While they were imprisoned here, it happened that the inquisition house was new built or repaired, which took up about the space of a year and an half; and during this time, some of the great ones came often to see the building, which gave opportunity to these women to speak to them, and to declare the Truth in the name of the Lord.
Now, though they were threatened by the monks for preaching the light of Christ so boldly, yet not only the magistrates, but the lord inquisitor grew moderate towards them, and gave order they should have pens, ink, and paper, to write to England. And they seemed inclined to have them set at liberty; but the friars worked mightily against it; and had laboured about three quarters of a year to part them, before they could bring it to pass. And when at length they had effected it, they told Catharine that they should never see one another’s faces again.
In the meanwhile Catharine being sickly, had little stomach to eat, and had no mind to eat any thing but what came from Sarah to her. And having told one of the friars that she wanted somebody to wash her linen, and to prepare some warm victuals for her, he sent to Sarah to know if she would do it for her; and she said she would. And by that means they for some weeks heard of one another every day; and the friar said once to Catharine, ‘You may free yourself of misery when you will; you may make yourself a Catholic, and have your freedom to go where you will:’ to which she told him, ‘Thus I might have a name that I did live when I was dead: thou hast Catholics enough already. Endeavour to bring some of them to the light in their consciences, that they may stand in awe and sin not.’ But he was so eager, that he said he would lose one of his fingers if she and Sarah would be Catholics. Then she told him that it was Babylon that was built with blood, but Sion was redeemed through judgment.
Many ways were used to draw them off; and once they would have persuaded her to set a picture at her bed’s head, for a representation: but she said, as with abhorrence, ‘What, do ye think I want a calf to worship? Do ye walk by the rule of Scriptures?’ To which the friar said, ‘We do; but we have traditions too.’ She replied, ‘If your traditions derogate or dissent, from the fundamentals of Christ’s doctrine, the prophets, and apostles, I deny them in the name of the Lord.’ But he asserted that they did not. Then she asked what rule they had to burn those that could not join with them for conscience-sake: and he returned, ‘St. Paul did worse, for he gave them to the devil:’ and further said, that they did judge all damned that were not of their faith. Then she objected to him several of the superstitious rites of the church of Rome, and mentioned also the forbidding of marriage, which, said she is a doctrine of devils, according to the saying of the apostle. The friar being put to a nonplus, told her that St. Peter was the pope of Rome, and did build an altar there, and the pope was his successor, and he could do what he would. But she refuted this with sound reason. He then boasting of the antiquity of their church, she signified that the church she was of was yet older; ‘For,’ said she, ‘our faith was from the beginning; and Abel was of our church.’ The friar being at a loss, and no longer able to hold out against Catharine, went to Sarah, and talked with her at the same rate; and she also told him Abel was of our church: to which he said, ‘Abel was a Catholic;’ and quite overshooting himself, he said likewise, ‘And Cain and Judas were so.’ To which Sarah returned, ‘Then the devil was a Catholic; and I will not be one: I will not turn; though ye would tear me to pieces, I believe the Lord would enable me to endure it.’
At another time the said friar, whose name was Malachy, came again to Catharine, and told her if she would be a Catholic, she should say so; otherwise they would use her badly, and she should never see the face of Sarah again, but should die by herself, and a thousand devils should carry her soul to hell. She then asked him if he were the messenger of God to her: and he said ‘Yes.’ ‘Why, what is my sin,’ said she, ‘or wherein have I provoked the Lord, that he doth send me such a message?’ ‘It is,’ returned the monk, ‘because you will not be a Catholic.’ Whereupon she said, ‘I deny thee and the message too, and the spirit which speaks in thee; for the Lord never spoke so.’ He growing angry, said that he would lay her in a whole pile of chains, where she should see neither sun nor moon. She intimating how resigned she was, said he could not separate her from the love of God in Christ Jesus, lay her wherever he would. And he further saying he would give her to the devil, she resumed, ‘I do not fear all the devils in hell; the Lord is my keeper. Though thou hadst the inquisition, with all the countries round about it on thy side, and I was alone by myself, I do not fear them; if they were thousands more, the Lord is on my right hand; and the worst they can do, is but to kill the body, they can touch my life no more than the devil could Job’s.’ Then the monk said she should never go out of the room alive. To which she courageously said, ‘The Lord is sufficient to deliver me; but whether he will or no, I will not forsake the living fountain, to drink at a broken cistern. And ye have no law to keep us here, but such a law as Ahab had for Naboth’s vineyard.’ The monk then cursing himself, and calling upon his gods, ran away; and as he was pulling the door, he said, ‘Abide there, member of the devil.’ To which she said, ‘The devil’s members do the devil’s works; and the woes and plagues of the Lord will be upon them for it.’
