The order and manner of the burning of Anne Askew, John Lacels, John Adams, Nicholas Belenian, with certain of the Councell sitting in Smithfield

Anne Askew was a writer and poet. She was convinced by her study of the Bible to become a devout Protestant, demand a divorce from her Catholic husband and speak out against the established doctrine of the Church. She was arrested for heresy in May 1546 and endured the torture of being stretched on the rack at the Tower of London without renouncing her faith or denouncing her associates. Her injuries were so severe that she had to be carried on a chair to Smithfield, where she was burned to death with three other Protestants: John Lascelles, John Adams and Nicholas Belenian. Bishop Nicholas Shaxton had been condemned with Anne but had recanted. He was sent to preach the sermon from the pulpit at her execution, offering her a final chance to repent. Askew’s faith, however, was unwavering. She disputed the bishop’s biblical interpretation and demonstrated the strength of her faith by dying bravely.

This woodcut print from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs shows the condemned Christians tied to the stake in Smithfield as bales of hay are stacked up beneath them to be set alight. Shaxton preaches from a pulpit to the left while crowds form a ring around them. City officials watch on from a stage while others crowd the windows of the Priory and Church of St Bartholomew the Great.