The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women by Elizabeth Norton

Author:Elizabeth Norton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books

It was not long before Anne Askew, now in London, came to the attention of the authorities.65 In March 1545, she was taken to be examined at Saddler’s Hall, to be charged with violating Henry VIII’s Act of the Six Articles (1539), which had been passed in order to make deviation from the official tenets of the English Church a civil offence.66 The primary accusation against Anne – that she denied the miracle of the sacrament – was also one of heresy; but it was before the civil rather than religious authorities that she was first examined, being brought before a royal commissioner who was tasked with examining her beliefs.67

Although still only twenty-four years of age, Anne was fearless.68 When asked whether, as she said, ‘I did not believe that the sacrament hanging over the altar was the very body of Christ really’, she turned the interrogation around, enquiring: ‘Wherefore St Stephen was stoned to death?’ When her interrogator admitted ‘he could not tell’, she said that ‘no more would I assoil his vain question’. She was cocky, self-assured, bold -and this was not how a woman was supposed to behave. She readily quoted the scriptures, and evaded anything too incriminating.69 When asked whether she had the spirit of God within her, she answered: ‘If I had not, I was but a reprobate or cast away.’ When questioned again on the sacrament, she begged only that her interviewers would ‘hold me excused concerning that matter’.70

Anne was then taken to Sir Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor of London.71 Tell me, he asked, trying a different tack, ‘whether a mouse eating the host, received God or no?’ Anne said nothing, ‘but smiled’.72 The Bishop of London’s chancellor, who was also present, was annoyed. She was, he said, ‘much to blame for uttering die scriptures’. Her sex counted against her, ‘for St Paul,’ he said, ‘forbade women to speak or to talk of the word of God’. She dismissed this comment: ‘I knew Paul’s meaning so well as he’ – the Bible only barred women from instructing a congregation. She then used her sex to her advantage, commenting that ‘he ought to find no fault in poor women, except they have offended the law’. The men who examined her found her infuriating, with the result that the lord mayor abruptly ordered her imprisonment – and refused to accept her sureties for her release.73

Anne spent the next twelve days in prison, permitted to speak only to the priest who visited her daily.74 He had been sent by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, a notable conservative. The priest, although mild in his questioning, could get nothing from her. Finally, on 23 March 1545, she was permitted to receive a visit from a cousin, who was attempting to bail her.75 Thanks to his efforts, it was agreed that she would be examined again on 25 March, before the bishop himself. Everyone hoped that she would abjure and thus secure her release.

Bonner came armed with a declaration of orthodox faith for her to sign.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.