Thinking of Anne Askew this Sunday. She never got her due in Church history. She was a protestant executed by the protestant King Henry VIII (who separated the Church of England from papal authority) because he found her ideas 'too protestant'. He executed both Catholics and protestants alike. (Bloody Mary executed less than 300. Henry VIII killed around 17000 Catholics+Protestants for religion)
Anglican churches tend to tone down that history when they talk about their origins. She is also not the kind of role model that they can be proud of because this was a woman who refused to take her husband's surname in the 16th century and asked for a divorce because she found him ideologically incompatible. She also preached openly at a time a woman on pulpit was unthinkable. Apparently, the author who compiled her autobiography edited a lot of portions to conceal her aggression.
She refused to recant and was the only woman to be tortured before execution though the law was against torturing women. The torture in a rack broke her limbs and she had to be carried to the stake to be burnt. Her life would have been spared if she had said that she accepted the theory of transubstantiation. She was asked again on the stake if she wanted to recant and she refused.
She believed that the Lord's Supper is not literally the body and blood of Christ, but rather a sacred symbol of it. She said "But as touching the holy and blessed supper of the Lord, I believe it to be a most necessary remembrance of his glorious sufferings and death. Moreover, I believe as much therein as my eternal and only Redeemer, Jesus Christ, would [that] I should believe. Finally, I believe all those scriptures to be true [which] he has confirmed with his precious blood." She was executed for that. It wan't a case of having to deny God. She believed in something and she died because she didn't want to lie. She was only 26. Apparently, even John Foxe, who was against women leaders admired her courage.
What's interesting to me is how much 'words' meant to these people. Honestly, I have never worried about the technicalities of the Lord's supper. Whenever I partake, I know that it is symbolic and no scientific transformation actually takes place. Is it his body-yes as a symbol. Will this bread grow moldy if it is left somewhere- yes for that too. I guess that's what separates us from the Heroes.
This is a ballad written by her.
Like as the armed knight
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight
And Faith shall be my shield.
Faith is that weapon strong
Which will not fail at need.
My foes, therefore, among
Therewith will I proceed.
As it is had in strength
And force of Christ's way
It will prevail at length
Though all the devils say nay.
Faith in the fathers old
Obtained righteousness
Which make me very bold
To fear no world's distress.
I now rejoice in heart
And Hope bid me do so
For Christ will take my part
And ease me of my woe.
Thou saist, lord, who so knock,
To them wilt thou attend.
Undo, therefore, the lock
And thy strong power send.
More enemies now I have
Than hairs upon my head.
But fight thou in my stead.
On thee my care I cast.
For all their cruel spite
I set not by their haste
For thou art my delight.
I am not she that list
My anchor to let fall
For every drizzling mist
My ship substantial.
Not oft use I to wright
In prose nor yet in rime,
Yet will I shew one sight
That I saw in my time.
I saw a rial throne
Where Justice should have sit
But in her stead was one
Of moody cruel wit.
Absorpt was righteousness
As of the raging flood
Sathan in his excess
Suct up the guiltless blood.
Then thought I, Jesus lord,
When thou shalt judge us all
Hard is it to record
On these men what will fall.
Yet lord, I thee desire
For that they do to me
Let them not taste the hire
Of their iniquity.
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