The Martyrdom of Anne Askew Pt. 4

Anne is questioned regarding her beliefs about the fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church, transubstantiation. Transubstantiation was, in fact, one of the major differences between Catholic and Protestant belief. Anne's wit is clear in her treatment of the issue of transubstantiation in the First Examinacyon. She repeatedly subverts their questions, refusing to give a straight answer. Anne attests to her Protestant beliefs when questioned in the Lattre Examinacyon about transubstantiation. Anne's text is clear, completely lacking ambiguity. She writes, "So that the breade is but a remembraunce of hys death, or a sacrament of thankes gevyng for it, wherby we are knytt unto hym by a communion of Christen love." Anne makes similar statements throughout her examinations. Anne's stance on transubstantiation is typical of the reform stance, beginning with the works of John Wycliffe, and extending through the work of Luther, Calvin and many other reformers. Anne states, in her final condemnation, "And as for that ye call your God, is but a pece of breade. For a more profe therof (marke it whan ye lyst) lete it lye in the boxe but iii monthes, and it wyll be moulde, and so turne to nothynge that is good. Wherupon I am persuaded, that it can not be God."

Anne's faith, like that of most reformers, is placed squarely in scripture and her personal study of scripture. When Anne is questioned regarding a statement she had allegedly made that she would prefer to read "fyve lynes in the Bible, than to heare fyve masses in the temple," she subverts their question and uses scripture to do so. Anne defends her statement, although she does not deny it. Anne states, "one ded greatly edyfye me, and the other nothing at all. As Saynt Paul doth witnesse in the xiiii chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians where as he doth say If the trumpe geveth an uncertaine sounde, who will prepare hymselfe to the battayle?" Anne's message is clear. The Catholic mass does not provide accurate spiritual guidance. Proper spiritual guidance may only be found in the word of God, the bible.

Anne repeatedly defies custom and tradition by speaking in defense of herself and her faith. The Bishop's chancellor accuses her of defying Paul by teaching the bible. The chancellor interprets Paul, saying that Paul "forbode women to speake or talke of the worde of God." Anne answers by paraphrasing Paul (I Cor xiiii) that "a woman ought not to speake in the congregacyon by the waye of teachynge." She challenges the chancellor, asking if he has seen women take the pulpit in the church and preach to the congregation. Of course, he has not, and Anne has, by carefully and literally interpreting scripture, subverted the question. Anne does not argue for the right of women to preach, but she does defend the write of women to talk and share the word of God. Anne's careful and accurate knowledge of scripture puts her interrogators, all educated religious men, to shame.

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