SOURCE: Betteridge, Thomas. “Anne Askewe, John Bale, and Protestant History.” The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27, no. 2 (spring 1997): 265-84.

In the following essay, Betteridge examines the cultural conflicts reflected in the relation between Askew's interpretation of herself and that of her editor, John Bale.

Anne Askewe was burned as a heretic in 1546, having been found guilty of denying the doctrine of transubstantiation. Askewe's place in history has been largely constructed within a narrative that views her first-person accounts of her examinations, and her martyrdom, as being important for the light they shed on the doctrinal struggles and conflicts of the last years of the reign of Henry VIII.¹ This understanding of Askewe's place in history has the effect, however, of placing her within a magisterial Protestant, historical narrative which traditionally has had no place for a woman speaking in public on matters of faith.² It is...