Faith On The Line - Stress, Stress Go Away Vol 19 | Page 37

They, therefore, made common cause with Anne Askew’s husband,
and determined to make Anne the means of involving her royal
friend and benefactress in the ruin they designed for every English
Protestant. They accordingly surrounded her with spies, whose
business it was to note and report every act or utterance upon
which a charge of heresy could be based. One of those, a worthless
wretch named Wadloe, took lodgings next door to her house,
and even went so far as to enter her residence and watch her
through the door of her sleeping apartment. He could discover
nothing, however, and being conscience stricken went back to his
employers with this confession: “She is the most devout woman I
have ever known; for at midnight she begins to pray, and ceases
not for many hours, when I and others are addressing ourselves to
sleep and work.”
The priests kept up their watch upon her, however. They wished
to destroy her because of her renunciation of their creed and
practices, and they also hoped to wring her from the agony of
torture some confession which would be damaging to the queen.
They were at length rewarded for their vigilance. She was heard to
say she had rather read five lines in the Bible than hear five masses
in the chapel. She also expressed her disbelief as to the efficacy of
the sacrament of the Eucharist being dependent on the character
or intention of the priest; and observed that whatever was the
character or intention of the priest who administered to her the
Eucharist, he could not prevent her from receiving spiritually
the body and blood of Christ. These expressions were promptly
reported to the priests, who obtained from the civil authorities a
warrant for her arrest on the charge of heresy.
In March, 1445, she was brought before a commission in
London, and examined concerning her belief. In this, as in all
her subsequent examinations, the question most strongly
pressed was, what her sentiments were as to the doctrine of
Transubstantiation. She refused to answer some of the questions,
knowing the malice of her judges, and not wishing to incriminate
herself. Others she answered with great readiness and freedom.
The chief examiner was Christopher Dare, who began by asking
her, “Do you believe that the sacrament upon the altar is the very
body and blood of Christ?”

chapter: “In the Church I had rather speak five words with my
understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than
ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”
They asked her many other questions, among others what she
thought of the book the king had written against Luther, and
which had won him from the Pope the title of “Defender of
the Faith.”
They hoped she would answer that she did not approve it, and
thus make the king her enemy, for he was merciless to those who
failed to praise his book; but, fortunately for her, she also was able
to answer, “I can pronounce no judgment upon it, as I never saw
it.” They also asked her, “Do you not think that private masses help
souls depart?” “It is great idolatry,” she answered, “to believe more
in these than in the death which Christ died for us.”
Finding it impossible to elicit anything from her, the examination
was brought to a close, and she was sent to the Lord Mayor, who
undertook to question her, but with no better success. He then
committed her to prison, although there was no law to justify
him in his act. Her friends endeavoured to procure her release on
bail, but the priests took care to prevent it, and she lay for seven
days in the Compter prison, no one being allowed to speak with
her during that time save a priest who was sent by the Bishop of
Winchester, the infamous Gardiner, to question her. He asked her
this question:
“If the host should fall, and a beast should eat it, does the beast
revive God or no?”
“Seeing you have taken the trouble to ask this que