THE LAST MARTYRS OF HENRY'S REIGN.
(1545.)
Henry VIII., sick and fretful, was easily drawn first to one side, then
to the other. He was a victim of indecision, of violent excitement and
of irresolution. His brother-in-law, the duke of Suffolk, who of all
the members of the Privy Council was the most determined supporter
of the Reformation, had died in August, 1545, and that body was
thenceforward impelled in an opposite direction, and carried the king
along with it.
[Sidenote: RECANTATION OF SHAXTON.]
Shaxton, having resigned his see of Salisbury after the publication
of the Six Articles, had been put in prison, and had long rejected
all proposals of recantation addressed to him. Having aggravated his
offence while in prison by asserting that the natural body of Christ
was not in the sacrament, he was condemned to be burnt. The bishops of
London and Worcester, sent by the king, visited him in the prison and
strove to convince him. This feeble and egotistic man readily professed
himself persuaded, and thanked the king 'for that he had delivered him
at the same time from the temporal and from the everlasting fire.' On
July 13, 1546, he was set at liberty. As he grew old his understanding
became still weaker; and in Mary's reign the unhappy man was one of the
most eager to burn those whom he had called his brethren.[433]
While there were men like Shaxton, whose fall was decisive and final,
others were to be met with who, although in their own hearts decided
for the truth, were alarmed when they found themselves in danger of
death, and subscribed the Catholic declarations which were offered to
them. But after having thus plunged into the abyss, they lifted up
their heads as soon as possible and again confessed the truth. One
of this class was Edward Crome, who, at this period, gave way on two
occasions, but recovered himself.[434]
Many other blemishes were visible in the general state of the Anglican
church; and the obstinacy of the king, in particular, in maintaining
in his kingdom, side by side, two things in opposition to each other,
the Catholic doctrines and the reading of the Bible, subjected the
sacred volume to strange honors. The king in person prorogued the
parliament on December 24, and on this occasion made his last speech
to the highest body in the state. He spoke as vicar of God, and gave
a lecture to the ministers and the members of the church. It was his
taste; he believed that he was born for this position, and there was in
his nature as much of the preceptor as of the king. Moreover, there was
nothing which offended him so much as the attempt to address a lecture
to himself. Any one who did so risked his own life. But while he was
easily hurt, he did not shrink from hurting the feelings of others. He
handled the rod more easily than the sceptre.
[Sidenote: SPEECH OF HENRY VIII.]
The Speaker of the House of Commons having delivered an address
to the king in which he extolled his virtues, Henry replied as
follows:--'Whereas you ... have both praised and extolled me for the
notable qualities you have conceived to be in me, I most heartily thank
you all that you put me in remembrance of my duty, which is to endeavor
myself to obtain and get such excellent qualities and necessary
virtues.... No prince in the world more favoreth his subjects than I
do you, nor any subjects or commons more love and obey their sovereign
lord than I perceive you do me. Yet, although I with you, and you with
me, be in this perfect love and concord, this friendly amity can not
continue except you, my lords temporal, and you, my lords spiritual,
and you, my loving subjects, study and take pains to amend any thing,
which is surely amiss and far out of order, ... which is, that charity
and concord is not among you; but discord and dissension beareth rule
in every place. St. Paul saith to the Corinthians, in the thirteenth
chapter, "Charity is gentle, charity is not envious, charity is not
proud," and so forth. Behold then what love and charity is amongst
you when one calleth the other heretic and anabaptist; and he calleth
him again papist, hypocrite, and pharisee. Be these things tokens of
charity amongst you? Are these the signs of fraternal love between you?
