The first examinacyon of Anne Askewe lately martyred in Smythfelde, by the Romysh popes vpholders, with the elucydacyon of Iohan Bale.. by Anne Askew
This month’s featured text is The first examinacyon of Anne Askewe lately martyred in Smythfelde, by the Romysh popes vpholders, with the elucydacyon of Iohan Bale by Anne Askew. Anne Askew was born around 1520 in Lincolnshire. She was married against her will to Thomas Kyme at 21 (as a substitute for an elder sister who had died). Askew was a fervent Protestant, and Kyme turned her out for those practices. Askew returned to Lincolnshire and eventually went to London where she preached the gospel and at some point even became a member of Queen Katherine Parr's circle of friends. She was interrogated several times for heresy, most notably in 1545 and again in 1546 when members of Henry VIII's council demanded Askew recant but to no avail. She was burned at the stake in 1546 for her beliefs. Shortly after her death, John Bale, a protestant living in exile in Cleves, Germany, published two volumes including The first examinacyone of Anne Askewe (1546) and the Lattre examinacyons of Anne Askewe (1547). These books were widely circulated both in England and abroad and influenced later English Protestant writing including the well known Actes and Monuments by John Foxe.

Anne Askew's examinations reveal much about the religious climate of England at the end of Henry VIII's reign and about the role of women in early modern society. In the 1540s, Henry VIII and some of his religiously conservative courtiers had modified the more "radical" aspects of the English Reformation and had reaffirmed some Catholic beliefs about the nature of the sacraments. This was disturbing to many English Protestants, including Queen Katherine Parr (herself a "radical" Protestant). Some of Henry VIII's councillors even tried to, unsuccessfully, implicate the queen in the heresies of Anne Askew. The examinacyons reflect the religious turbulence going on, and they reveal much about Askew hereself. She was obviously very well educated and her opinions on scripture well informed. She was also not hesitant to point out that she was at the mercy of many learned men, who insisted that she recant. However, she successfully confounded many of their arguments and refused to cooperate in implicating fellow Protestants. Clearly, Askew was part of a movement in which women were beginning to play a prominent role, yet one which was ultimately subservient to men, but also a role much greater than women had previously enjoyed.

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