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Dear Dissertation Final University of Alberta Exchanging the Old with the New: Medieval Influences on Early Modern Representations in The Examinations of Anne Askew by Natalie E. Dear A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English and Film Studies ©Natalie E. Dear Spring 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author’s prior written permission. For Marcie, Griffin and Donald Abstract In The Examinations, Anne Askew represents herself as a reform martyr. Her editors John Bale and John Foxe further this representation in their comments on her responses, and situate her in the mulier fortis literary tradition. Bale’s commentary results in his self-representation as a historian of the reformed church. I argue that these representations are shaped by Askew’s and her editors’ employment of conventions associated with medieval hagiographies and histories. Medieval saints’ lives celebrate the heroes of the traditional religion. Why, and how, did Askew and her editors appropriate conventions of saints’ lives when, as reformers, they were against saints’ cults? This dissertation participates in the growing scholarship on Askew by being the first monograph dedicated to her text. I explore the ways in which Askew and her editors refashion the medieval representation of the martyr to present her as a reform martyr and mulier fortis. I also examine Bale’s self- representation as a sixteenth-century ecclesiastical historian. Chapter One investigates Askew’s reference to St Stephen with whom she aligns her self-representation as a martyr. Chapter Two analyzes Bale’s representation of Askew as a mulier fortis and his own representation as a historian. The chapter includes a brief survey of the mulier fortis tradition in order to situate Bale’s representation of Askew. Chapter Three examines Bale’s fashioning Askew with Marian features. Reformers recognized the Virgin Mary, a biblical example of a mulier fortis, as Christ’s mother, but negated all features of Marian devotion that conveyed saints’ cults. Chapter Four examines John Foxe’s inclusion of The Examinations in his Acts and Monuments and the possible medieval influences on his text. I argue that his treatment of Askew resembles John Capgrave’s representation of St Katherine. This dissertation underscores the relationship between history and textual representation: representations from the past are refashioned to produce representations in the present. I contribute to the current studies on periodization and to the discussions on the blurred border between the medieval and early modern literary periods. The medieval representation of the Christian martyr provides a framework for the construction of the early modern reformist martyr. Acknowledgements It is with sincere appreciation that I thank the people and institutions who have supported me during my doctoral program and helped to make this dissertation possible. I want to thank my supervisor Sylvia Brown for her guidance and her unwavering confidence in me. Your commitment to research and to my project helped me to understand the paramount significance of making an argument. I thank David Gay and Stephen Reimer for their generosity and kindness. Their extensive knowledge and genuine interest in my project inspired me to take my dissertation into rewarding areas of research. I also thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta for their financial support. As crazy as this sounds, I want to thank the PhD puppies, Baxter, Yardley and Elliott who kept me on a strict schedule of writing and walks. I thank Marcie and Griffin Dear, who, when I returned to university were children, but are now young adults. They endured my many years of constant study, never questioning why their mother was still in school. Thank you to my children for being patient and understanding on those occasions when I had to be a student first and a mom second. I would like to thank with my deepest gratitude Donald Dear, Q.C., my loving husband and ever faithful supporter. Your encouragement and enthusiasm were wholeheartedly appreciated, especially during the difficult moments of the program. You listened and, most importantly, made me laugh. Thank you. Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Hagiographical Representations of Anne Askew, “thys godlye yonge woman”...29 I. The Cult of St Stephen............................................................................35 II. Askew’s and Stephen’s textual relationship...........................................62 III. The Virgin Martyr Anne Askew............................................................89 IV. John Bale, hagiographical mediator......................................................92 V. Sixteenth-Century Mediation: Margery Kempe and Anne Askew......107 Chapter Two: Askew the Mulier Fortis and John Bale the Historian.........................................112 I. The mulier fortis model........................................................................115 II. The mulier fortis in Bale’s writing of ecclesiastical history................123 III. Helena, Ursula, and Hild: The power of the mulier fortis in assisting Bale’s self-representation...................................................153 IV. Writing the Christian Nation..............................................................166 Chapter Three: John Bale’s Marian Fashioning of Anne Askew..................................................172 I. Marian Devotion from the Early Church to the Early Modern............181 II. Bale’s Marian Askew..........................................................................210 Chapter Four: The Medieval Influences in John Foxe’s Representation of Anne Askew...........240 I. Jacobus’s Legenda aurea and Caxton’s Golden Legend: Hagiographical Sources for Foxe..........................................................242 II. Foxe’s Portrayal of Anne Askew as a Martyr......................................250 III. John Capgrave’s Life of Saint Katherine: Hearing the Female Voice....................................................................................................270 Conclusion...........................................................................................................297 Works Cited.........................................................................................................308 1 Introduction In 1546 at twenty-five years of age, Anne Askew, an English reformer, was burned at the stake for her heretical views on transubstantiation. For Askew, the bread and wine were only signs of Christ’s body and blood, representing his suffering and death for mankind. She did not believe that they changed in substance into Christ’s body and blood after being consecrated during the Mass. She was arrested three times for this belief, and was imprisoned and examined twice for heresy. During her incarcerations, Askew wrote a thorough record of her examinations, The first examinacyon and The lattre examinacyon. In these texts, she offers a detailed account of her examiners’ questions and her responses to them. After her death, the polemicist John Bale published The first examinacyon in 1546 and The lattre examinacyon in 1547. These editions include commentaries by Bale in which he offers his opinions on the examination process, the interrogators’ questions and Askew’s answers. At one point in his elucidations, Bale comments on a letter that Askew sent to fellow reformer John Lassels. In the letter, Askew communicates to Lassels her surprise in discovering that he believes she has renounced her beliefs in religious reform. Bale glosses her letter for his readers and states of Askew, “I wolde but knowe of them whych are common readers of chronycles and Sayntes lyves, where they ever redde of a more fervent and lyvelye faythe than was in thys 2 godlye yonge woman” (133).1 Bale contends that readers of chronicles and hagiographies would recognize Askew as an exemplary religious female figure because her piety models that of the saints and martyrs. But of more significance, Bale infers that Askew, by design, represents herself as a godly young woman to her readers. To create this representation, Askew refashions conventions from medieval hagiographical stories that record saints’ lives in order to present herself as an early modern martyr of the reformed faith. Medieval hagiographers portrayed Christian martyrs from the past as intelligent educated speakers who articulated their faith in Christ when confronted by repressive authorities. Likewise, Askew portrays herself as rhetorically skilful in her responses to her interrogators
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