Fire of the Word

Young English noblewoman, Anne Ayscough, lived during the turbulent times of Henry VIII, when Protestant reformist ideas clashed violently against entrenched Catholicism. Yet many, especially the wealthy, owned William Tyndale's New Testament, including the household of Sir William Ayscough in Lincolnshire. In her family home, Anne grew in an atmosphere of openness, gleaning new ideas from her brothers who were educated at Cambridge, a hotbed of Protestant ideals. At the age of fifteen, Anne's life changed drastically. Her older sister Martha, betrothed to a son of a family staunch in the Catholic faith, contracted a fever and died. With the financial arrangements for the marriage already in place, Anne's father ordered her to stand for her dead sister, forcing his daughter to enter a loveless marriage. England's religious war became Anne's as she clung tight to her own ideals in her husband's house. This eventually brought her into the center of the vicious political and religious battles where she was faced with a choice. Anne could deny the truths she had embraced as a young woman and live, or hold fast to her beliefs and be put to death.