Eight Women of Faith

Michael A. G. Haykin

• Publisher: Crossway
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781433548956
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Theologie

Read the Stories of Eight Remarkable Women and Their Vital Contributions to Church History

Throughout history, women have been crucial to the growth and flourishing of the church. Historian Michael A. G. Haykin highlights the lives of eight of these women who changed the course of history, showing how they lived out their unique callings despite challenges and opposition—inspiring modern men and women to imitate their godly examples today.

Jane Grey: The courageous Protestant martyr who held fast to her conviction that salvation is by faith alone even to the point of death.

Anne Steele: The great hymn writer whose work continues to help the church worship in song today.

Margaret Baxter: The faithful wife to pastor Richard Baxter who met persecution with grace and joy.

Esther Edwards Burr: The daughter of Jonathan Edwards whose life modeled biblical friendship.

Anne Dutton: The innovative author whose theological works left a significant literary legacy.

Ann Judson: The wife of Adoniram Judson and pioneer missionary in the American evangelical missions movement.

Sarah Edwards: The wife of Jonathan Edwards and model of sincere delight in Christ.

Jane Austen: The prolific novelist with a deep and sincere Christian faith that she expressed in her stories.

1

The Witness of Jane Grey, an Evangelical Queen

“Faith Only Justifieth”

It is February 10 in the year 1554. We are in a room in the Tower of London, where the Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554), who had been Queen of England for little over a week the previous year—from July 10–19, 1553—is imprisoned. She has been condemned to death by her cousin Mary I (1516–1558), also known to history as “Bloody Mary.” Though Mary, a die-hard Roman Catholic, is determined to end Jane’s earthly life, Mary also wants to save Jane’s soul. So she has sent one of her most able chaplains, a Benedictine monk by the name of John Feckenham (c. 1515–1584), to speak to Jane and convince her of her theological errors.1 Feckenham was no stranger to theological debate, since he had debated a number of leading Protestant theologians in the early 1550s, men such as John Hooper (1500–1555) and John Jewel (1522–1571). He may well have thought that a young woman such as Jane would be hard-pressed to withstand the power of his reasoning.

Jane recorded the conversation after Feckenham left her. According to Jane’s account—and we do not have a similar account from Feckenham, though there seems no reason to doubt the veracity of Jane’s recollection—after Jane had confessed her faith in the triunity of God, she affirmed that people are saved by faith alone. Feckenham responded to this by citing 1 Corinthians 13:2, “If I have all faith . . . but have not love, I am nothing.” In other words, Feckenham was maintaining that salvation was the result of both faith and love shown by good works. Jane stood her ground:

Jane: True it is, for how can I love him in whom I trust not? Or how can I trust in him whom I love not? Faith and love agreeth both together, and yet love is comprehended in faith.

Feckenham: How shall we love our neighbour?

Jane: To love our neighbour is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give drink to the thirsty, and to do to him as we would do to ourselves.

Feckenham: Why then it is necessary to salvation to do good works and it is not sufficient to believe.

Jane: I deny that and I affirm that faith only saves. But it is meet for Christians, in token that they follow their master Christ, to do good works, yet may we not say that they profit to salvation. For, although we have all done all that we can, yet we be unprofitable servants, and the faith only in Christ’s blood saveth.2

Who was this remarkable young woman and how did she come to be in this precarious position in the infamous Tower of London? In some ways, Jane’s story is a difficult one to tell since it cannot be understood without due consideration of the politics swirling her life. So as we remember her story, while our focus is going to be on her Christian faith, the political scene cannot be ignored. Jane was the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s (1491–1547) youngest and favorite sister, Mary Tudor (1496–1533), and was thus that wily monarch’s great-niece. During Jane’s life she stood fourth in line to the English throne after Henry’s three children—Edward VI (1537–1553), Mary, and Elizabeth (1533–1603)—and was elevated to the crown after the death of her cousin Edward VI in 1553. Thus any consideration of Jane’s life inevitably involves looking at the politics of the day.

Jane’s Early Days

Jane Grey was born to Henry Grey (1517–1554), the Marquis of Dorset, and his wife, Frances (1517–1559), the niece of Henry VIII, at their palatial Leicestershire home, Bradgate Manor, early in October 1537. She appears to have been named after the queen of the day, Jane Seymour (c. 1508–1537), the third wife of Henry VIII and the mother of the future Edward VI.

Jane’s parents were highly ambitious, callous individuals who balked at nothing to get ahead. They initially hoped that they could marry Jane off to Henry VIII’s only son, Edward, who had been born in the same month as Jane. Thus Jane’s parents imposed on her a rigid system of education, requiring her to master Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, so as to make her attractive to the future monarch. In 1546, when Jane was nine, she was sent to Henry’s court to live under the guardianship of Queen Katharine Parr (1512–1548), the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. All of this was part of her parents’ selfish scheme to marry her to Edward and so advance their standing in society. But in the providence of God this led to Jane’s coming under the influence of Katharine Parr, one of the most charming and intelligent women of the day, a woman who, moreover, was a genuine Christian. In the words of one of her chaplains: “Her rare goodness has made every day a Sunday.”3 It appears to have been the case that it was during this stay in the household of Queen Katharine that Jane came to a living faith in Christ.4 As Paul Zahl has noted, Katherine was “Jane’s real mother in Christianity.”5

In 1547, though, Katherine Parr was widowed as Henry VIII died, and as a result Jane soon returned to her parents’ home. Henry was succeeded by his son Edward, who was crowned Edward VI on February 20, 1547. He was but nine years of age. Yet he was surrounded by a number of godly counselors, including Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was determined to make England a bastion of the Reformed faith.6 The great French Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) actually wrote a letter to Edward’s guardian, his uncle Edward Seymour (c. 1500–1552), in which he likened Edward VI to King Josiah. And in time the young English monarch was indeed like Josiah, eager to have his subjects learn biblical truth. Of a hundred or so extant treatises from Edward’s hand, a number clearly evidence Edward’s commitment to the evangelical faith.

When Jane returned to her parents’ home in Bradgate, they seem to have considered her a “symbol of failure and a wasted effort—and they treated her accordingly.”7 Jane’s response was to pour herself into her studies. She began to excel in Greek and even entered into correspondence with such continental Reformers as Martin Bucer (1491–1551), then living in Cambridge, and Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) of Zurich.8 She was growing in grace and becoming articulate in her faith, though there is also evidence that she was strong-minded and at times displayed a very stubborn streak like many of her Tudor relatives.9

Marriage and Edward’s Death

In the spring of 1552, King Edward had the measles, and, not taking time to recover, he soon began to show symptoms of tuberculosis. As the year wore on, it became increasingly clear to those who were close to the king that he would not reach adulthood. Now, Henry VIII’s will had named his daughter Mary as next in line to the throne. If Edward did not marry and produce an heir, a Catholic would rule England. Edward’s Chief Minister, John Dudley (1504–1553), the Duke of Northumberland, well knew that he would be punished by Mary for his support of the Protestant cause. He began to seek a way to prevent her being queen. Jane Grey was fourth in line to the throne and represented, for Northumberland, his only real chance to retain the power and status he had attained. He thus began to foster a close association with Henry and Frances Grey and in due time convinced them to wed their daughter Jane to his son, Guildford Dudley (1535–1554).

Early in May 1553, Jane was told by her parents that she was to be married to Guildford. Though Jane protested and utterly refused, for she despised Guildford, it was ultimately to no avail. After her father had sworn at her and cursed her, and her ...