Thank you for a very interesting, and inspirational read!
As I recall torturing a woman on the rack was illegal at that time. Wriothesley was so blind with anger he broke the king's law.
Second, again, as I recall they did put a bag of gunpowder around her neck as an act of mercy. Funny way of showing mercy, I know, but given what happened to some of the reformers (read: Jan Hus) that was a much better way to go.
Her prosecution and execution where featured in the latest episode of The Tudors on Showtime.
The case of Anne Askew was part of the episode this last Sunday night. Chancellor Wriothesley and Bishop Gardiner were shown participating in the rack torture of Anne in an attempt to force her to name Queen Catherine Parr (Henry VIII's sixth wife) as a heretic. She would not name anyone and did not denounce her faith. She was a true martyr and the so-called "men of the cloth" that persecuted and murdered her in no way show a true faith and love of Christ. I am SO glad I wasn't born back then and I truly appreciate the freedoms we have in America.
Just as a point of information, Ms. Askew's persecutors were not "inquisitors" (in the strict sense), and they were not Catholics, but Anglicans.
The "Act of Supremacy," declaring Henry VII "Supreme Head of the Church in England," and stating that the Pope had no authority in England, passed Parliament in 1534. Henry died in January of 1547.
Someone (like me, for example) who affirmed the Papacy in England in 1546 would have been executed right alongside Ms. Askew.
Thank you for that article Rn! What an uplifting and inspirational story.
Just for the record
"She was offered one last chance at a pardon if she would renounce the doctrines of the Reformation and embrace Catholicism."
This title "embrace Catholicism."
"This should read traditionalist before they came up with word anglicanism."
They were not Catholic in 1546. Her husband was Catholic.
She did not believe in the real presence eucharist. Which both Catholic and Anglicanism believed.
So the state church (Anglicanism) killed her. King Henry V111 became the head of the church of england. Thats after he renounced the Church of Rome.So he could marry again.
But he still hated reformation people outside of England.
But what a matryr!
Thanks for Post.
“Anne had acquired a copy of the English Bible and had studied it enthusiastically.”
As I understand it, for some reason the Vatican wasn’t really thrilled with the idea of the laity learning to read, especially the Holy Bible. What I have never been able to figure out is....why?