richard Baxter is dated 1835, with no examples of use after 1839. This is incorrect. These, and related terms, originated in the 1650s and were in regular use during the intervening 185 years (as well as thereafter to the present day). This essay traces the changing signification and usage of these terms from the religious controversies of the seventeenth-century through the development of denominational identities and of a moderate tradition within eighteenth-century dissent that contributed to the development of Unitarianism.

This article examines three highly successful English broadside-ballads about Protestant martyrs of the mid-sixteenth century and seeks to explain their evident popularity. It argues that ballads were very important in encouraging people to think about martyrs and identify as Protestants, and that the highlighted examples have been either overlooked or underestimated by scholars. The songs also shed new light on commonplace religious tastes and preoccupations, revealing an apparent preference for female martyrs and an apparent distaste for gruesome detail. In both respects, the ballads are contrasted with John Foxe’s much more famous ‘Book of martyrs’.

This article assesses the relationship between the first four bishops of the English Mission in Korea, Japanese colonial rule and the Korean independence movement from 1905 to 1945. It is proposed that the bishops attempted to walk a precarious tightrope between the demands of the colonial government, bent on assimilating Korea, including the Churches, and the ardent aspirations of Koreans, including Christians, who sought to resist colonial rule. The authors conclude that this was a complicated policy which they did not always pull off but one which can be judged as successful overall.

This article delves into the often-overlooked scholar Robert Greene, a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, who authored works in both religion and natural philosophy. Greene made significant contributions to the debate on the interplay between reason and faith, with his primary target being John Locke, whose epistemology and views on the relationship between reason and faith he considered detrimental to religion. This article examines Greene’s criticism of Locke’s views on the relationship between reason and faith within its institutional context, shedding new light on Locke’s early reception at the University of Cambridge.

This article argues that allegorical exegesis is important for understanding the writings of William of Malmesbury, both in his exegesis and beyond. In the mid-1130s, William penned a commentary on Lamentations in part to explain the causes and aftermath of the Norman Conquest. His allegorical exegesis decried exploitation and mismanagement of ecclesiastical lands by episcopal appointees from the continent, including his own bishop, Roger of Salisbury. In William’s sometimes veiled yet unmistakable critiques, Roger appears as an invading tyrant whose tenure as abbot of Malmesbury amounts to a period of Babylonian captivity for the monks of that house.