Torture having failed, the poor, mangled body was thrust into a chair, and carried to the stake. A Catholic priest and two other persons were conducted with her to execution, all condemned in like manner for the violation of the king"s mandates. Bound to their respective stakes, these victims of intolerant bigotry and unlimited tyranny awaited with patience the kindling of the f.a.gots which were piled around. But they were to be still further tempted ere they were released from suffering.
While they were thus publicly exposed in the most painful of positions, suffering all the physical agony it was possible to endure and live, a message was sent to them that, if they would even at that late period recant, their lives would be spared. But they refused to purchase life at such a price, and calmly met their doom, Miss Askew with as much fort.i.tude as either of the others.
Thus, amid smoke and flame, the pure spirit of Anne Askew was wafted, by attendant angels, to the paradise of G.o.d, whom she was not ashamed to honor before men. In all the struggle of the Reformation, what man exhibited more courage or greater strength of character or fort.i.tude than this beautiful girl of but seventeen Summers? In what respect did she exhibit inferiority to those men a.s.sociated with her in the trying year (1546) in which she earned her crown of martyrdom? There were many martyrs, but not one more steadfast.
ESTHER INGLIS.
The reign of Elizabeth has been styled the Augustine age of England.
Under this queen"s sanction, literature flourished more than ever before in that kingdom; and as a consequence her people became less barbarous, and men learned to look with less admiration upon the sword, and more respect on books. The influence of the encouragement given to men of letters by Elizabeth tells for good upon our literature, even after this lapse of time.
Among the personages eminent in this reign was Esther Inglis, who was exceedingly zealous, and industrious withal, in translating and transcribing the Scriptures into various languages, particularly French and Latin. Copies of these she presented to persons of distinction, one of which--a copy of the Psalms, and a rare specimen of calligraphy--she presented to the queen, who graciously accepted it, and subsequently had it deposited in the library of Christ"s Church, Oxford.
She was p.r.o.nounced by the most exacting critics to be the most accurate chirographist that had been known up to that period; nor has her peer been found since. She excelled even the celebrated Ascham and Davies, both in the number and variety of styles. Her copy of the Book of Proverbs is perhaps her most elaborate work of art, and is a marvel for the ingenious combination of writing, of which there are forty specimens, and fine pen-and-ink drawings. Every chapter, which is embellished both at the beginning and end with beautiful decorations, is written in a different hand, and there are variations of hand in some of the chapters. The book is ent.i.tled "Les Proverbes de Solomon, escrites in diverses sortes des lettres, par Esther Anglois, Francoise: A Lislebourge en Escosse, 1599," and is dedicated to the Earl of Ess.e.x. It is further ornamented by an exquisitely neat representation of the arms of the unfortunate n.o.bleman, with all their quarterings, and by a pen-and-ink likeness of herself.
Several others of her works are carefully preserved in both England and Scotland; and some, as late 1711, were in the possession of her own descendants.
At the age of forty, she married a Scottish gentleman, named Kello, or, as we would spell it in these modern times, Kelly. The issue of this marriage was one son, named Samuel; and it was her grandson, Samuel Kelly, who was in possession of various portions of her works in the last century.
LADY PAKINGTON.
This celebrated lady, who flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century, was the daughter of Lord Coventry, Keeper of the Great Seal, and the wife of Sir John Pakington. She was justly considered one of the celebrities of her day, and her society sought by the learned divines with whom she was contemporary. She was the well-known author of several works of merit, and the reputed author of others.
Ballard, who has given the world so many sketches of worthy and eminent women, with several other writers of note, claims that it was she who wrote the treatise ent.i.tled "The Whole Duty of Man;" and his reasoning is so much to the point, though quaint, that we simply append what he says of her, with his apt quotations from her writings, as a sufficiently clear delineation of the character and talents of this worthy woman. He writes:
"Yet hardly my pen will be thought capable of adding to the reputation her own has procured to her, if it shall appear that she was the author of a work which is not more an honor to the writer than a universal benefit to mankind. The work I mean is "The Whole Duty of Man;" her t.i.tle to which has been so well ascertained, that the general concealment it has lain under will only reflect a l.u.s.ter upon all her other excellencies by showing that she had no honor in view but that of her Creator, which, I suppose, she might think best promoted by this concealment. (The claims of other authors are not difficult to be disposed of.) If I were a Roman Catholic, I would summon tradition as an evidence for me on this occasion, which has constantly attributed this performance to a lady. And a late celebrated writer observes, that "there are many probable arguments in "The Whole Duty of Man," to back a current report that it was written by a lady," And any one who reads "The Lady"s Calling," may observe a great number of pa.s.sages which clearly indicate a female hand.
