knew them to be true. They asked her if she denied the Sacrament to be CHRIST'S Body and Blood? Yea, she replied, for the same Son of GOD, Who was born of the Virgin Mary, was now glorious in Heaven, and would come again from thence at the latter day. And as for what they called their God, it was but a piece of bread. For greater proof thereof, they might note that if it lay in the pyx three months it would grow mouldy, and so turn to nothing that was good. Wherefore she was persuaded that it could not be GOD. In her reaction against the Romish dogma of Transubstantiation she had fallen, you perceive, into the lowest depth of Zwinglianism, and it is clear that her belief respecting the Sacrament would not harmonise with the doctrine which the Church of England lays down in her present formularies. She maintained the truth, however, as she saw it, with a heroism that we cannot but admire, and that should encourage us, in our happier time, to a livelier faith and a more steadfast witness to it. Her judges advised her to take counsel with a priest. She only smiled. They asked her, if it would not be for her good? She said she would confess her faults unto GOD, for she was sure that He would hear her with favour. Then, sentence of death was passed upon her, and she was taken back to prison. In her narrative she adds:-" My belief which I wrote to the Council was this: That the Sacramental bread was left us to be received with thanksgiving in remembrance of CHRIST'S death, the only memory of our soul's recovery; and that thereby we also receive the whole benefits and fruits of His most glorious Passion. Then would they needs know whether the bread in the box were GOD or no. I said, GOD is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and truth (S. John iv.). Then they demanded, Will you plainly deny CHRIST to be in the Sacrament? I answered, That I believe faithfully the eternal SON of GOD not to dwell there; in witness whereof I recited again the history of Bel, and the 14th chapter of Daniel,1 the 7th and 17th of the Acts, and the 24th of S. Matthew, concluding thus: I neither This is the Apocryphal portion; the History of Susannah and that of Bel and the Dragon. wish Death, nor yet fear his might; GOD have the praise thereof with thanks." After this examination Anne Askew addressed a letter to the King, then lying ill of the malady that soon afterwards terminated in his death, not imploring mercy, but only declaring that she was innocent of crime. She enclosed it under cover to the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, and we may conjecture that it never reached the royal hands. ran as follows :— It "The LORD GOD, by Whom all creatures have their being, bless you with the light of His knowledge. "My duty to your Lordship remembered, &c. Amen. "It might please you to accept this my bold suit, as the suit of one which upon due consideration is moved to the same, and hopeth to obtain. My request to your Lordship is only, that it may please the same to be a mean for me to the King's Majesty, that his Grace may be certified of these few lines which I have written concerning my belief; which when it shall be truly compared with the hard judgment given me for the same, I think his Grace shall perceive me to be weighed in an uneven pair of balances. remit my matter and cause to Almighty GOD, which rightly judgeth all secrets. And thus I commend your Lordship unto the governance of Him, and fellowship of all saints. Amen. By your handmaid, But I "ANNE ASKEW." The enclosure for the King's Grace ("my Faith," she calls it) was as follows:-1 "I, Anne Askew, of good memory, although GOD has given me the bread of adversity and the water of trouble, yet not so much as my sins have deserved, desire this to be known to your Grace. That, forasmuch as I am by the law condemned for an evil doer, here I take heaven and earth to record that I shall die in my innocence. And, according to that I have said first, and will say last, I utterly abhor and detest all heresies. And, as concerning the Supper of the LORD, I believe so much as CHRIST hath said therein, which He confirmed with His most blessed Blood. I believe also so much as He willed me to follow 1 Select Works of John Bale, Bp. of Ossory (Parker Society), p. 217. and believe, and as much as the Catholic Church of Him doth teach; for I will not forsake the commandment of His holy lips. But look what GOD hath charged me with His mouth, that have I shut up in my heart. briefly I end, for lack of learning. And thus "ANNE ASKEW." In this, remarks quaint Bishop Bale, she dischargeth herself to the world, against all wrongful accusations and judgments of heresy. Heresy, he continues, is not to dissent from the Church of Rome in the doctrine of faith: but a voluntary dissenting from the Scriptures of GOD; and Anne Askew, and the Reformers generally, spurned the accusation of being heretics, pleading that they sought only to deliver the faith from the corruptions that encrusted it, and to restore it to its original purity as professed and maintained by the Church Catholic in the days of its primitive innocence. During her confinement in Newgate Anne Askew gave expression to her feelings of constancy and courage in an exultant strain of song: "Like as the armèd knight, And CHRIST shall be my shield. "Faith is that weapon strong, "As it is had in strength And force of CHRISTE'S way, "Faith in the fathers old Obtained righteousness; "I now rejoice in heart, And hope bid me do so; 1 Ibid. pp. 239, 240. "Thou say'st, LORD, whoso knock, And Thy strong power send. "More enemies now I have Than hairs upon my head: "I am not she that list "Not oft use I to write In prose, nor yet in rhyme; "I saw a royal throne, Where justice should have sit, "Absorbed was righteousness, Sucked up the guiltless blood. "Then thought I, JESUS LORD, On these men what will fall. 'Yet, LORD, I Thee desire, After a few days' detention in Newgate, Anne Askew was removed to the sign of the Crown, where Rich and the Bishop of London endeavoured to persuade her into a recantation. They were as unsuccessful as Nicholas Shaxton, though the latter pointed to his own example as one she might follow, and thereby save her life. She dismissed him with the pregnant words :-"It would have been good for you never to have been born." Rich then sent her to the Tower, where he and one of the King's Council strove earnestly to draw from her admissions which might implicate Lady Suffolk, Lady Sussex, Lady Hertford, Lady Denny, and Lady Fitzwilliam. "No," she replied; "if she should pronounce anything against them, yet would she not be able to prove it." They pretended the King had been informed that if she would, she could name a number of "her sect." The King, she replied, was as well deceived in that behalf as he was dissembled with by them in other matters. How then was she maintained in the prison, and who willed her to adhere to her religious errors? She derived support and consolation, she answered, from no human source. All the help she had received was through the means of her maid; who, as she went abroad, described her mistress's sad condition to the London prentices, and they assisted her with money, though who they were she never knew. Her persecutors insisted that she had received money from several ladies. Yes: it was true that a man had placed ten shillings in her hand, with the information that they were sent by Lady Hertford; while another had given her eight shillings as a contribution from Lady Denny. Whether this was true or no, she was unable to say, as she spoke only from what her maid had said. "There are some of the Council," they furiously exclaimed, "who maintain you." She answered firmly, No. But her questioners were dissatisfied. They suspected Lord Hertford and Archbishop Cranmer, and if they could justify their suspicion, it would greatly facilitate their intrigues to gain the ear of the King. The unfortunate lady, therefore, was taken from Newgate to the Tower, where the Chancellor and Rich, the Solicitor-General, were waiting to put her to the torture. They kept her on the rack "for a long time;" and because she suffered and did not cry, the Lord Chancellor and Rich actually racked her with their own hands until she was "nigh dead." Sir Anthony Knyvet, the Lieutenant of the Tower, then ordered her to be removed from the rack, when she immediately swooned. her recovery, she was kept sitting for two hours on the bare stone floor-this poor, weak, exhausted woman reason 66 |
