Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
abominations? And yet you say, you come for my profit, and to save my soul. No, no, one
hath saved me. Farewell, you with your salvation."
During the liberty granted her by the bishop, before-mentioned, she went into St. Peter's
Church, and there found a skilful Dutchman, who was affixing new noses to certain fine
images which had been disfigured in King Edward's time; to whom she said, "What a madman
art thou, to make them new noses, which within a few days shall all lose their heads?" The
Dutchman accused her and laid it hard to her charge. And she said unto him, "Thou art
accursed, and so are thy images." He called her a whore. "Nay," said she, "thy images are
whores, and thou art a whore-hunter; for doth not God say, 'You go a whoring after strange
gods, figures of your own making? and thou art one of them.'" After this she was ordered to
be confined, and had no more liberty.
During the time of her imprisonment, many visited her, some sent by the bishop, and
some of their own will, among these was one Daniel, a great preacher of the Gospel, in the
days of King Edward, about Cornwall and Devonshire, but who, through the grievous
persecution he had sustained, had fallen off. Earnestly did she exhort him to repent with Peter,
and to be more constant in his profession.
Mrs. Walter Rauley and Mr. William and John Kede, persons of great respectability, bore
ample testimony of her godly conversation, declaring, that unless God were with her, it were
impossible she could have so ably defended the cause of Christ. Indeed, to sum up the
character of this poor woman, she united the serpent and the dove, abounding in the highest
wisdom joined to the greatest simplicity. She endured imprisonment, threatenings, taunts, and
the vilest epithets, but nothing could induce her to swerve; her heart was fixed; she had cast
anchor; nor could all the wounds of persecution remove her from the rock on which her hopes
of felicity were built.
Such was her memory, that, without learning, she could tell in what chapter any text of
Scripture was contained: on account of this singular property, one Gregory Basset, a rank
papist, said she was deranged, and talked as a parrot, wild without meaning. At length, having
tried every manner without effect to make her nominally a Catholic, they condemned her.
After this, one exhorted her to leave her opinions, and go home to her family, as she was poor
and illiterate. "True, (said she) though I am not learned, I am content to be a witness of Christ's
death, and I pray you make no longer delay with me; for my heart is fixed, and I will never
say otherwise, nor turn to your superstitious doing."
To the disgrace of Mr. Blackston, treasurer of the church, he would often send for this
poor martyr from prison, to make sport for him and a woman whom he kept; putting religious
questions to her, and turning her answers into ridicule. This done, he sent her back to her
wretched dungeon, while he battened upon the good things of this world.
There was perhaps something simply ludicrous in the form of Mrs. Prest, as she was of a
very short stature, thick set, and about fifty-four years of age; but her countenance was
cheerful and lively, as if prepared for the day of her marriage with the Lamb. To mock at her
form was an indirect accusation of her Creator, who framed her after the fashion He liked
best, and gave her a mind that far excelled the transient endowments of perishable flesh. When
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