"That vulgar prejudice of the supposed incapacity of the female s.e.x is what these memoirs in general may possibly remove; and as I have had frequent occasion to take notice of it, I should not now enter again upon that subject, had not this been made use of as an argument to invalidate Lady Pakington"s t.i.tle to those performances. It may not be amiss, therefore, to transcribe two or three pa.s.sages from the treatise I have just now mentioned. "But, waiving these reflections, I shall fix only on the personal accomplishments of the s.e.x, and peculiarly that which is the most princ.i.p.al endowment of the rational nature--I mean the understanding--where it will be a little hard to p.r.o.nounce that they are naturally inferior to men, when it is considered how much of intrinsic weight is put in the balance to turn it to the men"s side. Men have their parts cultivated and improved by education; refined and subtilized by learning and arts; are like a piece of common which, by industry and husbandry, becomes a different thing from the rest, though the natural turf owned no such inequality. We may, therefore, conclude that whatever vicious impotence women are under, it is acquired, not natural; nor derived from any illiberality of G.o.d"s, but from the ill-managery of his bounty. Let them not charge G.o.d foolishly, or think that by making them women, he necessitated them to be proud or wanton, vain or peevish; since it is manifest he made them to better purpose; was not partial to the other s.e.x; but that having, as the prophet speaks, "abundance of spirit," he equally dispensed it, and gave the feeblest woman as large and capacious a soul as that of the greatest hero. Nay, give me leave to say further, that as to an eternal well-being, he seems to have placed them in more advantageous circ.u.mstances than he has done men. He has implanted in them some native propensions which do much facilitate the operations of grace upon them,"
"And having made good this a.s.sertion, she interrogates thus: "How many women do we read of in the Gospel who, in all the duties of a.s.siduous attendance on Christ, liberalities of love and respect, nay, even in zeal and courage, surpa.s.sed even the apostles themselves? We find his cross surrounded, his pa.s.sion celebrated, by the avowed tears and lamentations of devout women, when the most sanguine of his disciples had denied, yea, foresworn; and all had forsaken him. Nay, even death itself could not extinguish their love. We find the devout Maries designing a laborious, chargeable, and perhaps hazardous respect, to his corpse; and accordingly it is a memorable attestation Christ gives to their piety by making them the first witnesses of his resurrection, the prime evangelists to proclaim those glad tidings, and, as a learned man speaks, apostles to the apostles."
"There are many works of this lady besides "The Whole Duty of Man,"
enumerated in her biographies."
MRS. MARY WASHINGTON.
The material at hand is too meagre to admit of giving such a sketch of this lady as would afford any adequate idea of her character; and yet it is due to her memory, and to her nation, that there should be some tribute to her worth.
The mother of General Washington is as much the mother of the Great Republic as was Mrs. Susannah Wesley the mother of Methodism; for Washington owed the distinction to which he rose, and the high niche he occupies in the history of the world"s heroes, to the early and careful training of his mother. Left a widow in a comparatively new and wild country, when her son George was but ten years old, she fully realized the very great responsibility resting upon her as sole remaining guardian of her children, and set herself to watch the bent of their inclinations, and to direct their energies into a proper channel.
Respecting the influence she exerted upon them, her daughter-in-law, the wife of the President, many years afterward remarked: "You speak of the greatness of my husband. His dear mother ever looked well to the ways of her household. She taught him to be industrious by her example."
By her mild but firm management of her boy, she established a hold upon his affections, which strengthened instead of decreasing with years; and when, in the later part of his life, honors and distinctions were heaped upon him, he considered them rather as tributes to the worth of his mother than to his own. As was natural to so adventurous a spirit, George early manifested a predilection for the sea, and his elder brother encouraged him in thinking he might attain distinction as a gallant mariner. A midshipman"s berth was procured for him, at the age of fifteen, on board of one of his majesty"s ships, then off the coast of Virginia; and it seemed as if the ardent desire of his boyhood was about to be realized. But when all was ready, his mother gave expression to her disapproval of the expedition. Though sorely disappointed, he at once acquiesced, and yielded to the representations made by her. Nor did she expect him to give a ready acquiescence to her views without giving him valid reasons. She deemed him quite too young to be removed from the salutary restraints of home, and from the influences of its dearer ties. Years after, the colonists of Virginia and the North-west blessed the day upon which Mrs. Washington refused her consent to her son"s entering the navy, and thus kept him to do them invaluable service in driving back from their territories the hostile Indians, or more hostile French. Though a genuine F.F.V., she was never arrogant in her demeanor.
