Excerpt One

1. "...whether a mouse eating the host, received God or no?": This question, asked of Anne Askew by the Lord Mayor, refers to the idea of transubstantiation in the Church. Transubstantiation was a particularly important Catholic belief, which held that in the sacrament of communion, the bread is fully transformed into the body of Christ. During the Reformation, the idea of transubstantiation became a major point of contention between Catholics and Protestants, as emerging Protestant sects claimed that the host is merely a symbol of Christ's body, and that the believer receiving communion and the priest administering it must be spiritually pure in order to benefit from the sacrament ("Martyrdom"). Catholics believed that anyone partaking in communion receives the body of Christ, regardless of their spiritual state or that of the minister ("Martyrdom"). The Lord Mayor asks Anne whether or not she believes a mouse could receive the body of Christ if it happened to feed on the host in order to determine her stance on transubstantiation, thus exposing her has a heretic. Return to the text.
2. "I answered him that I knew Paul's meaning as well as he" Close Reading: Here, Anne cleverly defends herself against the allegation that she had been preaching the scripture. The chancellor claims that in the Bible, Paul writes that women should not speak about scripture (Foxe 23). In her rebuttal, Anne references 1 Corinthian 14, which states that women should not speak in the church to teach, and asks the chancellor if he has ever seen a woman preach from the pulpit, and he says he has not (23). Anne thus makes the defense that she has not broken any laws—religious or otherwise—since she has never spoken the scripture from the pulpit with the intention to teach. This assertion is important not only because it demonstrates Anne’s wit and intellect, but because it also confirms a woman’s right to read and engage in conversation about scripture. One of the key movements of the Reformation was to make scripture more accessible to laypeople, as the Catholic Church restricted the reading and interpretation of the Bible to priests, bishops, and other clergymen. Many protestant sects stressed the importance of reading scripture for all believers, not just the clergy, and this included women. Anne outwits the chancellor, cornering him into admitting he has not witnessed any women--including Anne--preaching from a pulpit, and thus has no right to accuse her of the crime. Return to the text.
3. "Quest" OED Definition: From the French "queste" and Latin "queasta" Noun: The body of people appointed to hold an inquiry (14th-19th century. Obsolete). Also, Noun: an official or judicial inquiry (14th-20th century. Rare). Noun: A search, pursuit (14th century-present). Noun: In the Roman Catholic Church, a collection of alms or donations (16th-20th century. Rare). Return to the text.
4. "Counter": The Counter Prison, or the Compter, where Anne was committed (Hickerson). Return to the text.