#foxe's book appears in the 1560s so a decade post crespin | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

readingloveswounds · 10 months ago

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banging my head on the desk the martyrology doesn't do what you want it to do because you're approaching it 400 years later, often through comparison with catholic hagiography, not acknowledging it 1. was an unstable text from the start and 2. genre-defining

#foxe's book appears in the 1560s so a decade post crespin #crespin LICHRALLY says in the preface to the second 1554 edition that it was A COLLECTION that he STARTED but EXPECTED OTHERS TO FINISH #this was NOT set in stone #it has clear influences yes. but it evolves WITH the evolution of the protestant experience in france #but you cannot see the loss of the martyr as a failure of the martyrology / a victory of historiography #that just doesn't work. it's too set in stone. the martyrology responds to the needs of the community (or even beyond)#and that means including those who cannot be given the title of martyr BECAUSE THE OTHER OPTION IS OBLIVION #and when your community is being massacred and you don't want them becoming nicodemites or reverting #you find a way to memorialize the dead AND tie their suffering to the persecution of the 'true church'#i just feel like there's a massive value judgement in so many pieces abt the entrance of historiography into the martyrology #id argue it's 1. a combination and 2. history enters in the martyrological context and not in a vaccum #goulart literally says he'll leave the big history stuff to others (which largely means check out the Mesmoires de l'estat de france)#since he copied and cut his own book down to write some of the martyrology lmao

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