In her intercourse with those by whom she was surrounded, or with whom she came in contact, she was simple and unaffected, the model of a true lady and a Christian.
Even in old age, she still watched carefully over the interests of her son. During the Winter of 1777-1778, when the American soldiers were in such extremity at Valley Forge, she, as well as the wife of Washington, spent her time in preparing comfortable clothing for them. Her spinning-wheel and knitting-needles were rarely idle in those times of trial. A woman of proper discernment and good judgment, it is scarcely necessary to say that she disapproved of extravagance of every kind; and when the necessities of her country demanded the sacrifice of every thing not an absolute necessity, she was found foremost in setting an example of plainness of dress.
Lafayette, with his aids-de-camp, paid her a visit of congratulation on the occasion of Washington"s successful pa.s.sage of the Delaware, and found her dressed for their reception in a plain printed gown, with her knitting--probably a stocking for some needy soldier--lying on a table near her. Did the n.o.ble Frenchman and his companions deem their reception to have been less cordial than they would have thought it had she arrayed herself in costly satin and lace, and received them in idle state? Lafayette"s own testimony of his appreciation of her remarkable worth answers for itself.
At a good old age she died, and her country still reveres her memory.
MRS. WESLEY.
Taylor, the historian, gives Mrs. Wesley quite a prominent position in his account of the work accomplished by her sons, and gives the following reason for doing so: "The mother of the Wesleys was the mother of Methodism." One who was so intimately connected with the leaders of the Reformation of the eighteenth century deserves a prominent position among the eminent women of modern history.
Mrs. Wesley was distinguished, from childhood, for rare mental ability; and, even at so early an age as thirteen, had made theology a favorite study. Arrived at mature years, she made practical use of the knowledge so carefully acquired in youth, and manifested unusual judgment and skill in the early training and general management of her very large family. She did not confine herself to the management of her domestic concerns alone, as many good mothers would have done, though she carefully superintended them, but also overlooked the studies of her children; and it was really her thorough training, and her subsequent counsels to John and Charles while at Oxford, which produced in them the bent of mind that finally resulted in the great Methodist movement.
Accustomed all her life to read with care the productions of the most eminent writers of her own and preceding times, and to reflect upon what she read, she was able to arrive at correct conclusions concerning questions of importance, whether they related to private matters or to the public well-being. She had no more dread of Mrs. Grundy than her sons had. Once she knew she was right, "Society" might either blame or praise, as it saw fit; she remained firm in the carrying out of the measure--true to her principles.
When her sons, John and Charles, collected the common and poorer people about them, and began preaching to them in the open fields, there was a fearful outcry. Old-time customs had been innovated. Clergymen of the Church of England had departed from accustomed usage, and from field or horseblock had proclaimed a full and free salvation through Christ to the very vilest of the land, if they would but comply with the conditions laid down by him. The Profession were aggrieved at such irregular proceedings. "Society" was scandalized that outcasts were bidden to the same feast upon the same conditions with those reputed decent. Even Samuel Wesley felt called upon to rebuke his brothers sharply for the reproach he considered they had brought upon the Church by their "intemperate zeal," But where was their mother meanwhile--she whose counsels experience had proved it best to follow? Examining the Scriptures, and the history of the primitive Church, to see wherein her sons had gone astray, that she might be in a position to convince them of their error, if she found them to be in it. Careful study, however, convinced her that they were only practicing the course followed by Christ and his apostles; and her determination was taken. She would not only encourage them by her letters, but sustain them and sanction their course by her presence. Accordingly, she went with her son John to Kensington Common, and stood by him while he preached to a congregation of about "twenty thousand people."
It was Mrs. Wesley who counseled John to ponder well what he did before he forbade laymen to address congregations; and her arguments on this point were so conclusive that they led him to alter his mind and make use of them as an agency for good in the Church, though previously he had considered such a proceeding a dangerous innovation.
During the life-time of her husband, it was her custom, in his absence, to allow those who chose to come to a.s.semble in a room of the old rectory at Epworth, on Sunday, and either read them a sermon herself or have one of the elder children do it. Frequently, the office of reader devolved upon her daughter Emily.
No matter into what department of her life you inquire, she is still found the same active, energetic, and strong-minded woman. Nothing weak or puerile is found in her character. From girlhood to maturity, from maturity to gray hairs, she pursues the same steady, uniform course. Her life is consistent with the principles which she had laid down for her own self-government, and which she believed were deduced from the Word of G.o.d.
