Note 159 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
His barbarous treatment of the wretched Anne Askew is notorious. For denying that the sacramental blood and wine lost their material elements after consecration, Anne was condemned to be tortured, and the Lord Chancellor with his own hands stretched the rack on which the unfortunate woman was bound, in the hope of extracting a confession. It must, however, be admitted that Wriothesley's heart was not entirely impervious to emotion, for when, as Lord Chancellor, he announced the death of Henry VIII. in the House of Lords, he could not refrain from bursting into tears.