Mrs Prest

From the number condemned in this fanatical reign, it is almost

impossible to obtain the name of every martyr, or to embellish the

history of all with anecdotes and exemplifications of Christian conduct.

Thanks be to Providence, our cruel task begins to draw towards a

conclusion, with the end of the reign of Papal terror and bloodshed.

Monarchs, sit upon thrones possessed by hereditary right, should, of all

others, con ider that the laws of nature are the laws of God, and hence

that the first law of nature is the preservation of their subjects.

Maxims of persecutions, of torture, and of death, they should leave to

those who have effected sovereignty by fraud or the sword; but where,

except among a few miscreant emperors of Rome, and the Roman pontiffs,

shall we find one whose memory is so "damned to everlasting fame" as

that of queen Mary? Nations bewail the hour which separates them forever

from a beloved governor, but, with respect to that of Mary, it was the

most blessed time of her whole reign. Heaven has ordained three great

scourges for national sins--plague, pestilence, and famine. It was the

will of God in Mary's reign to bring a fourth upon this kingdom, under

the form of Papistical Persecution. It was sharp, but glorious; the fire

which consumed the martyrs has undermined the Popedom; and the Catholic

states, at present the most bigoted and unenlightened, are those which

are sunk lowest in the scale of moral dignity and political consequence.

May they remain so, till the pure light of the gospel shall dissipate

the darkness of fanaticism and superstition! But to return.



Mrs. Prest for some time lived about Cornwall, where she had a husband

and children, whose bigotry compelled her to frequent the abominations

of the church of Rome. Resolving to act as her conscience dictated, she

quitted them, and made a living by spinning. After some time, returning

home, she was accused by her neighbours, and brought to Exeter, to be

examined before Dr. Troubleville, and his chancellor Blackston. As this

martyr was accounted of inferior intellects, we shall put her in

competition with the bishop, and let the reader judge which had the most

of that knowledge conducive to everlasting life. The bishop bringing the

question to issue, respecting the bread and wine being flesh and blood,

Mrs. Prest said, "I will demand of you whether you can deny your creed,

which says, that Christ doth perpetually sit at the right hand of his

Father, both body and soul, until he come again; or whether he be there

in heaven our Advocate, and to make prayer for us unto God his Father?

If he be so, he is not here on earth in a piece of bread. If he be not

here, and if he do not dwell in temples made with hands, but in heaven,

what! shall we seek him here? If he did not offer his body once for all,

why make you a new offering? If with one offering he made all perfect,

why do you with a false offering make all imperfect? If he be to be

worshipped in spirit and in truth, why do you worship a piece of bread?

If he be eaten and drunken in faith and truth, if his flesh be not

profitable to be among us, why do you say you make his flesh and blood,

and say it is profitable for body and soul? Alas! I am a poor woman, but

rather than do as you do, I would live no longer. I have said, Sir."



Bishop. I promise you, you are a jolly protestant. I pray you in what

school have you been brought up?



Mrs. Prest. I have upon the Sundays visited the sermons, and there

have I learned such things as are so fixed in my breast, that death

shall not separate them.



B. O foolish woman, who will waste his breath upon thee, or such as

thou art? But how chanceth it that thou wentest away from thy husband?

If thou wert an honest woman, thou wouldst not have left thy husband and

children, and run about the country like a fugitive.



Mrs. P. Sir, I laboured for my living; and as my master Christ

counselleth me, when I was persecuted in one city, I fled into another.



B. Who persecuted thee?



Mrs. P. My husband and my children. For when I would have them to

leave idolatry, and to worship God in heaven, he would not hear me, but

he with his children rebuked me, and troubled me. I fled not for

whoredom, nor for theft, but because I would be no partaker with him and

his of that foul idol the mass; and wheresoever I was, as oft as I

could, upon Sundays and holydays, I made excuses not to go to the popish

church.



B. Belike then you are a good housewife, to fly from your husband and

the church.



Mrs. P. My housewifery is but small; but God gave me grace to go to

the true church.



B. The true church, what dost thou mean?



Mrs. P. Not your popish church, full of idols and abominations, but

where two or three are gathered together in the name of God, to that

church will I go as long as I live.



B. Belike then you have a church of your own. Well, let this mad woman

be put down to prison till we send for her husband.



Mrs. P. No, I have but one husband, who is here already in this city,

and in prison with me, from whom I will never depart.



Some persons present endeavouring to convince the bishop she was not in

her right senses, she was permitted to depart. The keeper of the

bishop's prisons took her into his house, where she either spun worked

as a servant, or walked about the city, discoursing upon the sacrament

of the altar. Her husband was sent for to take her home, but this she

refused while the cause of religion could be served. She was too active

to be idle, and her conversation, simple as they affected to think her,

excited the attention of several catholic priests and friars. They

teazed her with questions, till she answered them angrily, and this

excited a laugh at her warmth.



Nay, said she, you have more need to weep than to laugh, and to be sorry

that ever you were born, to be the chaplains of that whore of Babylon. I

defy him and all his falsehood; and get you away from me, you do but

trouble my conscience. You would have me follow your doings; I will

first lose my life. I pray you depart.



Why, thou foolish woman, said they, we come to thee for thy profit and

soul's health. To which she replied, What profit ariseth by you, that

teach nothing but lies for truth? how save you souls, when you preach

nothing but lies, and destroy souls?



How provest thou that? said they.



Do you not destroy your souls, when you teach the people to worship

idols, stocks and stones, the works of men's hands? and to worship a

false God of your own making of a piece of bread, and teach that the

pope is God's vicar, and hath power to forgive sins? and that there is a

purgatory, when God's Son hath by his passion purged all? and say you

make God, and sacrifice him, when Christ's body was a sacrifice once for

all? Do you not teach the people to number their sins in your ears, and

say they will be damned if they confess not all; when God's word saith,

Who can number his sins? Do you not promise them trentals and dirges,

and masses for souls, and sell your prayers for money, and make them buy

pardons, and trust to such foolish inventions of your imaginations? Do

you not altogether act against God? Do you not teach us to pray upon

beads, and to pray unto saints, and say they can pray for us? Do you not

make holy water and holy bread to fray devils? Do you not do a thousand

more 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 change. And she said unto

him, Thou are 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. Wm. 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 she was offered money,

she rejected it, "because (said she) I am going to a city where money

bears no mastery, and while I am here God has promised to feed me."



When sentence was read, condemning her to the flames, she lifted up her

voice and praised God, adding, "This day have I found that which I have

long sought." When they tempted her to recant,--"That will I not, (said

she) God forbid that I should lose the life eternal, for this carnal and

short life. I will never turn from my heavenly husband to my earthly

husband; from the fellowship of angels to mortal children; and if my

husband and children be faithful, then am I theirs. God is my father,

God is my mother, God is my sister, my brother, my kinsman; God is my

friend, most faithful."



Being delivered to the sheriff, she was led by the officer to the place

of execution, without the walls of Exeter, called Sothenhey, where again

the superstitious priests assaulted her. While they were tying her to

the stake, she continued earnestly to exclaim "God be merciful to me, a

sinner!" Patiently enduring the devouring conflagration, she was

consumed to ashes, and thus ended a life which in unshaken fidelity to

the cause of Christ, was not surpassed by that of any preceding martyr.