At seventy-two years of age, she closed a long career of usefulness, dying, as the Christian might be expected to die, in the triumphs of faith. Five of her daughters, and her son John, were permitted to stand at her bedside and witness her peaceful end, and to comply with a request made shortly before she died, that, as soon as the last struggle was ended, they should unite in singing a psalm of praise for her release.
Very appropriate were the lines of her son Charles on this occasion:
"In sure and steadfast hope to rise, And claim her mansion in the skies, A Christian here her flesh laid down-- The cross exchanging for a crown."
MRS. FLETCHER.
Miss Mary Bosanquet, afterward Mrs. Fletcher, may also be numbered among the great women of the eighteenth century. While yet unmarried, she identified herself with the Methodists; and as a consequence was subjected to bitter persecution, even to being excluded from her father"s house, and forbidden to have any intercourse with the younger members of the family.
Circ.u.mstances led her to believe that it was her duty to exercise the talents given to her, in addressing public audiences, and she accordingly began speaking to such congregations as she chanced to have.
Such a departure from established usage brought down upon her a storm of invective and abuse. Her family and friends felt aggrieved that she should have allowed her enthusiasm--as they termed it--to lead her into what they deemed such an indecorous proceeding; and for a time she found it exceedingly difficult to stem the tide of opposition raised against her. But her natural good sense and independence of character were greatly in her favor. Ultimately, without her having yielded to the pressure brought to bear upon her, she overcame all opposition, and her family became reconciled to her.
She preached in various parts of England with acceptance, as she had opportunity, from shortly after her conversion till her marriage; and then, as it would have been a violation of a canon of the Church of England--of which Mr. Fletcher was a minister--for a woman to occupy the pulpit of the church at Madeley, her husband had a large building erected, in close proximity to the rectory, for her especial use. Here, for the few years that he was spared to his wife, it was Mr. Fletcher"s pleasure--though he had few equals in erudition--to listen to the gentle teachings of this amiable woman. Her eloquence was so very remarkable, that more than twenty years of public speaking had not in the least diminished the interest with which she was listened to. Crowds attended on her ministry, not from idle curiosity, but for edification.
So beneficial had Mrs. Fletcher"s ministrations at Madeley been found to be, that on the death of her husband, and the appointment of a successor, the new rector, not wishing to r.e.t.a.r.d the progress of true Christianity in his parish, requested her to continue to use the building erected for her convenience just as she had formerly done. Mrs.
Fletcher accepted the invitation so cordially given, and for many years was an efficient co-laborer with the rector.
Nor did the public career of Mrs. Fletcher mar her efficiency in the management of her domestic concerns. Both at Laytonstone and at Madeley, she attended carefully to her household, overseeing every thing connected with what is technically termed the women"s department, with particular scrupulousness. At last her long and active life was nearing its close. For thirty years she had mourned the loss of her venerated husband, of whom, in her seventy-sixth year, she thus makes mention in her journal:
"_August_ 13, 1815.--Thirty years, this day, I drank the bitter cup and closed the eyes of my beloved husband, and now I am myself in a dying state." Then, in view of her own approaching end, she continues: "Lord, prepare me. I feel death very near. My soul doth wait and long to the bosom of my G.o.d." A little earlier in this year she had written: "O, I long that the year fifteen [1815] may be the best year of my life." With the great apostle she could say, "Having a desire to depart, and be with Christ." And now she was realizing the fulfillment of that longing desire. Her labors were about ended. Soon she was to enter into the Christian"s promised rest. On the 9th of December, 1815, she closed her eyes to sublunary objects to open them in the paradise above. Rev. Mr.
Dodson, who attended her funeral, said of her: "Her congregations were fully as large, after thirty years" labors, as when she first opened her commission among them."
Where is the clergyman of whom more can be said?
MISS CROSBY.
While Miss Bosanquet was still living at Laytonstone, she had a.s.sociated with her two other ladies equally eminent for their earnest piety, and for the diligence with which they prosecuted every good work. It was their delight, among other things, to a.s.sist Miss Bosanquet in dispensing her munificent charities, which were so managed as to be given without ostentation. These two intimate friends of Miss Bosanquet were Miss Crosby and Miss Tripp. From the very commencement of a regularly organized movement among the Methodists, cla.s.s and band meetings had been found very useful as a means of instructing the people who had united with these societies, and, in the capacity of cla.s.s-leaders and band-leaders, these three ladies were perhaps unsurpa.s.sed in England.