Foxe personally witnessed the burning of William Cowbridge in September 1538.
Foxe resigned from his college in 1545 after becoming an evangelical and thereby subscribing to beliefs condemned by the Church of England under Henry VIII.
He also worked unsuccessfully to prevent the two burnings for religion that occurred during the reign of Edward VI.
Foxe moved to London and probably lived in Stepney. There he completed three translations of Protestant sermons published by the "stout Protestant" Hugh Singleton.
Foxe often treated this material casually, and any reader "must be prepared to meet plenty of small errors and inconsistencies
his was an age not only of strong language but of cruel deeds.
Foxe was, after all, describing the burning of human beings for the crime of holding unfashionable religious opinions.
Foxe was so bookish that he ruined his health by his persistent study
John Day's son Richard, who knew Foxe well, described him in 1607 as an "excellent man...exceeding laborious in his pen...his learning inferior to none of his age and time