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726 [670]

Actes and Monumentes of the Church.

For S. Paul (he said) forbode women to speak or to talke of the worde of God, I answered hī that I knew Paules meaninge as well as he, whiche is. i. Corinthians. xiiii. that a woman ought not to speake in þe cōgregation by þe way of teaching. And then I asked him, how many women he had sene, go into þe pulpit & preach? He saide he neuer saw none. Then I sayde, he ought to finde no faute in poore womē, except they had offended the lawe  

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Askew actually misrepresents Paul in this passage. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul enjoins women to complete silence in the congregation; his prohibition on female speech is not limited to preaching.

. Then my Lorde maior cōmaūded me to warde. I asked him if suerties wold not serue me, & he made me short āswer, þt he wold take nōe. Thē was I had to þe coūter, & ther remained xi. daies no frēd admitted to speake wt me. But in þe meane time ther was a priest sēt to me which saide that he was commaūded of þe bishop to examine me, & to geue me good coūcell, which he did not, but first he asked me for what cause I was put in þe coūter? And I told him I could not tel. Thē he said, it was greate pity that I shuld be there wtout cause, & cōcluded þt he was very sory for me. Secōdly he sayd, it was told him, that I should deny the sacrament of þe alter. And I āswered him agayne þt, þt I had said, I had said Thirdly he asked me, if I were shriuē, I tolde him so that I might haue one of these. iii. that is to say, doctor Crome, sir Gillam, or Hūtington, I was contented, bycause I knew them to be men of wisdome. As for you or any other I will not dispraise, bycause I knowe ye not  
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Foxe omits, here, most of Askew's answer to the priest's question of whether she had been shriven. As Thomas Freeman and Sarah Wall have noted, the passage in Foxe's base-text, Bale's 1550 (Copland) edition, reads: 'I tolde him no. Then he said, he wold bring one to me, for to shryve me. And I told him so that I myght have one of these.iii.that is to saye, Doctor Crome sir, Gillam, or Huntington, I was contented'. Freeman and Wall have argued convincingly that the omission of much of Askew's answer was due to a case of 'eye skip' - an error on the part of the compositor copying from his base text (see Thomas F. Freeman and Sarah E. Wall, 'Racking the Body, Shaping the Text: The Account of Anne Askew in Foxe's Book of Martyrs', Renaissance Quarterly 54 [2001], 1173-74).

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When agreeing to being shriven, Askew names some prominent evangelicals as "men of wisedome," and it is likely that she knew them personally. It is clear that she knew Crome and that she was considered a great supporter of his (Susan Wabuda, 'Equivocation and Recantation During the English Reformation: The "Subtle Shadows" of Dr Edward Crome', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44 [April 1993], 236). John Guy suggests that Crome was Askew's teacher (John Guy, Tudor England [Oxford, 1988], 196). John Huntington was an evangelical preacher in London. Sir Gillam is an unidentified London evangelical cleric.

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, Then hee saide I would not haue you thinke but that I or another that shalbe brought you shalbe as honest as they. For if we were not, ye may be sure, the kinge would not suffer vs to preach. then I answered by the sayng of Salomon. By communing with the wise. I may lerne wisdom. But by talking with a fole, I shal take skathe, Prouer. i. Fourthly he asked me, if the host should fall, and abeast did eate it whether the beaste did receiue God or no? I aūswered, Seinge ye haue taken the paines to aske this question I desire you also to assoile it your selfe. For I wil not do it, bycause I perceiue ye come to tempt me. And he said, it was against the order of scoles that he which asked the question should aunswere it. I told him, I was but a woman and knew not the course of scoles. Fifthly he asked me if I intended to receiue the sacrament at Easter or no? I aunswered that els I were no Christen woman & there I did reioise, þt the time was so nere at hād. And thā he departed thence wt many faire wordes. And þe. xxiii. day of March my cosine Britaigne came into the Coūter to me, and asked ther whether I might be put to baile or no. Thē went he immediatly vnto my Lord mayor, desiring of him to be so good vnto me that I might be bailed. My Lorde aunswered him, and said, þt he would be glad to do the best that in him lay. Howe be it he could not baileme with out the consent of a spirituall officer So requiringe him to go and speake with the chauncellour of London. For he saide, like as he could not commit me to pryson without the consent of a spirituall officer, no more could he baile me with out consent of the same. So vpon that, he wēt to the chauncelour, requiring of him as he did a fore of my lorde maiore. He aunswered him, that the matter was so haynouse, that he durst not of him selfe do it. with out my Lord of Londō were made priuy there vnto. But hee said he would speake vnto my Lord in it. And bad him repair vnto him the next morowe and he shoulde well knowe my lordes pleasure and vpon the morow after, he came thither, and spake both whith the chauncellor, and with my Lord Bishopp of London my Lorde declared vnto him, that he was very well cōtented that I should come forth to a communication. And appointed me to apere before him the next day after, at. iii. of the clock at after none More ouer he said vnto him, that he would ther should be at the examination, such lerned men, as I was affectioned to, that they mighte see and allso make reporte that I was handeled with no rigour. He aunswered him, that he knew no man that I had mor affection, to than other. Than said the bishop Yes as I vnderstand, shee is affectioned to Doctour Crome, Sir Gilliam Whiteheade, & Huntington, that they might heare the matter. For she did knowe them to be lerned, and of a godly iudgement  
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David Whitehead was a well known evangelical, and was involved, with Archbishop Cranmer and other 'luminaries of the evangelical establishment', as Diarmaid MacCulloch describes them, in attempting the conversion of Joan Boucher during Edward VI's reign (See Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer [Yale, 1996], p. 474).

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. Also he required my cosine Britain, that he should ernestly perswad me to vtter, euen the verye bottome of my harte. And he sware by his fidelitye that no man should take any aduantage of my words Neither yet would he lay ought to my charge for any thinge that I should there speake. But if I said any manner of thinge amis. He with other more wold be glad to reform me therin, with moste Godly counsell. On the morowe after my lord of London sent for me, at one of the clock, his hour beinge apointed at thre. and as I came before him, he saide he was very sory of my trouble and desired to know my opinion in such matters as were laid against me He required me also in any wise boldly to vtter the secrets of my hart, biddinge me not to fear in any point. For what so euer I did say in his house no man should hurt me for it. I āswered. For so much as your Lordship appointed. iii. of the clocke and my frendes shall not come in the hour, I desire you to pardon me of geuinge aunswere til they come. Then said he, that he thought it mete to sēd for those iiii. mē which were afore named and apointed Then I desired him not to put them to þe pain for it should not nede, bycause that. ii. gentell men which were my frends were able inough to testifye that I shuld saie. Anon after he wēt

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