He then went and told the inquisitor of it, who laughed at him; and before he came again, Catharine was moved out of that room: when he came he brought one of the inquisitor’s men with him, and two very good hens, and said, the lord inquisitor had sent them in love to her. To which she said, she received his love, but yet she showed herself not very ready to accept them; and signified that she was willing to pay for them, being loath to be chargeable to any, whilst she had of her own. The friar, who it seems would have had them lay down their money at his feet, said they must not count any thing their own, for in the primitive times they sold their possessions, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet. He further said, ‘You shall not want any thing, though we should spend a thousand crowns. But you are proud, because you will not take the inquisitor’s hens which he sent you in charity.’ She then asking what kind of charity this was, since he kept her in prison; the friar said, it was for the good of their souls he kept them in prison; further adding, ‘If you had not been going to preach, ye might have gone where ye would.’ She returned, ‘Our souls are out of the inquisitor’s reach. Why should your love extend more to us than to your own family: for they commit all manner of sin, which you cannot charge us with. Why do not ye put them into the inquisition, and bid them turn?’ He then said, ‘You have not the true faith;’ and showing her his crucifix, asked her, if she thought he did worship that: and she asked him, what then did he with it: to which he answered, it was a representation. And she replied, it did not represent Christ, for he was the express image of his Father’s glory, which is light and life. ‘But,’ continued she, ‘if thou canst put any life in any of thy images, then bring them to me. What representation had Daniel in the lion’s den, or Jonah in the whale’s belly? They cried unto the Lord, and he delivered them.’ The friar, who could not abide to hear her speak so much against idols, said she talked like a mad woman, adding, ‘I will give you to the devil.’ She not fearing this, said, ‘Give thy own, I am the Lord’s.’ He then stood up, and said, ‘I will do to you as the apostles did to Ananias and Sapphira.’ She then standing up also, said, ‘I deny thee in the name of the Lord, the living God, thou hast no power over me.’ Then away he went with the hens to Sarah, and told her that Catharine was sick, and the lord inquisitor had sent two hens, and she would be glad to eat a piece of one, if she would dress one of them presently, and the other to-morrow. Sarah no less circumspect and cautious than Catharine, and unwilling to receive this gift before she knew what might be expedient, answered him accordingly as Catharine did. Then he carried the hens away again, saying, ‘You would fain be burnt, because you would make the world believe, you love God so well as to suffer in that kind.’ Catharine hearing this, said, ‘I do not desire to be burnt; but if the Lord should call me to it, I believe he will give me power to undergo it for his Truth; and if every hair of my head was a body, I could offer them up all for the testimony of Jesus.’
The friar coming afterwards, again asked Catharine whether she had not been inspired of the Holy Ghost to be a Catholic, since she came into the inquisition: she said, ‘No:’ but he maintaining the contrary, said, ‘You are those who call the Spirit of the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the devil.’ ‘No:’ replied they, (who though they were parted could hear one another,) ‘the Spirit of the Holy Ghost in us will resist the devil; and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost is not wrought in the will of man, nor in man’s time; but in God’s will and time.’ More discourse they had about this matter, and then asking for their bibles, which had been taken from them, he said they should never see them again, for they were false.
Thus they were often troubled and importuned by the friars, who generally came two at a time, though sometimes but one. One of these often lifted up his hand to strike them, but did not: for they not being moved by fear, he was put out of countenance, and would say they were good women, and he would do them any good. As indeed sometimes he did work for them, and would say it was for God’s sake, and that they ought to thank him for it; to which they replied, those that did any thing for God, did not look for a reward from man; which once made him so angry, that he said they were the worst of all creatures, and that they should be used worse than the Turks, Armenians, and Lutherans. Whereupon one of them said, ‘The pure life was ever counted the worst; and if we suffer, we are the Lord’s, and can trust him. Do what ye will with us, we do not fear any evil tidings: we are settled and grounded in Truth; and the more ye persecute us, the stronger we grow.’ For this they experienced indeed, according to what they signified in their letters, though they were separated a year from each other. The friars coming once to Sarah, told her if she would she might go out of the prison, and say and do nothing. And she saying she would on that account, they said they would come next morning. But Sarah perceived their deceit, and therefore when they came, she, to avoid the snare, could not resolve to go forth, though the friars behaved themselves friendly, and told her that the inquisitor had said, if they wanted linen, woollen, stockings, shoes, or money, they should have it.
