The editors of this collection of essays are correct: there is a strong need for a more complete analysis of persecution and martyrdom in England during the Reformation era. This text, in some ways, serves to fill this gap. Editor Thomas S. Freeman describes this collection as a “series of snapshots of some of the key moments in the process” (34) of the evolution of martyrs and martyrdom from a broad range of late-medieval models to a uniform, passive, stoic, Christ-like model of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created by martyrs and martyrologists from both Catholic and Protestant camps. A strength of this collection is its willingness to confront head-on the tension between martyrologies and anti-martyrologies (the responses written by opponents of the martyrs) and identify this tension as a key element in the construction of the new model of martyrdom. The essays are well-researched and draw heavily on English archival sources, particularly letters, sermons, martyrologies, and journals. The published works of John Foxe, Reginald Pole, John Bale, and Nicholas Harpsfield figure largely in most essays in this collection. Despite virulent rhetoric and controversy over individual martyrs and contrasting doctrinal beliefs, English Catholics and Protestants did seem to agree on what made a martyr. And once a believer died for the faith, martyrologists and anti-martyrologists alike adopted a fluid approach to martyrs' lives and deaths, using martyrdom as an opportunity to advance a variety of agendas explored in these essays.

The introduction by Freeman is of significant value in analyzing the gaps in contemporary historiography of English martyrs who died between 1400 and 1700, noting the preponderance of anecdotal, narrative, and strictly confessional analyses that have dominated in the past. He also provides a broad overview of the uses of martyrs' stories, noting their role as exemplars to inspire believers to greater faith and Christian life, as well as their role in creating religious identity. Another strand of analysis Freeman might have explored is the role of martyrdom in creating new forms of religious community among believers. Freeman briefly alludes to martyrdom providing “a sense of cohesion” for coreligionists (24, 33) but could draw on insights from recent works that explore this theme in more depth.

Both Freeman and Danna Piroyansky, in greater detail, outline the significant changes in martyrdom and martyrologies between medieval years and the early modern era. There were several paths to martyrdom in the medieval years. One could be an ascetic, a virgin, a contemplative, an innocent victim, or a warrior for God. In contrast, the sixteenth century witnessed the systematic advancement, largely in print, of a single idea of the martyr: a Christ-like figure evincing a calm stoicism in the face of imminent death. This proved true for both Catholic and Protestant martyrs and martyrologists. Many authors also discuss an increasing number of political martyrs, such as Charles I, conforming to the Christ-like model.

Standout essays in the collection include those by Alec Ryrie, Andrew Lacey, and John Coffey. Ryrie characterizes the death of martyr Robert Barnes as an “empty category” (155) used by evangelists to craft and popularize a variety of messages, particularly the vilification of Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. Lacey examines Charles I's role in fashioning the future of his own image as a political martyr. In what is possibly the best written and analyzed essay in the collection, Coffey weaves Sir Henry Vane's apocalypticism back into the story of his life, death, and martyrological tradition.

This collection adds to the recent admirable works on English martyrs by Brad Gregory and, more recently, Anne Dillon. Yet, as the editors suggest, there is still far to go. A step in the right direction would be to integrate the insights from the scholarship on Reformation-era Christian martyrdom on the Continent and broader theories of martyrdom in faiths other than Christianity into the analyses of these English martyrs. There are notably few footnotes or other references to any scholarship on martyrs and martyrdom beyond the scope of the British Isles in this collection. Additionally, there is often too great a sense of separation between religious and political martyrs or between religious and secular views and uses of martyrs. The era between 1400 and 1700 was one of profound change in concepts of individual identity, communal ties, and relationships between religious and political authorities in the British Isles. We know how such developments turned out. There is, thus, always the danger of writing teleologically about religious and political transitions or motivations. Lacey and Coffey navigate this difficult path carefully and convincingly. Other authors—such as Freeman who, although he describes a blurring of boundaries between religious and political martyrs in the opening essay on “The Politicisation of Martyrdom,” discusses the most important shift in early modern martyrdom as “the transference of the veneration and reverence given to those who suffer from religious causes to those who suffered for political causes” (57) and the “secularization of martyrdom” (64)—may wish to tread more lightly.

This is a book for those already familiar with major political events and religious controversies in English history between 1400 and 1700. It also assumes an acquaintance with Christian traditions of martyrdom before 1400. Many of the chapters are on narrowly defined topics that will interest specialists in particular aspects of English religious history, martyrology, and the polemical rhetoric inherent therein. Richard Rex, for example, attempts to unravel the anomalies surrounding the cult of the (supposedly) Lollard martyr Richard Wyche and makes the rather believable case that adherents to the cult were (gasp!) not Lollards but traditional late-medieval Christians.

Overall, authors of this “series of snapshots” do an admirable job of taking martyrs on their own terms and the terms of those who chose to popularize, revere, or denigrate them. It serves as an intermediate step on the road to understanding martyrs and martyrdom during the era of profound religious, social, and political upheaval between 1400 and 1700.