No, no, I assure you that this lack of charity amongst yourselves will
be the hindrance and assuaging of the fervent love between us, except
this wound be salved and clearly made whole. I must needs judge the
fault and occasion of this discord to be partly by the negligence of
you, the fathers and preachers of the spiritualty.... I see and hear
daily that you of the clergy preach one against another, ... and few or
none do preach truly and sincerely the Word of God.... Alas! how can
the poor souls live in concord when you preachers sow amongst them, in
your sermons, debate and discord? Of you they look for light, and you
bring them to darkness. Amend these crimes, I exhort you, and set forth
God's word, both by true preaching and good example-giving; or else
I, whom God hath appointed his vicar and high minister here, will see
these divisions extinct.... Although (as I say) the spiritual men be
in some fault ... yet you of the temporalty be not clean and unspotted
of malice and envy; for you rail on bishops, speak slanderously of
priests, and rebuke and taunt preachers.... Although you be permitted
to read Holy Scripture, and to have the Word of God in your mother
tongue, you must understand that it is licensed you so to do, only to
inform your own conscience, and to instruct your children and family;
not to dispute and make Scripture a railing and a taunting stock
against priests and preachers, as many light persons do. I am very
sorry to know and hear how unreverently that most precious jewel, the
Word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung, and jangled in every alehouse
and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same....
Be in charity one with another, ... to the which I, as your supreme
head and sovereign lord, exhort and require you; and then I doubt not
but that love and league, which I spake of in the beginning, shall
never be dissolved or broken between us.'[435]
The school-master had not spoken amiss. The parliament did not make
the retort, 'Physician, heal thyself,' though it might have been
applicable. One of the measures by which the king manifested his 'sweet
charity' proves that, if he were not, like some old school-masters, a
tyrant of words and syllables, he tyrannized over the peace and the
lives of his people.
[Sidenote: ANNE ASKEW.]
There were at the court a certain number of ladies of the highest rank
who loved the Gospel--the duchess of Suffolk, the countess of Sussex,
the countess of Hertford, Lady Denny, Lady Fitzwilliam,[436] and
above all the queen. Associated with these was a pious, lively, and
beautiful young lady, of great intelligence and amiable disposition,
and whose fine qualities had been improved by education. Her name
was Anne Askew. She was the second daughter of Sir William Askew,
member of a very ancient Lincolnshire family. She had two brothers
and two sisters. Her brother Edward was one of the king's bodyguards.
The queen frequently received Anne and other Christian women in her
private apartments; and there prayer was made and the Word of God
expounded by an evangelical minister. The king, indeed, was aware of
these secret meetings, but he feigned ignorance. Anne was at this
time in great need of the consolations of the Gospel. Her father, Sir
William, had a rich neighbor named Kyme, with whom he was intimate;
and being anxious that his eldest daughter should marry a rich man, he
arranged with Kyme that she should wed his eldest son. The young lady
died before the nuptials took place; and Sir William, reluctant to let
slip so good a chance, compelled his second daughter Anne to marry
the betrothed of her sister, and by him she became the mother of two
children. The third sister, Joan, was married to Sir John Saint-Paul.
The Holy Scriptures in the English version attracted Anne's attention,
and ere long she became so attached to them that she meditated on
them day and night. Led by them to a living faith in Jesus Christ,
she renounced Romish superstitions. The priests, who were greatly
annoyed, stirred up against her her young husband, a rough man and
a staunch papist, who 'violently drove her out of his house.'[437]
Anne said, 'Since, according to the Scripture, "if the unbelieving
depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in
such cases,"[438]--I claim my divorce.' She went to London to take
the necessary proceedings; and either through her brother, one of the
guards, or otherwise, made the acquaintance of the pious ladies of the
court and of the queen herself.
It was a great vexation to the enemies of the Reformation to see
persons of the highest rank almost openly professing the evangelical
faith. As they did not dare to attack them, they determined to make
a beginning with Anne Askew, and thereby to terrify the rest. She
had said one day, 'I would sooner read five lines in the Bible than
hear five masses in the church.' On another occasion she had denied
the corporal presence of the Saviour in the sacrament. She was sent
to prison. When she was taken to Sadlers Hall, the judge, Dare, asked
her, 'Do you not believe that the sacrament hanging over the altar
was the very body of Christ really?' Anne replied, 'Wherefore was St.
