Born in the
1560s she became an emblem of resilience in the face of religious persecution.
Raised a Puritan in a household led by her father, a reformer under
Henry VIII, her life took a radical turn in the 1580s.
Alongside her brother William and her husband, Roger Line,
she converted to Roman Catholicism,
a choice that estranged her from her family and dowry.
After her husband's exile and death, this lady, despite her frail health,
took up the daunting task
of managing a safe house for fugitive priests under the guidance of John Gerard.
However, her steadfast devotion and audacious defiance of religious edicts
eventually led to her imprisonment and execution.
Her story is a testament to her unwavering
faith and conviction, etched indelibly into the fabric of religious history.
So join me now as we look back on the troubling life of Anne Line.
Born under the modest name “Alice Higham” in the early 1560s,
Alice was the firstborn to the staunch Puritan William Higham of Jenkyn Maldon.
Her grandfather, Roger Heigham, was a genuine Protestant reformer
under the reign of Henry VIII.
Yet a radical shift in faith was on the horizon for Alice, with the early 1580s
marking a pivot in her spiritual journey.
Alice, her brother William, and Roger Line,
the man she would soon marry,
all embraced the Roman Catholic Church's
doctrine, a move that came at a steep price.
Roger and William paid for their religious convictions,
with disinheritance and Alice's forfeit dowry
marking the fallout of their conversion.
Around this time, the name “Anne” supplanted “Alice,” a symbolic testament
to her new Catholic identity.
Faith demanded an exorbitant toll.
Roger and William were incarcerated and penalized,
ensnared during a clandestine Mass.
While William secured a release
in England, Roger found himself exiled to Flanders.
Despite his trials,
Roger sent part of his modest allowance from the King of Spain to his wife
until his death around 1594.
In a twist of fate, Anne's widowhood dovetailed with the opening
of a sanctuary for hidden priests established by Father John Gerard.
Despite her persistent ill health, Anne found herself appointed as its caretaker.
And even amidst Gerard's imprisonment,
Anne held steadfast for the next three years,
running the refuge with unwavering dedication.
Gerard in due course, was relocated to the Tower of London,
where he endured torture yet managed to flee.
Within the pages of his autobiography, he recounts his experiences.
After I escaped from prison Anne gave up managing the house.
By then she was known to so many people
that it was unsafe for me to frequent any house she occupied.
Instead she hired apartments
in another building and continued to shelter priests there.
One day, however
it was the Purification of Our Blessed Lady,
she allowed in an unusually large number of Catholics to hear Mass.
Some neighbours noticed the crowd and the constables were at the house immediately.
On 2nd February 1601, as
the ceremony of Candlemas unfolded within her home, a time-honoured ritual
where candles were blessed, But Anne Line’s sanctuary was ambushed.
Amidst the chaos, Father Francis Page managed to melt into a secret refuge,
designed under Anne’s watchful eye and later evaded capture.
However, Anne and another woman, Margaret Gage, were not as fortunate.
While Gage secured bail and eventual pardon,
Anne was dispatched to the infamous Newgate Prison.
She stood trial on 26th February,
her frail frame ravaged by fever, needing the support of a chair.
Although with a voice tinged with defiance, Anne
declared her sole regret was not providing shelter for a thousand more priests.
It was those words and her audacity that earned her
a death sentence from Judge
Sir John Popham for the felony of harbouring a seminary priest.
The next day, on 27th February, Anne Line was led to the gallows.
The hangman's noose
claimed her life; her execution served only as a grim
prelude to the gruesome fate of two priests, Roger Filcock and Mark Barkworth,
who were subjected to the grotesque sentence
of being hanged, drawn, and quartered.
While sitting on the scaffold, she reiterated her trial statement,
proclaiming to the onlookers.
I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far
I am from repenting for having so done that.
I wish with all my soul
that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand.
Anne Line, was a symbol of steadfast faith,
She faced her end with courage, leaving an indelible imprint
on the annals of religious history.
The connection between Shakespeare's “The Phoenix and the Turtle”
and Anne Lines's life and death ignites intense scholarly discourse.
First proposed by Clara Longworth in the 1930s,
the theory presumes the poem as a secret eulogy for Anne and Roger Line,
alluding to the covert Catholic sympathies of Shakespeare himself.
Scholars John Finnis and Patrick Martin revisited this perspective in 2003,
further extrapolated by Martin
Dodwell to portray Shakespeare's lament over England's abandonment of Catholicism,
which echoed in his play, “Cymbeline”.
Other allusions to Anne Line in Shakespeare's works,
specifically “The Tempest” and “Sonnet 74”, have been suggested by scholars
like Colin Wilson and Gerard Kilroy, weaving an intricate web of subtext
throughout Bard's works.
Anne Line's profound spiritual sacrifice culminated in beatification by Pope Pius
XI in 1929 and canonization by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs
of England and Wales.
Celebrated on 4th May and shared with fellow martyrs
Margaret Clitherow and Margaret Ward on 30th August, her memory endures.
Her name graces St.
Anne Line Catholic Junior School in Basildon
and a parish in Great Dunmow, Essex,
where local lore suggests her family resided in the Clock House.
But it would be her legacy that remained a
beacon of steadfast faith and resistance.
Anne Line found immortal life in her untimely death, etching her name
in the annals of religious history as a beacon of undying faith.
Having navigated the tumultuous seas of persecution, she emerged not a victim,
but a valiant martyr, her legacy as enduring as her spirit.
Anne’s final act of defiance resonated through the ages,
echoing in the hallowed halls of educational institutions
and parishes bearing her name.
Even in the face of death, her steadfast courage
remains a testament to her unwavering commitment to her faith,
making her a cherished figure amongst the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Anne Line’s story is an enduring reminder of the power of confidence and
the strength of conviction.