This  work  had  doubtless  been  a  severe
strain  upon  him,  and  lack  of  adequate  funds
must  have  increased  the  strain;  for  his  old
pupil,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  to  whom  it  was
dedicated,  had  for  some  time  withheld
pecuniary  support,  and  Foxe  wrote  to  him
after  his  arrival  in  England  that  he  was
dying  of  hunger.  The  duke,  on  this  appeal,
at  once  ordered  provision  to  be  made  for  him,
and  when  he  came  himself  to  London  re-
ceived him  into  his  house  at  Aldgate.  Here
he  turned  the  great  work  into  an  English
form,  and  saw  the  first  edition  of  the  Acts
and  Monuments  through  the  press  of  John
Day  in  1563.  Criticism  came  slowly.  The
very  magnitude  of  the  huge  folio  made  it
difficult  to  handle  with  care,  while  the  letter-
press, with  the  appalling  woodcuts  of
martyrs  enveloped  in  the  flames,  served
sufficiently  the  grand  purpose  of  filling
superficial  readers  with  a  deep  detestation  of
Rome.  Answers,  moreover,  could  only  be
printed  abroad,  and  the  first  was  the  Sex
Dialogi  of  Harpsfield,  which  appeared  under
the  name  of  Alan  Cope  at  Antwerp  in  1566.
But  in  England  Foxe's  work  won  the  esteem
naturally  due  to  a  great  undertaking  fully
carried  out,  and  in  1571  Convocation  ordered
that  every  bishop  should  have  a  copy  in  his
house.  It  was  also  chained  to  desks  in  many
parish  churches  for  general  perusal.  It  was
doubtless  all  the  more  popular  after  the
papal  excommunication  of  Queen  Elizabeth
in  1570.  That  year,  though,  being  in  feeble
health,  he  felt  scarcely  equal  to  the  task,
he  was  called  on  to  preach  a  Good  Friday
sermon  at  Paul's  Cross  on  the  24th  March,
which  was  not  only  printed  at  the  time
but  reprinted  several  times  in  later  years.