Stephen stoned to death?' Dare, doubtless, remembered that Stephen had
said, 'I see the Son of man sitting _at the right hand of God_.' From
this it followed that He was not in the sacrament. He preferred to
answer, 'I can not tell.' It is possible, however, that his ignorance
was not feigned. 'No more,' said Anne, 'will I assoil your vain
question.' Anne was afterwards taken before the lord-mayor, Sir Martin
Bowes, a passionate bigot. He was under-treasurer of the Mint, and
in 1550 obtained the king's pardon for all the false money which he
had coined. The magistrate gravely asked her whether a mouse, eating
the host, received God or no? 'I made no answer, but smiled,' says
Anne. The bishop's chancellor, who was present, sharply said to her,
'St. Paul forbade women to speak or to talk of the Word of God.' 'How
many women,' said she in reply, 'have you seen go into the pulpit and
preach?' 'Never any,' he said. 'You ought not to find fault in poor
women, except they have offended the law.' She was unlawfully committed
to prison, and for eleven days no one was allowed to see her. At this
time she was about twenty-five years of age.
One of her cousins, named Brittayne, was admitted to see her. He
immediately did every thing he could to get Anne released on bail.
The lord-mayor bade him apply to the chancellor of the bishop of
London. The chancellor replied to him, 'Apply to the bishop.' The
bishop said, 'I will give order for her to appear before me to-morrow
at three o'clock in the afternoon.' He then subjected her to a long
examination. He asked her, amongst other things, 'Do you not think that
private masses help the souls departed?' 'It is great idolatry,' she
replied, 'to believe more in them than in the death which Christ died
for us.' 'What kind of answer is this?' said the bishop of London. 'It
is a weak one,' replied Anne, 'but good enough for such a question.'
After the examination, at which Anne made clear and brief replies,
Bonner wrote down a certain number of articles of faith, and required
that Anne should set her hand to them. She wrote, 'I believe so much
thereof as the Holy Scripture doth agree unto.' This was not what
Bonner wanted. The bishop pressed the point, and said, 'Sign this
document.' Anne then wrote, 'I, Anne Askew, do believe all manner of
things contained in the faith of the Catholic Church.' The bishop, well
knowing what Anne meant by this word, hurried away into an adjoining
room in a great rage.[439] Her cousin Brittayne followed him and
implored him to treat his kinswoman kindly. 'She is a woman,' exclaimed
the bishop, 'and I am nothing deceived in her.' 'Take her as a woman,'
said Brittayne, 'and do not set her weak woman's wit to your lordship's
great wisdom.' At length, Anne's two sureties, to wit, Brittayne and
Master Spilman of Grays Inn, were on the following day accepted, and
she was set at liberty. These events took place in the year 1545.
[Sidenote: SECOND ARREST OF ANNE ASKEW.]
Anne having continued to profess the Gospel, and to have meetings
with her friends, she was again arrested three months later, and was
brought before the privy council at Greenwich. On the opening of the
examination she refused to go into the matter before the council, and
said, 'If it be the king's pleasure to hear me, I will show him the
truth.' 'It is not meet,' they replied, 'for the king to be troubled
with you.' She answered, 'Solomon was reckoned the wisest king that
ever lived, yet misliked he not to hear two poor common women; much
more his grace a single woman and his faithful subject.' 'Tell me your
opinion on the sacrament,' said the lord chancellor. 'I believe,' she
said, 'that so oft as I, in a Christian congregation, do receive the
bread in remembrance of Christ's death, and with thanksgiving ... I
receive therewith the fruits also of his most glorious passion.' 'Make
a direct answer to the question,' said Gardiner. 'I will not sing a
new song of the Lord,' she said, 'in a strange land.' 'You speak in
parables,' said Gardiner. 'It is best for you,' she answered; 'for if I
show the open truth, ye will not accept it.' 'You are a parrot,' said
the incensed bishop. She replied, 'I am ready to suffer all things at
your hands, not only your rebukes, but all that shall follow besides,
yea, and all that gladly.'
The next day Anne once more appeared before the council. They began
the examination on the subject of transubstantiation. Seeing Lord
Parr, uncle to the queen, and Lord Lisle, she said to them, 'It is a
great shame for you to counsel contrary to your knowledge.' 'We would
gladly,' they answered, 'all things were well.' Gardiner wished to
speak privately with her, but this she refused. The lord chancellor
then began to examine her again. 'How long,' said Anne, 'will you halt
on both sides?' 'You shall be burnt,' said the bishop of London. She
replied, 'I have searched all the Scriptures, yet could I never find
that either Christ or his apostles put any creature to death.'
