Anne Askew was an English writer, poet, and protestant preacher. Here are a few lines from one of her poems:

Like as the armed knight
Appointed to the field,
With this world I will fight,
A Faith will be my shield.

Anne, daughter of William Askew, gentleman at the court of King Henry VIII and a member of the jury at the trial of Anne Boleyn, was the fourth of five children. She was a relative of Robert Aske, the rebel who in 1536 led the Pilgrimage of Grace against Henry VIII. The sovereign, having promised to pardon him, did not keep his word and had him executed.

Well-versed in the Scriptures, Anne became convinced that the doctrine of transubstantiation, the real presence of Christ in the sacraments of the Eucharist, was false. Since her husband, Thomas Kyme, was a Catholic and of a violent disposition, her opinions caused disputes in the family, which led Anne to seek a divorce. She was to be the first woman in England to have recourse to this procedure.

Following all this, Anne moved to London. There she joined a Protestant community and became a preacher of the Reformed Gospel. In 1545 her husband had her arrested, but she escaped and continued preaching; in 1546 she was again arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. After being subjected to dreadful tortures, she was sentenced to death as a heretic. On 16 July 1546 she was burnt alive at Smithfield, the meat market of London. She was twenty-four years old. Legend tells that after the torture, she knelt down bleeding on the floor and prayed.

O, Lord, I have more enemies than hairs on my head; yet, Lord, never let me reply with empty words, but you, Lord, do battle in my stead, because I have entrusted my heart to you, I your poor child, despite all the scorn imaginable that they have poured on me. But let me not be taken by those who are against me, since in you is all my joy. And, Lord, I plead wholeheartedly that in your great mercy you pardon those who have brought me here and have committed violence against me. Open their closed hearts that they may henceforth do what alone is acceptable in your sight. May they present your truth righteously, without all the vain fantasies of sinful men. O, Lord, let it be so.

Translated by Mariella Moretti.