This originated in a personal application by me to the British Academy in 1992. The Academy decided to adopt it as one of its own projects, and appointed me Director. The original intention was to produce a printed edition, but this was rapidly overtaken by technology, and it became, firstly CD-ROM (1994) and then on-line (1996). The project was at first based in Bangor, but when I retired in 1995 it moved to the HRI at Sheffield, where it remained. The original chairman of the Academy project committee was Professor Patrick Collinson, and when he stood down in 2001, Professor Mark Greengrass took over. It had originally been intended to produce the whole edition in one go, but this turned out to be over-ambitious, and it was accepted that only a part of the work would be completed by the time that the grant ran out in 2004. The committee decided to concentrate on completing Books 11 and 12 (the Marian persecution) by 2004, and then to reapply for the money to complete the rest. This was successfully done, and the necessary report submitted. There was then a hiatus while the report was assessed. The rules having changed, I was no longer eligible to be a fund holder, so Professor Greengrass became Director, and made the application for the final phase funding. He also succeeded in keeping the project team together, particularly the Research Officer, Dr. Tom Freeman, whose contribution had been particularly valuable. His application was successful. I became Literary Director, and the work was duly completed in September 2008.

 

There have been a number of spin-offs from this project, notably the John Foxe Bulletin, and the Selected Narratives edited by Professor John King of Ohio (an original member of the project committee) (OUP 2009). It is also proposed to reissue John Fines’s original biographical register of early English protestants, using the material assembled for the edition – a proposal for which I have responsibility.

 

In the duration of the project five international conferences were also held, two at Magdalene College, Cambridge (1995, 2003), one at Jesus College, Oxford (1997), one at Boston, Lincolnshire (2001) and one in the State University of Ohio (1999). The proceedings of four of these conferences were published as

 

John Foxe and the English Reformation,

edited by D. Loades (Ashgate, 1997)

 

John Foxe, an Historical Persepective,

edited by D. Loades (Ashgate, 1999)

 

John Foxe and His World,

edited by Christopher Highley and John King  (Ashgate, 2002)

 

John Foxe at Home and Abroad,

edited by D. Loades (Ashgate, 2004)

 

The complete Acts and Monuments is available on-line at http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/