The 'Turk' as Antichrist in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments (I570)

Abstract

As one of England's foremost Church reformers, John Foxe was instrumental in establishing the doctrine of the Pope as Antichrist. It is, as critics have noted, the more surprising to find him associating the 'Turk' with that role in the second edition of his Acts and Monuments (1570). The Turkes Storye, a long digression first published in this edition, outlines a brief history of the 'Turk' from the beginning of the Ottoman dynasty in the year 1300 until Foxe's own day. In the light of the connection Foxe makes between Antichrist and 'Turk', this essay assesses the possible motivation for such a move. By focusing on motives for the inclusion of the digression, I relate Foxe's overarching concern for further reformation of the English Church to the significance he assigns to the 'Turk'. The motivation behind the addition of the narrative provide insights into Foxe's development of his apocalyptic historiography. More importantly, it demonstrates the usefulness of the 'Turk' as a textual strategy to incorporate an external, seemingly far-off threat to assess and criticize domestic issues with which the author was concerned. Finally, this enquiry seeks to help us to further our understanding of the role the 'Turk' played in English ecclesiological thought.