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1457 [1457]

K. Henry. 8. Anne Askew, Ioh. Lacelles, Ioh. Adams, Nich. Belenian, Martyrs.

as are godly, will walke in them: and as for the wicked, they will stumble at them. MarginaliaOse. 14.Osee. xiiij.

Salomon (sayth S. Steuen) builded an house for the God of Iacob. Howbeit, the highest of all, dwelleth not in Temples made with handes, as sayth the Prophet: Heauē is my seat, and the earth is my footestole. MarginaliaEsai. 66.What house will ye build for me, sayth the Lorde? or what place is it that I shall rest in? Hath not my hand made all thynges? MarginaliaAct. 7.Act. vij.

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Woman beleue me (saith Christ to the Samaritane) the tyme is at hand, that ye shall neither in this mountayne, nor yet at Ierusalem worshyp the father. Ye worship ye wot not what, but we know what we worshyp. For saluation cōmeth of the Iewes. But the houre commeth, and is nowe, when the true worshippers shall worshyp the father in spirite and veritie. MarginaliaIoh. 3.Iohn. iij.

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Labour not (sayth Christ) for the meate that perisheth, but for that that endureth into the lyfe euerlastyng, whiche the sonne of mā shall geue you: For hym God the father hath sealed. MarginaliaIoh. 6.Iohn. vj.

¶ The summe of the condemnation of me Anne Askew at the Guild Hall.

MarginaliaAn other examination of An. Askew at the Guild Hall.THey sayd to me there that I was an hereticke, and condemned by the law, if I would stand in myne opinion. I aunswered that I was no hereticke, neither yet deserued I any death by the law of God. But as concernyng the fayth whiche I vttered and wrote to the Counsell, I would not (I sayd) deny it, because I knew it true. Thē would they nedes know, if I would deny the Sacrament to be Christes body and bloud. I sayd yea. For the same sonne of God, that was borne of the virgine Mary, is now glorious in heauen, and will come agayne from thence at the latter day, lyke as he went vp. Act. j. MarginaliaThe substance of the Sacrament denyed to be God.And as for that ye call your God, it is a peece of bread. For a more proufe thereof (marke it when ye liste) let it lye in the boxe but iij. monethes, & it will be mouldy, and so turne to nothyng that is good. Wherupon I am persuaded, that it can not be God.

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After that, they willed me to haue a Priest: and then I smiled. Then they asked me, if it were not good? I said, I would cōfesse my faultes vnto God. For I was sure that he would heare me with fauour. MarginaliaAn. Askew with her fellowes cōdemned by a Quest.And so we were condemned with a Quest  

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This is an error; as Bale's editions make clear, Askew was condemned without a quest. This is an unfortunate copying error of the part of Foxe's compositor, for in pointing out the illegality of her condemnation according to 35 Henry VIII. c 5, Askew was making an important point. Askew's attention to the relevance of her own case to ongoing jurisdictional disputes between common law and ecclesiastical courts was, as Paula McQuade argues, a 'brilliant strategic move' (see Paula McQuade, '"Except that they had offended the Lawe": Gender and Jurisprudence in the Examinations of Anne Askew', Literature & History 3 [1994], 8).

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MarginaliaThe beliefe of An. Askew concerning the Sacramentes, written to the Counsell.My beliefe whiche I wrote to the Coūsell was this: that the Sacramentall bread was left vs to be receiued with thankes geuyng, in remembraunce of Christes death, the only remedy of our soules recouery: and that therby we also receyue the whole benefites and frutes of his most glorious Passion. Then would they nedes know whether the bread in the boxe were God or no? I sayd, God is a spirite, and will be worshipped in spirit and truth. MarginaliaIohn. 4.Iohn. iiij. Thē they demaunded: Wil you plainly deny Christ to be in the Sacrament? I aunswered that I beleue faythfully the eternall sonne of God not to dwell there  

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Askew's denial of the Real Presence (and thus her heresy according to the Act of the Six Articles) is clear here, but expressed in the context of her denial of the sacrificial nature of the Catholic Mass. For Lutheran-leaning evangelicals and (reformed) sacramentaries alike (who denied the Real Presence altogether), this question of the Mass as a sacrifice was a non-starter: the only propitiatory sacrifice was the one performed by Christ himself at Calvary. Faith alone in that belief provided salvation. In expressing her opinion of the Mass, Askew echoes Crome (as he preached in his infamous 'false' recantation in May 1546): 'a sacrifice it is of thanks gevinng to the only shepherde for his ones afferd offering which hath made a full satisfaccion of all the synnes of them which beleve and cleave to hym by faythe…and it is to us a comemoracion of Chrysts deathe and passion' (British Library MS Harleian 425, 65r-66r; for Crome's 'false' recantations, see Susan Wabuda, 'Equivocation and Recantation during the English Reformation: The "Subtle Shadows" of Dr Edward Crome', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44 [1993], 224-42).

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. In witnesse whereof I recited agayne the historie of Bell, MarginaliaDaniell. 19.
Actes. 7. 17.
Math. 24.
and the xix. chap. of Daniell, the vij. and xvij. of the Actes, and the xxiiij. of Mathew, concludyng thus: I neither wishe death, nor yet feare hys might, God haue the prayse therof with thankes.

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¶ My letter sent to the Lord Chauncelour.

