ote to the council, I would not deny it,
because I knew it true. Then would they needs know if I would deny the
sacrament to be Christ's body and blood. I said, 'Yea; for the same Son
of God who was born of the Virgin Mary is now glorious in heaven, and
will come again from thence at the latter day. And as for that ye call
your God, it is a piece of bread. For more proof thereof, mark it when
you list; if it lie in the box three months it will be mouldy, and so
turn to nothing that is good. Whereupon I am persuaded that it cannot be
God.'

"After that they willed me to have a priest, at which I smiled. Then
they asked me if it were not good. I said I would confess my faults unto
God, for I was sure he would hear me with favour. And so I was
condemned. And this was the ground of my sentence: my belief, which I
wrote to the council, that the sacramental bread was left us to be
received with thanksgiving in remembrance of Christ's death, the only
remedy of our souls' recovery, and that thereby we also receive the
whole benefits and fruits of his most glorious passion. Then would they
know whether the bread in the box were God or no. I said, 'God is a
Spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and truth.' Then they demanded,
'Will you plainly deny Christ to be in the sacrament?' I answered, 'That
I believe faithfully the eternal Son of God not to dwell there;' in
witness whereof I recited Daniel iii., Acts vii. and xvii., and Matthew
xxiv., concluding thus: 'I neither wish death nor yet fear his might;
God have the praise thereof, with thanks.'"

Anne Askew was burnt at Smithfield with three other martyrs, July 16,
1546. Bonner, the Chancellor Wriothesley, and many nobles were present
on state seats near St. Bartholomew's gate, and their only anxiety was
lest the gunpowder hung in bags at the martyrs' necks should injure them
when it exploded. Shaxton, the ex-Bishop of Salisbury, who had saved his
life by apostacy, preached a sermon to the martyrs before the flames
were put to the fagots.

In 1546 (towards the close of the life of Henry VIII.), the Earl of
Surrey was tried for treason at the Guildhall. He was accused of aiming
at dethroning the king, and getting the young prince into his hands;
also for adding the arms of Edward the Confessor to his escutcheon. The
earl, persecuted by the Seymours, says Lord Herbert, "was of a deep
understanding, sharp wit, and deep courage, defended himself many
ways--sometimes denying th