I stumbled upon this person while doing research on the word "heretic". In the back of my mind I think I remember reading about her a long time ago, but I am so glad that I was able to research a little about her. Anne Askew stood up for what she believed and she paid a heavy price for her faith.
Anne Askew is believed to have been born in the year 1520. She had an older sister named Martha that was betrothed to Thomas Kyme, but when her sister died before she was able to marry Thomas, Anne was forced to marry Thomas in her sister's stead. This devastated Anne and she never adopted Thomas surname. She asked for a divorce from him based on I Corinthians 7:15, but the divorce was never granted.
It is believed that she had more than one child, but we only have the name of one child named, William Askew.
In 1545 she was arrested in London for heresy, but was acquitted and sent to her husband. The last time she was arrested it was again for heresy. She was asked to name any others that practiced the "new" faith and was even asked if Henry's latest wife, Catherine Parr was also partaking of the new "reformation". Her interrogators and tormentors wanted proof to arrest the latest queen of Henry VIII. Queen Catherine was a Protestant sympathizer and if it wasn't for Henry's death, she probably would have been "dispose of" some way or another by Henry. It is erroneously believed that Henry converted to Protestantism or was a Reformer, but he wasn't. What he did was put himself as Supreme Head of the Church instead of the Pope. In 1539 Henry authorized the Act of the Six Articles which are Catholic doctrines in everything but name. Anyone disobeying these laws would be treated as a heretic.
Summary of the Six Articles:
1. The Holy Sacraments (Lord's Supper) is the literal, actual blood and body of Jesus. Also called transubstantiation.
2. The Holy Sacraments could be withheld from those who are not clergy.
3. Priest of any order were to remain celibate
4. Observance of vows of chastity
5. Permission for private masses
6. Importance of confessing sins to a priest.
It is because of the first article that got Anne into the most trouble. She boldly preached that if the Holy Sacrament bread were put in a box that it would eventually mold. That Jesus used many times objects to REPRESENT Him. She said that Jesus called Himself "the door", "the light", "the rock", but none of these were taken as literal meanings.
Anne was racked and asked to confess any others that shared her faith. She never gave in to her tormentors. It is believed that they racked her so severely that they broke her spine. She was then condemned to death by burning. (She is the only woman on record to have been both tortured and burned at the stake) Because of the torture inflicted upon her, she had to be carried in a chair to the stake. There they had to tie her to a small chair made for her. She was brave until the end. There is one account of some of her followers throwing gun powder on her so she would burn more quickly, but we are not certain of this. It is said that she didn't scream until the flames came to her chest (another reason why I think her spinal cord was severed. She didn't feel the flames because she had lost all feeling in her lower extremities).She preached boldly the truth of the Gospel. She fought for the right for all to be able to read the Bible in their own language, including women (a law Henry VIII had passed prohibited women from having access to the Bible).
She wrote about her interrogations in a book called The Examinations of Anne Askew
Anne Askew was executed on July 16, 1546. She is mention is Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Some quotes from Anne Askew:
In response to Jesus saying: "This is my Body, eat" - Anne answered: “Christ’s meaning in that passage is similar to the meaning of those other places of Scripture, ‘I am the door’, ‘I am the vine’. ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’ ‘That rock was Christ.’ And other such references to Himself. We are not in these texts to take Christ for the material thing which He is signified by, for then we will make Him a door, a vine, a lamb, a stone, quite contrary to the Holy Ghost’s meaning. All these indeed signify Christ, even as the bread signifies His body in that place.”
When asked about other religious decrees passed by men to be taken as law or doctrine she said:
I believe all those Scriptures to be true which He hath confirmed with His most precious blood. Yea, and, as St. Paul sayeth, those Scriptures are sufficient for our learning and salvation that Christ hath left here with us; so that I believe we need no unwritten verities with which to rule His Church.”
When asked about Transubstantiation:
Anne responded: “God is a spirit, not a wafer cake. He is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth – John 4:24 – and not by the impious superstitious homage paid to a wafer converted, by popish jugglery, into a god.”