MarginaliaThe letter of An. Askew to the Lord Chauncellour.THe Lord God, by whom all creatures haue theyr beyng, blesse you with the lyght of hys knowledge. Amen.

My duetie to your Lordship remembred. &c. It might please you to accept this my bold sute, as the sute of one, whiche vppon due considerations is moued to the same and hopeth to obtayne. My request to your Lordshyp is onely: that it may please the same to bee a meane for me to the kynges maiestie, that his grace may bee certified of these few lynes which I haue written concernyng my beliefe. Whiche when it shalbe truly conferred with the hard iudgement geuen me for the same, I thinke his grace shall well perceyue me to bee wayed in an vneuen payre of balaunce. But I remit my matter and cause to almighty God, whiche rightly iudgeth all secretes. And thus I commende your Lorshyp to the gouernaunce of hym and felowshyp of all Saintes. Amen.

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By your handmayd Anne Askew.

¶ My faith briefly written to the kinges grace.

MarginaliaThe beliefe of Anne Askew touchyng the Sacrament, written to the kyng.I Anne Askew, of good memory, although God hath geuen me the bread of aduersitie & the water of trouble, yet not so much as my sinnes haue deserued, desire this to bee knowen to your grace, that forasmuch as I am by the law cōdemned for an euill doer: Here I take heauen and earth to recorde, that I shall dye in my innocency. And accordyng to that I haue sayd first, and will say last, I vtterly abhorre and detest all heresies. And as concernyng the supper of the Lord, I beleue so much as Christ hath sayd therin, whiche hee confirmed with his most blessed bloud. I beleue also so much as he willed me to folow and beleue, and so much as the Catholicke Churche of hym doth teach. For I will not forsake the commaundement of his holy lippes. But looke what God hath charged me with his mouth, that haue I shut vp in my hart: and thus briefly I ende, for lacke of learnyng.

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Anne Askew.

¶ The effect of my examination and handlyng, sence my departure from Newgate.

MarginaliaThe cruell handling & rackyng of Anne Askewe after her condemnation.ON Tuesday I was sent frō Newgate to the signe of the crowne, whereas M. Rich and the Byshop of London withall their power and flattering wordes, went about to persuade me from God. But I did not esteme their glosing pretences.

Then came there to me Nicolas Shaxton, and coūselled me to recante as he had done. I sayd to hym, that it had bene good for him, neuer to haue ben borne, with many other lyke woordes. Then M. Riche sent me to the Tower, where I remained till iij. a clocke  

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Askew is visited by (solicitor-general) Sir Richard Rich of the king's Privy Council and Bonner, the Bishop of London, both of whom try to persuade her to save herself through recantation, as does Nicholas Shaxton, former Bishop of Salisbury, who will preach a sermon of recantation at Askew's execution. Having failed in this effort, Rich sends Askew to the Tower of London, and the story of her infamous and illegal torture begins.

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Then came Rich and one of the Counsell, MarginaliaThys Counseller was Syr Iohn Baker.charging me vpon my obedience, to shewe vnto them, if I knew any man or woman of my sect. My aunswere was, that I knew none. MarginaliaAnne Askew vrged to accuse others.Thē they asked me of my Lady of Suffolke, my Lady of Sussex, my Lady of Hertford, my Lady Denny and my Lady Fizwilliams. I sayd, if I should pronounce any thing agaynst them, that I were not able to proue it. Then sayd they vnto me, that the kyng was informed, that I could name if I would, a great number of my sect. I aunswered, that the kyng was as well deceiued in that behalfe, as dissēbled with in other matters.

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Then commaunded they me to shewe how I was maintayned in the Counter, and who willed me to sticke to by my opinion. I said that there was no creature that therin did strengthen me. And as for þe helpe that I had in the Counter, it was by the meanes of my mayd. For as she went abroad in the streetes, she made mone to the prentises, and they by her did send me money: but who they were I neuer knew.

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MarginaliaAnne Askew refuseth to accuse any.Then they sayd, that there were diuers gentlewomē, that gaue me money: but I knew not their names. Then they sayd that there were diuers Ladyes, which had sent me money. I aunswered, that there was a mā in a blew coate, whiche deliuered me x. shillynges, and sayd that my Lady of Hertford sent it me. And an other in a violet coate did geue me viij. shillynges, and sayd that my Lady Denny sent it me. Whether it were true or no, I can not tell. For I am not sure who sent it me, but as the mayd did say. Then they said, there were of the Coūsell that did maintaine me. And I said, no.

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MarginaliaAnne Askewe put on the racke.Then they did put me on the racke, because I confessed no Ladyes or Gentlewomen to be of my opinion, and thereon they kept me a long tyme. And because I lay stil and did not cry, MarginaliaWrysley and Baker rackyng Anne Askew.my L. Chauncellour & Syr Ioh. Baker, tooke paines to racke me with their own hādes, till I was nigh dead.

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Then the Lieftenaunt caused me to be loosed from the racke. Incontinētly I swounded, and then they recouered me agayne. After that I satte ij. long houres reasonyng with my Lord Chauncellor vppon the bare flore, whereas he with many flattering wordes, perswaded me to leaue my opinion. MarginaliaAnne Askew constant in her faith.But my Lord God (I thanke his euerlasting goodnes) gaue me grace to

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