Faith On The Line - Stress, Stress Go Away Vol 19 | Page 36

recommended reading

excerpt from

Cross and Crown

Anne Askew

by James D. McCabe, Jr.

Young Kyme does not seem to have been very much concerned
as to whom he married, but Anne Askew was earnestly opposed
to becoming his wife. She begged her father not to compel her
to marry a man whom she did not love, and who was personally
disagreeable to her, but Sir William turned a deaf ear to her
appeals, and in due time the marriage was celebrated.
Anne Askew was not only a beautiful and high spirited woman,
but she was also well educated for a woman of her time, and
was possessed of unusual mental gifts. She was a very pious
woman, and having become a wife, she endeavoured faithfully to
discharge her duty to her husband. They lived together in peace
for some time, and she bore him two children. Yet she could not
bring herself to love her husband, or even to feel attached to
him, and there is very good reason for thinking that he was not
worthy of such a feeling on her part. There were frequent causes of
discontent between them, and their married life at length became
entirely the reverse of happy.
About this time the English Bible was given to the people by
means of the printing press, and one of these copies came into
possession of Annie Askew, or Mistress Kyme. She read it with
avidity, and it had the effect of working a complete revolution in
her feelings and life.

T

here lived in Lincolnshire, in the reign
of Henry VIII, a knight, of ancient
and honourable family, Sir William
Askew by name. He resided at Kelsay, his
ancestral home, and was the father of several
daughters and a son.
Close by him lived his most intimate friend, a Mr.
Kyme, who was a man of great wealth. Mr. Kyme
was the father of a son who was just entering
upon manhood, and who would one day be the
heir to his vast estate.
Wishing that the young man should marry and
settle down early, he began to look about him,
as was the fashion with parents in those days,
for a wife for his son, and his choice fell upon
the eldest daughter of his old friend, Sir William
Askew. The young people were betrothed,
but before the marriage could be solemnized,
the lady, who had been greatly averse to the
proposed union, died. Sir William then proposed
to Mr. Kyme that his son should marry Anne, his
second daughter, who was more beautiful and
attractive than her sister had been.
The knight was not willing to lose the chance of
an alli [