Anne was sent back to prison. She was very ill, and believed herself
to be near death. Never had she had to endure such attacks. She
requested leave to see Latimer, who was still confined in the Tower;
but this consolation was not allowed her. Resting firmly, as she
did, on Scriptural grounds, she did not suffer herself to swerve.
To her constitutional resolution she added that which was the fruit
of communion with God; and she was thus placed by faith above the
attacks which she experienced. Having a good foundation, she resolutely
defended the freedom of her conscience and her full trust in Christ;
and not only did she encounter her enemies without wavering, but
she spoke to them with a power sufficient to awe them, and gave
home-thrusts which threw them into confusion. Nevertheless she was
only a weak woman, and her bodily strength began to fail. In Newgate
she said,--'The Lord strengthen us in the truth. Pray, pray, pray.'
She composed while in prison some stanzas which have been pronounced
extraordinary, not only for simple beauty and sublime sentiment, but
also for the noble structure and music of the verse.[440]
By law, Anne had a right to be tried by jury; but on June 28, 1546,
she was condemned by the lord chancellor and the council, without
further process, to be burnt, for having denied the corporal presence
of Christ. They asked her whether she wished for a priest; she smiled
and said she would confess her faults unto God, for she was sure that
He would hear her with favor. She added: 'I think his grace shall well
perceive me to be weighed in an uneven pair of balances.... Here I take
heaven and earth to record that I shall die in mine innocency.'[441]
[Sidenote: ROYAL PROCLAMATION.]
It was proved that Anne had derived her faith from the Holy Scriptures.
Gardiner and his partisans therefore prevailed upon the government,
eight days before the death of this young Christian, to issue a
proclamation purporting 'that from henceforth no man, woman or person
of what estate, condition or degree soever he or they be [consequently
including the ladies and gentlemen of the court as well as others],
shall, after the last day of August next ensuing receive, have, take or
keep in their possession the text of the New Testament, of Tyndale's or
Coverdale's translation in English, nor any other than is permitted by
the Act of Parliament; ... nor after the said day shall receive, have,
take or keep in his or their possession any manner of books printed
or written in the English tongue which be or shall be set forth in
the names of Fryth, Tyndale, Wycliffe, ... Barnes, Coverdale, ... or
by any of them; ... and it was required that all such books should be
delivered to the mayor, bailiff or chief constable of the town to be
openly burned.[442]
This was a remarkable proceeding on the part of Henry VIII. But events
were stronger than the proclamation, and it remained a dead letter.
[Sidenote: TORTURE OF ANNE ASKEW.]
Anne's sentence was pronounced before the issue of the proclamation.
The trial was over, and there was to be no further inquiry. But her
death was not enough to satisfy Rich, Wriothesley and their friends.
They had other designs, and were about to perpetrate the most shameful
and cruel acts. The object which these men now proposed to themselves
was to obtain such evidence as would warrant them in taking proceedings
against those ladies of the court who were friends of the Gospel.
They went (July 13) to the Tower, where Anne was still confined, and
questioned her about her accomplices, naming the duchess-dowager of
Suffolk, the countess of Sussex and several others. Anne answered, 'If
I should pronounce any thing against them, I should not be able to
prove it.' They next asked her whether there were no members of the
royal council who gave her their support. She said, none. The king is
informed, they replied, that if you choose you can name a great many
persons who are members of your sect. She answered that 'the king was
as well deceived in that behalf as dissembled with in other matters.'
The only effect of these denials was to irritate Wriothesley and his
colleague; and, determined at any cost to obtain information against
influential persons at the court, they ordered the rack to be applied
to the young woman. This torture lasted a long time; but Anne gave
no hint, nor even uttered a cry. The lord chancellor, more and more
provoked, said to Sir Antony Knevet, lieutenant of the Tower, 'Strain
her on the rack again.' The latter refused to do this. It was to no
purpose that Wriothesley threatened him if he would not obey.