Once it happened that an Englishman who lived there, having heard that Sarah was in a room with a window next the street, got up by the wall, and spoke a few words to her; but he was violently hauled down, and cast into prison upon life and death; for he was one they had taken from the Turks, and made a Papist of him. The friars coming to them to know whether he had brought them any letters, they said ‘No.’ Neither had Catharine seen him; yet it was told them, he was like to be hanged. Of this Sarah gave information to Catharine, by writing a few lines to her, (for it seems they then could not hear one another,) and she told her, she thought the English friars were the chief actors of this business. This grieved Catharine, and she wrote to Sarah again, (for they had a private way to send to each other.) In this letter, after her salutation, she said to Sarah, that she might be sure the friars were the chief actors; but that she believed the Lord would preserve that poor Englishman for his love, and that she was made to seek the Lord for him with tears; and that she desired her to send him something once a day, if the keeper would carry it; that she herself was ravished with the love of God to her soul, and her beloved was the chiefest of ten thousands; and that she did not fear the face of any man, though she felt their arrows: moreover that she had a prospect of their safe return into England. And in the conclusion, she bade Sarah take heed, if she was tempted with money. But this letter, (by what means they never knew,) came to the English friar’s hands, who translating it into Italian, delivered it to the lord inquisitor; and afterwards came with the inquisitor’s deputy to Catharine, and showed her both the papers, and asked her if she could read it: viz. the English one: ‘Yea,’ said she, ‘I wrote it.’ ‘O, did you indeed?’ said he. ‘And what is it you say of me here?’ ‘Nothing but what is true,’ replied she. Then he said, ‘Where is the paper Sarah sent? Give it, or else I will search your trunk, and every where else.’ She then bidding him search where he would, he said, she must tell him who it was that brought her ink, or else she should be tied with chains presently. And she returned she had done nothing but what was just and right in the sight of God; and what she did suffer on that account would be for Truth’s sake. And she would not meddle with the poor workmen. Then he said, ‘For God’s sake tell me what Sarah did write.’ And she told him something, and said, what she spoke was truth. ‘But,’ returned he, ‘you say it is much we do not tempt you with money.’ And this indeed happened afterwards. The deputy then took Catharine’s ink, and threw it away; and so they went also; and the poor Englishman was released the next morning. They now coming to Sarah, told her that Catharine honestly had confessed all, and that she had best to confess too: and they threatened her with a halter, and that they would take away her bed and trunk, and her money too: to which Sarah said, it may be she might not send to Catharine any more: and she asked the deputy, whether he was a minister of Christ, or a magistrate; if he were a magistrate, said she, he might take her money, but she would not give it him. He then growing angry, said she was possessed; to which she replied, if so, then it was with the power of an endless life.
Thus from time to time they suffered many assaults; and sometimes it so happened that those who came to see them, were struck to the heart, which offended the friars. Now at length their money was almost gone, they having sometimes employed it for victuals. But the friars told them they might have kept their money for other services; for they should have maintained them whilst they kept them prisoners. To this they said they could not keep their money and be chargeable to others. Then it so fell out that their stomachs were taken away, and they did eat but little for three or four weeks, till at length they found themselves obliged to fasting for several days together: which made the friars say, that it was impossible that people could live with so little meat as they did. And it was told them the lord inquisitor had said, they might have any thing they would. To which they signifying that it was not in their own will they fasted, said they must wait to know the mind of the Lord, what he would have them to do. They continued weak, especially Sarah, who apprehending her death near, did therefore dress her head as she would lie in the grave. They both were so feeble that they could not put on their clothes, neither put them off, being also unable to make their beds. And though they desired to be together in one room, yet the friars would not permit it. In this condition they concluded they were like to die; but heaven had provided otherwise.