“Pray you unto the blessed Virgin Saint Mary, the holy angels, and the saints?”
“Soothly, no: it is not in the book. ‘Whateuer thing ye axen the Fadir in my name, I schal do that thing,’ saith Christ: but I hear not a word of ‘whatever thing ye shall ask Saint Michael, or Saint Anne.’”
“Account you confession unto priests to be right or evil?”
“It may be right—I wis not; but I saw it not in the book. I pray you, reverend fathers, if any other part of God His book do name these things, and give leave for the same, that you show it unto me, and thereupon I will believe them, but no else.”
The above is, of course, a mere sample of the innumerable questions which were put to the prisoner. Towards the close of the day, the Archbishop and abbots consulted together for a few minutes; and then Arundel turned to the accused.
“Margery Marnell, Baroness Marnell of Lymington, the Court demands of you whether you will put your name to this paper, and hold to all things therein contained?”
“Let me read the paper, my Lord Archbishop, and then I will give you an answer.”
The Archbishop did not wish her to read the paper; but Margery steadily declined to sign anything in the dark. At length the council permitted it to be read to her. It contained a promise to abjure all Lollard doctrines, and to perform a severe penance, such as the council should lay on her, for the scandal which she had caused to the Church. Margery at once refused to sign anything of the kind. The Archbishop warned her that in that case she must be prepared to submit to the capital sentence.
“Ye may sentence me,” she said, in her clear voice, always distinct, however feeble, “to what ye will. I fear you not. I wis ye have power to kill my body, but my soul never shall ye have power to touch. That is Christ’s, who witteth full well how to keep it; and to His blessed hands, not yours, I commit myself, body and soul.”
The Archbishop then passed sentence. The Court found Margery, Baroness Marnell of Lymington, guilty of all crimes whereof she stood indicted, and sentenced her to death by burning, in the open place called Tower Hill, on the 6th day of March next ensuing.