Rich, a member of the privy council, had frequently given proof of
his baseness. Wriothesley was ambitious, inflated with self-conceit,
haughty, and easily angered if his advice was not taken. These two men
now forgot themselves; and the spectacle was presented of the lord
chancellor of England and a privy councillor of the king turned into
executioners. They set their own hands to the horrible instrument, and
so severely applied the torture to the innocent young woman, that she
was almost broken upon it and quite dislocated. She fainted away and
was well-nigh dead.[443] 'Then the lieutenant caused me to be loosed;
incontinently I swooned, and then they recovered me again. After that
I sat two long hours, reasoning with my Lord Chancellor on the bare
floor, where he, with many flattering words, persuaded me to leave
my opinion.'[444] Henry VIII. himself censured Wriothesley for his
cruelty, and excused the lieutenant of the Tower. 'Then was I brought
to a house,' says Anne, 'laid in a bed, with as weary and painful
bones as ever Job had.' The chancellor sent word to her that if she
renounced her faith she should be pardoned and should want for nothing,
but that otherwise she should be burnt. She answered, 'I will sooner
die.' At the same time she fell on her knees in the dungeon and said:
'O Lord, I have more enemies now than there be hairs on my head; yet,
Lord, let them never overcome me with vain words, but fight thou, Lord,
in my stead, for on thee I cast my care. With all the spite they can
imagine, they fall upon me, who am thy poor creature. Yet, sweet Lord,
let me not set by them that are against me; for in thee is my whole
delight. And, Lord, I heartily desire of thee, that thou wilt of thy
most merciful goodness forgive them that violence which they do, and
have done, unto me. Open also thou their blind hearts, that they may
hereafter do that thing in thy sight, which is only acceptable before
thee, and to set forth thy verity aright, without all vain fantasies of
sinful men. So be it, O Lord, so be it.'[445]
The 16th of July, the day fixed for the last scene of this tragedy, had
arrived; every thing was ready for the burning of Anne at Smithfield.
The execution was to take place not in the morning, the usual time,
but at nightfall, to make it the more terrible. It was thus, in every
sense, a deed of darkness. They were obliged to carry Anne to the
place of execution, for in her state at that time she was unable to
walk. When she reached the pile, she was bound to the post by her
waist, with a chain which prevented her from sinking down. The wretched
Shaxton, nominated for the purpose, then completed his apostasy by
delivering a sermon on the sacrament of the altar, a sermon abounding
in errors. Anne, who was in full possession of her faculties, contented
herself with saying, 'He misseth and speaketh without the Book.' Three
other evangelical Christians were to die at the same time with her:
Belenian, a priest; J. Lacels (Lascelles), of the king's household,
probably the man who had revealed the incontinence of Catherine
Howard, a deed for which the Roman party hated him; and one Adams,
a Colchester man. 'Now, with quietness,' said Lacels, 'I commit the
whole world to their pastor and herdsman Jesus Christ, the only Saviour
and true Messias....' The letter from which we quote is subscribed,
'John Lacels, late servant to the king, and now I trust to serve the
everlasting King, with the testimony of my blood in Smithfield.'[446]
[Sidenote: MARTYRDOM.]
There was an immense gathering of the people. On a platform erected
in front of St. Bartholomew's church were seated, as presidents at
the execution, Wriothesley, lord chancellor of England, the old
duke of Norfolk, the old earl of Bedford, the lord-mayor Bowes, and
various other notabilities. When the fire was going to be lighted, the
chancellor sent a messenger to Anne Askew, instructed to offer her the
king's pardon if she would recant. She answered, 'I am not come hither
to deny my Lord and Master.' The same pardon was offered to the other
martyrs, but they refused to accept it and turned away their heads.
Then stood up the ignorant and fanatical Bowes, and exclaimed with a
loud voice, '_Fiat justitia!_' Anne was soon wrapt in the flames; and
this noble victim who freely offered herself a sacrifice to God, gave
up her soul in peace. Her companions did likewise.[447]
These four persons were the last victims of the reign of Henry VIII.
The enemies of the Reformation were especially annoyed at this time
to see women of the first families of England embrace the faith which
they hated. On a woman of most superior mind, but young and weak,
fell the last blow levelled against the Gospel by _the defender of
the faith_. Anne Askew fell; but the great doctrines which she had so
courageously professed were soon to be triumphant in the midst of her
fellow-countrymen.